NEW DELHI, Sept. 21 -- Fr. Gaston Roberge, a French - Canadian Jesuit priest, had been asking himself since the 1980s why India did not have a new theory of popular films. It was only in 2010 he got an answer after studying the 2000-year old Indian treatise of dance and drama - Natya Sastra. The result was a 100 page book, The Indian Film Theory: Flames of Sholay, Notes and Beyond that offered a new perspective on the theories underlying Indian commercial cinema.
The book was released at St. Xavier's College, Kolkata on June 15, 2010 by Goutam Ghose, a renowned Indian film director. It has been described as 'easily readable' and 'radical in its content.' Ghose said, 'Fr. Roberge introduced the study of film in the context of our social mat...