Genre Mixing as Creative Fabrication

Abstract

A preliminary attempt is made here to explore genre tectonics as a field of study in Indian film history. The article proposes that in the Indian context, generic shifts might have historical significance. In the context of the reasonably well documented history of genres in India, the article takes up three instances of genre mixing which show evidence of the industry using this fabricatory technique to deal with problems arising out of the socio-historical setting of the 1950s. While some instances of such activity bear witness to social change and the rise of new ideologies (thus constituting tectonic activity responding to such changes), others show the industry employing its resources to remake genres in a struggle to wrest the cultural space occupied by the theater. The article aims to demonstrate the usefulness of this approach for the study of India’s pluriform cinema.

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