Sunday, August 11, 2013

Thinking of a class

I have been toying, for a number of years, of the idea of teaching a basic class on Hindi/Bollywood film.  I have an extensive library of books and films, so doing the research, gathering materials--no big deal, I just poke through my stuff. Well, my Bollywood stuff, my precious books, most are still in crates since our move--not enough bookshelves to hold them!! I still need one big bookcase in my room for just my Bollywood stuff!
Well, that being said, I have decided to try and do this whole class thing!  I began to surf the Web for syllabi of courses that have been taught at various colleges and universities around. I began to look at these syllabi, and found something striking!! I either own most of the books and movies that these instructors are using!  Many of these classes have been taught in the past 6-8 years, so none deal with the fact that this year, 2013, is the one hundredth anniversary of the Indian film industry. None deal with the fact that the Indian film industry is larger that Hollywood, many deal with the fact that the Indian film industry(mainline Bollywood from Mumbai) makes more films each year than does Hollywood.  Humm, I find a lack there!  A few deal with the fact that Bollywood has appeal all over the world, in parts of the world you would not expect--Russia, Germany, Nigeria, much of the Arab world. Many of the books that these classes refer to do deal with these issues, so I guess it is discussed in classes.
Many of the authors of the books used are fast friends of mine--Rachel Dwyer, Mihir Bose, Jerry Pinto, Anupama Chopra; all authors that got me hooked on learning more about Bollywood.

I guess I need to ponder and research and get this thing together!