Books
Listen to A Bollywood State of Mind - A journey into the most popular cinema in the world.. (Playlist on Spotify)
A Bollywood State of Mind: A journey into the world's biggest cinema
Like all Indians, Sunny Singh was born and brought up in a country of film fanatics. She and her friends waited impatiently for the latest releases, listened to the songs on radio and wore clothes inspired by those seen on screen. They learned about India and the world, determined their enemies and friends, and chose their moralities thanks to films.
A Bollywood State of Mind is a personal, intellectual and emotional journey which crosses five continents and 50 years of modern Indian history and cinema and explores why Bollywood means so much to so many across the globe. Sunny describes how this exceptional cinema retains its hold on the national imagination, how Bollywood has enhanced India’s global standing in the 21st century, and how its characteristics endure despite the social and political changes.
Ranging over history, aesthetic theory and politics, A Bollywood State of Mind explores encounters with Bollywood in the market places of Dakar and Marrakesh, in the nightclubs of New York, Barcelona and Mexico City, and in the ruins of Egypt’s Valley of the Kings, Petra and beyond. It shows how the pioneers and heroes of Bollywood cut across national, linguistic and cultural lines not only in India but in far reaches of Somalia, Peru, Malaysia and Russia.
Amitabh Bachchan (Film Stars)
In this unique study of the star, Sunny Singh examines Amitabh Bachchan's film performances and his star persona, locating them in the context of cultural phenomena and global branding, and explores the reasons behind the longevity of his stardom.
This illuminating analysis assesses the full range of Bachchan's work, personality and influence - political, social, economic and technological. With in-depth analyses of key films and their wide-ranging social contexts, Singh offers a provocative and in-depth study of the superstar, his extensive career to date as well as the nature of Indian, Asian, and global stardom.
An ideal resource for undergraduate and postgraduate students of film and television studies, this fascinating guide will also appeal to film lovers and anyone interested in this famed actor's transnational career.
Hotel Arcadia
Sam is a war photographer famous for her hauntingly beautiful pictures of the dead. After a particularly gruelling assignment, she checks into an expensive hotel. Unfortunately she has chosen the exact moment terrorists attack the hotel. Abhi, the hotel manager, thought his hotel was a safe haven, a place where he could be himself. Now stuck inside the manager's office, he is desperately trying to keep those safe who’re still alive…
With Krishna’s Eyes
Krishna has been in New York, making documentaries. But, following the death of her grandmother, Krishna returns to her home village in a part of India so feudal, almost medieval in its ways, that, in spite of her essential urbanity and modernity, she must make concessions to tradition. A strange bequest awaits Krishna upon her return. From beyond the grave, Dadiji directs Krishna to enact her dharma (duty), which, it transpires, is to document on film the last days of Damayanti, a strong-minded lawyer who, upon the death of her husband, will commit sati.
Krishna, the “warrior” and the first girl child to be born to her family in five centuries, finds herself caught between the modern world of loose ties and casual relationships (as personified by her westernised lover, Natchek), and the older ties of blood and obligation, where honour transcends love. Always a rebel, Krishna has to confront the fact that her dharma comprises an act as conforming and backward as it is subversive…
Single in the City
This book is a chance to swap stories, develop a single women's network, voice their concerns and hone their survival skills.
Single in the City: The Independent Woman's Handbook , an unusual and path-breaking book which explores the meaning of being a single woman, illustrates once again her special talent and versatility. An illuminating read to empower yourself and celebrate the joys of living alone.
Sunny Singh draws on her own experience as well as that of other single women all over the country - the never-married, the divorced and the widowed- to put together a witty and insightful book that is as much a guide for single women as it is a commentary on modern, urban society in present-day India.
Nani's book of Suicides
Sammie, the cocaine-snorting international wanderer who moves from a small town childhood in India to Mexico, is linked inextricably to mythical women in a debut novel that embodies Hindu tradition and culture, which left untouched by the Enlightenment, makes no distinction between the real and the magical. But the woman who most influences Sammie is Nani, her frail and ruthless grandmother, who is a witch with the power to enter dreams and shape them. A first novel of exceptional talent, Nani’s Book of Suicides explores the cultural identity of an Indian woman through a fund of myths, family lore and contemporary reality.