The construction of Bengali popular cinema, as distinct from a more widely circulated national cinema represented by the Bombay film industry, is an intriguing and complex process. We argue no linear narrative is possible, for so- called Bengali cinema, as the category of ‘regional cinema’ in India, is a product of conflicting forces, as regards to political conditions, industry, aesthetics, taste and target viewership.
While a holistic history of Bengali cinema is still to be written, the scholarly works produced so far have revealed the problematic of writing such a history. Locating this cinema within the crosscurrents of political, historical and cultural transformation, the paper begins with reviewing the scholarship on Bengali cinema that has materialised over the last two decades. This paper discusses the emergence and evolution of cinema in Bengal as a form of public culture since the early 20th century to its contemporary phase.
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