tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9082470.post2880595481289145250..comments2024-03-28T22:51:28.222+05:30Comments on The Middle Stage: On Mihir Bose's Bollywood: A HistoryChandrahashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07483080477755487202noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9082470.post-48402462870178893952008-09-14T20:51:00.000+05:302008-09-14T20:51:00.000+05:30I was looking around for reviews of Bollywood, jus...I was looking around for reviews of Bollywood, just having read it.<BR/><BR/>Agree with most of what you have written. I have read A History of Indian Cricket and the recent print of The Maidan View, and liked the former a great deal. But looking back after reading Bollywood makes me wonder whether the HoIC was also made of the same cast. <BR/><BR/>The pre-war years were well-written with the chapter of Vizzy being outstanding. But as it gets closer to the present, the writing becomes less coherent. The formula all through is to build up a few characters, and a few incidents and add some facts and trivia around it. In cricket it mostly worked well because the "incidents" are well-defined. But for the movies it is less clearcut, the writing become less interesting as time goes on and by 1990s it became incoherent rambling.<BR/><BR/>I read the 1989 edition of HoIC and I am told that the sections covering the 1990s in the second edition is much worse.Sreehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13545472718814357303noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9082470.post-31295845523605462862007-05-01T14:01:00.000+05:302007-05-01T14:01:00.000+05:30If you really wish to give *Atonement* away, you h...If you really wish to give *Atonement* away, you have a taker. I have not read it yet but wouldn't mind reading a copy I own - and not one that is borrowed - since I can then bracket portions and occasionally scribble something on the pages with my pencil.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9082470.post-52364815085709367572007-04-30T16:36:00.000+05:302007-04-30T16:36:00.000+05:30Although I agree for the most part with your rathe...Although I agree for the most part with your rather righteous critique of Bose's book, I don't think the stab at the first 30 pages (on his assignment to Bombay with Pamela Bordes) was fair. I thought that that was by far the most entertaining chapter and provided a marvellous window into the indiosyncracies not only of Bollywood but Bombay's elites. Showed them up rather well, eh? And yes, the sloppiness in editing is unpardonable as are the numerous mistakes, but again, I think the book has an easy, pleasing style which makes it hard to put down. If only Bose had taken his time, been more careful and checked his facts, it would have succeeded as a light-hearted retelling of Bollywood gossip. Definitive, it is not. DipshikaAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9082470.post-957131707765364612007-04-25T11:40:00.000+05:302007-04-25T11:40:00.000+05:30Karra - Even if you don't like a book, you have to...Karra - Even if you don't like a book, you have to read it just as carefully to say why you don't like it. So there's no question of abandoning a book for review midway - that's not fair to the author either. Work is work.<BR/><BR/>Of course, just like all other readers, I sometimes abandon books I take up of my own volition - I couldn't stand Ian McEwan's *Atonement* at all, even though it was widely praised, or James Atlas's biography of Saul Bellow, which I found mean-spirited and often tendentious. I am willing to give away my copies to these books to anyone who will offer them a home.Chandrahashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07483080477755487202noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9082470.post-35775607426917244782007-04-25T07:17:00.000+05:302007-04-25T07:17:00.000+05:30I agree. Bose seems to be rambling on unfamiliar t...I agree. Bose seems to be rambling on unfamiliar territory. Th book is a curious mix of this and that, and the Hema-Dharmender anecdote certainly left me nonplussed.<BR/><BR/>-PritiAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9082470.post-56337756434238143502007-04-23T22:49:00.000+05:302007-04-23T22:49:00.000+05:30Regd. the use and misuse of punctation, poor prose...Regd. the use and misuse of punctation, poor prose and the like, how much of it can you take? Have you ever posted a review of a book you abandoned in the middle because you couldn't take any more? :)Karrahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09336407221510641601noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9082470.post-29014244450310579622007-04-21T11:56:00.000+05:302007-04-21T11:56:00.000+05:30Scathingly brilliant. :)Scathingly brilliant. :)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com