Bombay Horror: Cinema, Technology and Thrill in 1980s’ India

By Shri Karthik Nair, PhD. Candidate, Cinema Studies, New York University

 

Indian cinema still remains identified with song-and-dance spectacles of love, marriage, and family. This talk will look into an 80s genre film cycle that is called Bombay Horror. Bombay Horror explodes mainstream conventions with tactile shocks and transgressions, featuring monsters that carry women off from bridal palanquins, killers who interrupt romantic songs and, curiously, ancient curses that strike childbearing women. This talk will focus on Purana Mandir/Ancient Temple (1984, Ramsay Brothers) the most commercially successful iteration of Bombay Horror

 

Chair: Prof. Ranjani Mazumdar, Professor, Cinema Studies, School of Arts and Aesthetics, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi