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OTHER STORIES RELATED TO BOOKS Beauty of the Beast New Releases

Being & Becoming is a brave attempt at an overview of the history of Asian cinema over the past 100 years. The history of the 20th century is of war and revolution, independence, globalisation and the growth of the fifth art-cinema. In a relatively short span of time it has developed from a novelty to the primary form of entertainment around the globe. Although, like any book that has such a broad scope you will be frustrated by what is left out, where Being & Becoming works is in the ability to see the broad similarities and refreshing differences. It shows us how Asian filmmakers have responded to the collective convulsions that their countries have been through.

There are lovely details about the idiosyncrasies of the early industries. The all-glass studio in Japan was made so that the films could be shot in natural light. The first film exhibition in South Korea was part of a tobacco company's ad campaign. The price of admission? An empty packet of cigarettes. The emphasis of this book is on the higher, art cinema.

BEING & BECOMING: THE CINEMAS OF ASIA Ed by Aruna Vasudev, Latika Padgaonkar and Rashmi Doraiswamy Macmillan Price: Rs 765 Pages: 580

In cinema, time and again we see the use of the past in the creation of national ideologies and the constant reinterpretation of facts to fit the political needs of the day. It is interesting to speculate on how much of what we think of as national styles have been created by political dogmas. In the nations that used to be part of the erstwhile Soviet Union there is today a predominance of documentary and high realism films. This can only be the legacy of the utopian documentaries shot to spread the revolutionary message about things. Take Life On the Collective Farm. It is full of smiling women riding tractors across the Steppes and still having enough puff left to sing rousing songs and wave their arms about. This may seem like a terrible stifling of what, say, Kazakh cinema may have otherwise become, but not when you see what has happened in most countries when state funding is removed. Suddenly being faced with market forces for the first time, producers tend to slide towards the lowest common denominator. Out go the beautifully shot montages of old people watching grass waving in the wind, in comes melodrama, soft porn and guns. Lots and lots of guns.

What is fascinating is the way so much great cinema has come out of times of restrictive government policy. In China, the "Fifth Generation" filmmakers have created moving and original works in response to their experiences growing up in the deviating sterility of the Cultural Revolution. The blossoming of Iranian cinema with delightful films such as Abbas Kiarostanmi's Through the Olive Trees could only have happened after the removal of the star system and the "cleaning up" of cinema at the insistence of Ayatollah Khomeini. These examples go against the received ideas that freedom from censorship and interference are the only way good cinema can be produced.

SOCIAL FRAMES: India is an overwhelming image in Asian cinema

Countries that have emerged from colonialism are often obsessed with finding a film aesthetic which is truly theirs. Many countries, Malaysia and Indonesia for example, still struggle with this quandary. You can't help but think when you look at the examples of countries that haven't really bothered with that question and see how zingy and prolific their industries are, that perhaps this is the wrong thing to be worried about. Indian cinema, for example, as we know, just sang the British into submission and then carried on as if nothing had happened. In fact, Indian films crop up again and again in the histories of other Asian countries' cinema. Any shortfall in production by a country and India is always ready with plenty of product to fill the cinema halls. Like a horror movie of the 1950s, it consumes all in its path: "Run! Don't walk! From the Blobbywood!"

This realisation makes you think again about ideas of cultural hegemony. We are all so used to waiting with depressed resignation for the inevitable global takeover of American culture, feeling that it is only a matter of time before everyone succumbs to the addictive ingredients in KFC and the satisfying bounce only delivered by a new pair of Nike Airs. It pleases me no end to find that it has actually been Indians all along who have been getting the good people of Asia to give up their game plan to groove to a bangra beat. But then, let's not forget the horrific effect the influence Kung Fu films had on Indian cinema during the 1980s.

Trying to find a national style is like trying to insist on pure racial bloodlines. The history of the world is the constant mixing of cultures and peoples. Nothing exists in isolation. Any outside influence becomes Asianised pretty damn smartish anyway. Film culture moves like weather systems around the globe. The real message of this book though is, if you want to make a film you will however impossible it may seem.