Amar Akbar Anthony
Bollywood, brotherhood, and the nation

Cover -- Title -- Copyright -- Dedication -- Contents -- Introduction: Outright Hokum -- The Unoriginal, Unreasonable, Unrealistic Blockbuster -- Critical Mass: The Maturing of the Masala Film -- The Social Message of Escapism: Travels in an Idealized Moral World -- Bombay as Allegory: The Geography of Time -- Methodology: Sugar Coated, Homeopathic . . . or Bullshit? -- Chapter 1. Amar: Straight Shooter -- Here's a Story of a Man Named Kishanlal, Who Was Busy with Three Boys of His Own -- Adoptive Fathers and Lovely Ladies -- Rehabilitating Fallen Women with Love and Fraud -- Rehabilitating the State in the Bedroom -- The Buried Gun: Disciplined Celibacy and Muscular Hinduism -- Seminal Statecraft: Shiva and Rama -- The Gun Unburied: Amar, Kishanlal, and Manmohan -- Chapter 2. Akbar: Parda and Parody -- From Emo to Hero (via Urdu) -- Akbar of Allahabad -- Doomed Past: Lucknow -- Chaudhvin Ka Chand ("Moon of the Fourteenth" or "Full Moon") -- Mere Mehboob ("My Darling") -- Palki ("The Palanquin") -- Pakeezah ("The Pure One") -- When Is a Veil Not a Veil? -- Parody behind the Parda -- Man behind the Curtain -- This Is True, It's No Story -- Chapter 3. Anthony: Amar Akbar Irony -- Item Number One: "I Am Alone in the World" -- Item Number Two: One Is a Lonely Number -- Item Number Three: Anthony and Jesus, Fifty-Fifty -- Item Number Four: My Name Is Anthony Gonsalves -- Item Number Five: The Irony of Anthony as Apotheosis -- Item Number Six: The Hemoglobin in the Atmosphere -- Chapter 4. Maa-! -- Anthony and the Bad Mother -- Akbar and the Wayward Mother -- Amar and the Righteous Mother -- Maa and the Cosmic Mother -- Conclusion: Excuse Me, Please -- Appendix: Film Synopsis -- Prologue Sequence: The Historical Nation as Slum -- Time Lapse into the Present -- Title Sequence and First Song -- Neighborhood Antics and Second Song.