Reviewed by Amy Dadichandji Laly, For Pacific Reader, An Asian Pacific North American Review of Books, Spring 2000

The Encyclopaedia of Indian Cinema by Ashish Rajadhyaksha and Paul Willemen is perhaps the most exhaustive compendium of reference material compiled as a resource guide for film students and movie buffs around the world. Published by Oxford University Press, this ambitious book is produced in association with the National Film Archive of India and the British Film Institute.

The scope of the new revised edition includes a capsule chronicle of Indian history and milestones in the Indian film industry; impressive filmographies of major directors, actors, music composers, lyricists and scenarists; plot synopses of films; film and name indices; and a thorough bibliography on the history of Indian cinema.

From 28 films produced in 1931 to 948 in 1990 and 793 in 1995, India boasts the world's largest national film industry with dream factories in Mumbai, Chennai, Calcutta, Bangalore, and Hyderabad, churning out Urdu-Hindi Bollywood musicals and important regional art films. Assamese, Bengali, Bhojpuri, Gujerati, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Oriya, Punjabi, Rajasthani, Tamil and Telegu cinema is included in this paperback edition which covers a vast landscape from the birth of silent movies and talkies to mainstream productions and documentaries up to 1995.

Cinema is but another idiom of complex social, cultural, political, and historical influences especially in a country as diverse as India in its many regional languages, and ethnic and religious pluralism. The reader will find inspiring references to a number of art movements outside of the industry which informed filmmakers in their day. The entry on the Progressive Writers' Association, that brings into focus such stalwarts as Premchand, Ismat Chughtai, Ali Sardar Jafri, Krishan Chander, Rajinder Singh Bedi, Sadat Hasan Manto, among other luminaries, is especially invigorating. The Indian People's Theatre Association, Parsee Theatre, and political movements such as the Naxalite and Swadeshi, provide "elaborate cross-references to other, more directly, more cinematic entries."

The A to Z of this remarkable index of artistes starts with Khwaja Ahmad Abbas, a prodigious director and scenarist "mainly in the socialist-realist mode," to Zubeida, a real life princess, daughter of the Nawab of Sachin, who played the lead in "Alam Ara," India's first sound film released 14 March 1931. The Film index is chronological and starts with the release in 1912 of the 12 foot silent film "Pundalik" by P. R. Tipnis and N. G. Chitre, adapted from Ramrao Kirtikar's Marathi stage play about the Hindu saint. The last entry is a 158 minute megabudget Tamil musical, released in 1996 called "Kadhal Desum," written and directed by Kadir with Vineet, Abbas, and Tabu as lead players and music by A. R. Rehman. This is the only film entry for the year 1996.

The Encyclopaedia of Indian Cinema is really a loving tribute to the amazing men and women who made the film industry the most prolific in the world.

For both scholars and fans of Indian cinema, this revised and updated edition is a crucial resource: there's nothing else close to it for information on Indian film -- but it's also compulsively readable. I keep finding myself using it to check a fact, and then browsing through it as one entry leads to the next. I suspect the previous edition, only published in hardback, was out of the price range of many who would have appreciated it, but this very inexpensive paperback edition should allow the book to get into the hands of anyone who has an interest or passion for Indian cinema. The illustrations are great too!

Read this in conjunction with Intro to Film Studies ( ed Nelmes - Routledge) and Intro to Documentary Film ( ed Kochberg - Wallflower) and your reading list has a firm foundtion for your success. A common factor to both is uber film Prof Searle Kochberg: catch his infectious lectures if you can on tour.

excellent summary! If you want to know the depth and breadth of film (or cinema) studies, you need to read this book.

Phil Hardy's excellent endevour to catalogue the films of, primarely, Hollywood reaches it's peak with the Horror and Science Fiction books. They both reveal a genuine interest in the media and, as an information non-digital database, these two items are the ultimate choice for collectors and horror/SF aficionados. Where Leonard Maltin says goodbye, Phil Hardy says hello. These items can be used either as a coffeetable companion, or as an encyclopedia for the serious movie-fan. There are some european films that deserves mentioning that have been omitted, but in view of the overall care in which way theese books have been presented, the omissions are readily excused. Tony Fischier

The Indian film industry is the largest film industry in the world making over 700 films every year in over 20 different languages. This book is a compendium of some of the greatest names in the Indian film industry along with summaries of some of the best films made in India from as early as 1897. I have thoroughly enjoyed reading it as a reference book. It is a must for any major library.

This book is a must read for anyone studying film. It completely challenges the eurocentric doctrine of the mainstream film industry. It takes Third Cinema to another level, with articles from film makers who are pioneering this work. Great references to films. Redefines film language in non-western and western terms. Important to understand that Hollywood is First Cinema, Independent film is Second Cinema and Third Cinema is completely outside of that, redefining the technology and aestetics.

I am still waiting for a perfect horror reference guide and this one comes pretty close. It is still missing dozens of titles that are elusive, but not THAT elusive! Most of the missing titles are still available on video at most video outlets! For anyone mildly interested in the genre, this should make you a hardcore addict! For those already hardcore addicts, you will probably cringe at some of the films missing but enjoy the extensive research put into the films. Yes, some pictures would look better in color, but the book's already a fortune, why have the price raised? Don't let the price discourage you, this is the best guide I've seen in the past few years (besides Michael Weldon's exhaustive PSYCHOTRONIC books). If you're still wary about buying it, look at the measurements of the book and how many pages it has. Nuff said.

The fact that this encyclopedia has not been updated since its last reprinting in 1995 borders on the offensive. That's because it is simply the best reference of the genre I've ever encountered. The book is filled with short to medium length reviews of horror films from every period in film history (up to 1992) and every nation which dabbles in the genre.

The fact that the encyclopedia is that complete is not necessarily its biggest asset. The reviews which compose the book do not simply provide summary, a quick line or two of evaluation, and a useless star rating a la Leonard Martin. Instead, each review examines its subject in relation to other similar works by subject, studio, director, actor, etc. It refuses to provide star ratings, favoring a more detailed explanation of a film's strengths and weaknesses. Also, and this pleases me the most, many films are examined through a critical lense, looking at how the film explores gender, culture, politics, economics, etc.

Combine these strengths with the inclusion of just about every horror film ever made and you have a book horror fans will leave by their bedside.

This encyclopedia treats the horror film genre as it should be treated, an important and vital field of art with a history and voice to be heard. Any causal or serious student of horror films must own this book. It will deepen and enlive their enjoyment of horror, from the absurd and esoteric, to the classic and mainstream.

This book has it's flaws, there is no doubt about that, various films are missing, the writing is overly politically correct, almost every film is considered either racist or homophobic and every time a women is killed it is because the director either hates or fears women. Did they ever think that maybe the reason there are beautiful women in these movies is so that there is something to hold the viewers interest between killings rather than having them nod off because of the inane dialogue. Then there are the racist cannibal films. Most of these films are little more than a chance to show some extreme gore and nothing more should be read into them than that. I must say that I am surprised that they missed the right wing political views that are rife in ZOMBIE. They also give away the ending to half the films.

Still, it's a great book, and I'm not beiing sarcastic. As a reference guide for the horror fanatic it's second to none. I have certainly never read anything with as much information on each individual film as this, as I mentioned before there is sometimes too much information, ruining twist endings and giving away key plot elements before you have had a chance to discover them for yourself, but you just have to be careful how you read it. I've owned this book for a few years now, and have read it through about twenty times and I am still picking it up often and going over old ground and discovering new information. Any horror fan must own this, no two ways about it.