Seeing Things

Spectral Materialities of Bombay Horror

Kartik Nair

$140.95

Hardback

Not in-store but you can order this
How long will it take?

Availability Information

We source books from suppliers in Australia and overseas. For books we don't currently have in stock, the time it takes to get them from our suppliers can vary widely - from a few days to a few months - so we check each book with each supplier to determine the expected time it will take to be supplied to us.

We then advise you accordingly. If the time taken to get any book is too long for you, you can let us know and we will cancel or adjust your order, and refund as required.

To find out the anticipated arrival time for specific items prior to ordering, please contact us by phone or email:

Phone +61 2 9264 3111, or 1800 4 BOOKS (1800 4 26657) if outside Sydney:
option 1 Abbey's Bookshop (Crime, History, Science, Kids & more) • info@abbeys.com.au
option 2 Language Book Centre (ESL & Foreign Languages) • language@abbeys.com.au
option 3 Galaxy Bookshop (Sci-fi, Fantasy, Romance, Graphic Novels) • sf@galaxybooks.com.au

QTY:

English

University of California Press
13 February 2024

Film, TV & Radio; Films, movies & cinema; Film theory & criticism; Film & movie: styles & genres; Asian history

Series: South Asia Across the Disciplines

"In 1980s India, the Ramsay Brothers and other filmmakers produced a wave of horror movies about soul-sucking witches, knife-wielding psychopaths, and dark-caped vampires. Seeing Things is about the sudden cuts, botched prosthetic effects, continuity errors, and celluloid damage in these movies. Such moments may very well be ""failures"" of various kinds, but in this book Kartik Nair reads them as clues to the conditions in which the films were once made, censored, and seen, offering a view from below of the world's largest film culture. Combining extensive archival research and original interviews with close readings of landmark films including Purana Mandir, Veerana, and Jaani Dushman, this book tracks the material coordinates of horror cinema's spectral images. In the process, Seeing Things discovers a spectral materiality—one that informs Bombay horror's haunted houses, grotesque bodies, and graphic violence and gives visceral force to our experience of the genre's globally familiar conventions."

By: Kartik Nair
Imprint: University of California Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 229mm, Width: 152mm, Spine: 23mm
Weight: 544g
ISBN: 9780520392274
ISBN 10: 0520392272
Series: South Asia Across the Disciplines
Pages: 304
Publication Date: 13 February 2024
Audience: Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Contents Acknowledgments Introduction: Accidental Exposures 1. Paper Cuts: Inside the Bureaucratic Encounter with Darwaza 2. Celluloid Splatter: The Graphic Violence of Jaani Dushman 3. Unsettling Design: Built Atmosphere in Purana Mandir 4. Making Monsters: Veerana and the Craft of Excess 5. Hidden Circuits: Kabrastan from Film to Videotape Epilogue: An Archive of Failures Notes Bibliography Index

Kartik Nair is Assistant Professor of Film Studies in the Department of Film and Media Arts at Temple University.

Reviews for Seeing Things: Spectral Materialities of Bombay Horror

"""Peeling off the monstrous mask of the horror genre, Seeing Things reveals a broad historical scope that encompasses independent film production, circulation, and regulation at a critical turning point in India’s film history."" * Film Quarterly *"