Topics in Indian Popular Culture: Spectacle, Masala, and Genre
This MIT OpenCourseWare course surveys Indian popular culture from the last two decades through Bombay cinema, popular fiction, music, and television. Students examine the conventions of the formulaic masala movie, the role of music and melodrama, and shifting representations of gender and sexuality in fiction and film. The syllabus also uses journalistic writing, advertising clips, and political cartoons to connect popular culture to national self-image and contemporary social and political debates, including generational tension between nostalgia and change in youth culture. Materials include the reading list, screening selections, and assignment prompts posted on OCW, taught in English with no fee to access. There is no certificate, consistent with MIT OpenCourseWare's model of publishing course materials for self-study rather than credentialed enrollment.