Includes bibliographical references, filmography, and index.

Assertion to empowerment : narratives of social change -- Women and the nation -- Political commentaries through adaptations -- Adapting history -- Contestations with Indian modernity -- Changing mofussil spaces and new (middle) cinema.

"This book examines Shyam Benegal's films, alternative image(s) of India in his cinema and traces the changing aesthetics in the post-liberalization era. The book engages with the challenges faced by India as a nation-state in postcolonial times. Looking at hybrid and complex narratives of films like Manthan, Junoon, Kalyug, Charandas Chor, Sooraj Ka Satvaan Ghoda, Zubeidaa, and Well Done Abba among others, it analyses how these stories and characters, adapted and derived from mythology, folktales, historical fiction and novels, are rooted in the socio-political contexts of modern India. The author explores diverse themes in Benegal's cinema such as, the loss of home and identity, women's sexuality, and the status of Dalits and Muslims in a saffron India. He also focuses on how the filmmaker expertly weaves history with myth, culture, and contemporary politics and discusses the debate around the interpretive value of film adaptations, adaptation of history and the representations of marginalized communities and liminal spaces. The book will be useful for students and researchers of film studies, cultural studies, and the humanities. It will also interest readers of Indian cinema, and the social and cultural history of India"--