... the particular strength of Bollywood Cinema, indeed, is the plurality of critical perspectives brought to bear and the author's ability to synthesize them into a coherent whole. -James Chapman, Film International ... the book...rewards the reader with provocative ideas on a dozen topics: anticolonial and postcolonial struggles, melodrama, gender roles, patriarchal power, androgyny, gothic style, diaspora, and of course particular movies (like Mother India) and stars (like Amitabh Bachchan).. - CHOICE, P.H. Stacy, University of Hartford A masterly synthesis of existing scholarship on Bombay cinema as well as a timely exploration of the growing importance that this cinema is assuming in the Indian diaspora. . . . an engaging study. -Sumita Chakravarty, New School University Here, finally, is a book on Bollywood that is written for those who have experienced Bollywood as well as those who are strangers to that phenomenon. Mishra's analysis of Bollywood cinema is a considerable one within a handful of such analyses emerging today from within academe. It has in it something for the film historian, the curious newcomer, the fan, and the critic. -Sonora Jh-Nambiar, Seattle University, Communication Research Trends, 2004