Emerging from the cusp of Urban Studies and Film Studies, Film City Urbanism by C Yamini Krishna traces the long journey of the city of Hyderabad from the late 19th century to the late 20th century. The history of early cinema, argues Krishna, has been dominated by colonial cities: Bombay, Madras, Calcutta and Lahore. After Independence, Bombay (or Hindi) cinema becomes the gargantuan presence in whose shadow all other cinemas became subsumed as ‘regional’. In a departure from this approach, Krishna uses the vantage of ‘insignificant geography’ to study Hyderabad’s transmuting journey from a Princely State ruled by the Asaf Jahi dynasty till 1948 to its becoming a global city. This is done through the study of three distinct yet interconnected periods: the life of the city under Princely rule before 1948, the post-Independence period from 1948–1990, and the phase of globalization after 1990. Insignificant geographies that have been blindsided by homogenizing narratives or rendered marginal are for this very reason redolent with new insights about modernism, urbanism, colonialism and nationalism.
The first of the six chapters (‘City, Cinema, and the World: Film Industry in the Late Colonial World’) discusses how the city and cinema co-constitute each other from the late 19th century to the 1940s. The state becomes an active participant in filmmaking as funder or patron while extending support to independent entrepreneurs. The second chapter (‘The Making of Modern Hyderabad’) examines the creation of recreational infrastructure around the exhibition of films and the contestations around who should occupy such spaces and how.
The third chapter, ‘In Transition: The Police Action Years’, discusses the fall of the Princely State and the formation of the State of Andhra Pradesh. During Partition, Osman Ali Khan, the Nizam of Hyderabad, had opted for independent sovereignty instead of joining either India or Pakistan. Notwithstanding this agreement, the Indian state carried out a military invasion, euphemistically called ‘police action’ and placed it under military rule. The linguistic reorganization of States, of which Hyderabad became a part, catalysed far-reaching socio-political, cultural transformations in the 1940s and 1950s leading to the decline of Urdu as a language. Chapter four (‘Capital and Labour: Film and the Politics of Region’) analyses the changes in Hyderabad’s identity as it gradually becomes a Telugu State. Over time, the history of cinema in the State becomes synonymous with that of the ‘Hindu caste-capitalist force’ that is Telugu cinema, resulting in the institutional erasure of all histories that preceded it. Chapter five and six, ‘City and Capital’ and ‘Film City’ explore Hyderabad’s aspirational journey to becoming a post-liberalization global city with the creation of spectacular landmarks like a giant IMAX theatre, multiplexes and the sprawling Ramoji Film City driven by the forces of real estate, tourism and political power.
One of the major strengths of the book is its evocation of the early days of cinema in Hyderabad—the very history that is later effaced by the advent of Telugu cinema. The Princely State of Hyderabad was unique as it was a Hindu majority State ruled by a Muslim Nizam who considered both the communities to be like his two eyes. Film arrived in Hyderabad as early as 1897 when the proprietor of Madras Photographic Stores came to exhibit films as part of a South India tour. The moving image was seen as an extension of still photography deriving from three intersecting traditions, namely, technological development, artistic practice and travelling performance culture. As an art form, it extended the work of portraiture painting and photography both of which had a vibrant presence in the State. In 1894, the photo-pioneer Deen Dayal was appointed as the Nizam’s official photographer, given the title of Raja and entrusted with the task of producing a visual history of the State.
Krishna paints a vivid portrait of the colourful cast of characters who animate the arrival of film in Hyderabad including colonial interlocutors who describe the Nizam’s subjects as ‘eccentric’ or ‘treacherous’ while portraying the city as strange and dangerous that is nevertheless worth experiencing and conquering. Among the early film entrepreneurs was Dhirendranath Ganguly—producer, director, publicist, female impersonator and proprietor of the Lotus Film Company—who was employed at the Nizam’s Art College and made six films between 1922-1924. In his evidence to the Indian Cinematograph Committee (ICC), he testified to producing films in Hyderabad with the help of the Nizam’s Government. Dhiren Ganguly’s cinematic efforts in Hyderabad would later be occluded in the writing of the history of (Telugu) cinema in Andhra Pradesh.
A recurrent preoccupation that runs through the book is an interrogation of cinema-linked spatial infrastructure. As part of a modernizing impulse, the Princely city sought to create recreational infrastructure for its citizens. Thus was constructed the Osmania Civic Palace envisioned as ‘a central spectacle presenting the greatness of the modern Hyderabad State’ (p. 71). It was to be a screening facility with elaborate recreational facilities for all citizens. Yet, the space was carefully designed to ensure that the ‘masses’ were separated from the ‘classes’ thereby building social inequity into the very architecture of the space. Neither the Europeans nor the Princely State, the author observes, were willing to imbibe the ‘idea of equality as a central tenet of being modern’ (p. 68). Later, in its bid to become a global city, Hyderabad witnesses the construction of a giant IMAX theatre with a six-storey-high screen, a four screen multiplex and other recreational facilities. If the Civic Palace sought to create segregated spaces for the ‘classes’, the new ‘infrastructure of fascination’ ensured that the ‘masses’ were excluded altogether. The apotheosis of Hyderabad’s global ambition finds expression in the 200-acre Ramoji Film City (RFC) which is both film studio and tourist destination. In addition to all manner of generic locations and famous Indian monuments like Hawa Mahal and Buland Darwaza, RFC has created replicas of famous international locations like London and Switzerland. Emerging from a nexus of tourism, international capital, and real estate, RFC invites the tourist and the filmmaker to experience exotic locations in Hyderabad. The question is no longer about Hyderabad becoming a Telugu city but about finding its place in the world.
Film City Urbanism is an interdisciplinary, rigorously researched, attentively referenced and competently written work of scholarship. Among its many achievements is its ability to coherently weave together multiple, interconnected thematic strands connected with cinema and urbanism. Methodologically, its only weakness is its self-positioning in the area of cinema studies. It seeks to make a departure from ‘textual analysis’ which is assumed to preclude ‘technologies of expression, aesthetic structures, and politics’ (p. 2). First, textual readings in the light of spectatorial versatility and other equally animating theoretical frameworks is a complex and worthy pursuit. How else do we understand the magical lure of cinema? Second, innumerable scholars, especially over the last two decades, have combined the reading of texts with a study of material and production cultures. There is also enough film scholarship in India to demonstrate that an engagement with representation is not synonymous with an ideological reading of films (p. 8). An engagement with the film objects that emerge out of RFC may have dislodged the book’s own ideological positioning around policy and urban planning by introducing the idea of uncertainty and contingency. An engagement with contemporary film scholarship would have enriched and not diminished the project. Needless to say, this critique does not in any way take away from the stellar achievements of this rich and layered book.
Shohini Ghosh is Sajjad Zaheer Professor at the AJK Mass Communication Research Centre, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi.