Dream Factory

Editor’s note: We feature the brilliant recommendations of our partner, the Champaca Bookstore, in the Read section twice a month. FYI: Champaca is an independent women-run and founded bookstore and children's library in Bangalore.

Barbie or Oppenheimer, Hollywood or Bollywood—what is it about motion pictures that keep us hooked? Is it the coming together of visuals and sound, the story, the characters or the immersive experience of it all? At Champaca, we are thinking if it is possible to go beyond the experience of watching a film and read about the different elements that work behind the screen to give us this magic. Today, we roll out the red carpet for an eclectic bunch of reads on cinema—essays, novels, biographies and even an art book! 

‘The Cinema of Satyajit Ray’ by Bhaskar Chattopadhyay

While directors, among the artists behind the craft of cinema, are dwarfed by the allure of actors, Satyajit Ray continues to be the tallest figure in Indian and world cinema. But how do we understand his cinema in today’s context? What keeps his cinema from becoming dated? What makes Ray’s movies stand the test of time? In this book, Bhaskar Chattopadhyay revisits each one of Satyajit Ray’s thirty-nine feature films, shorts and documentaries to investigate their cinematic and social context, and relevance today. The book also consists of insights from speaking to Ray’s collaborators, directors and critics to truly understand Ray and his work. ‘The Cinema of Satyajit Ray’ is an essential book for every cinephile’s library.

‘Helen: The Making of a H-Bomb’ by Jerry Pinto

Watching Oppenheimer reminded us of India’s own H-Bomb, aka, Helen. It is now over three decades since the Hindi film heroine drove the vamp into extinction, and yet Helen—nicknamed ‘H-Bomb’, an ‘item girl’ who would not appear for more than five minutes in a film, continues to be an icon. Jerry Pinto’s ‘Helen: The Making of a H-Bomb’ is a study of the phenomenon that was Helen. It explores how a refugee of French-Burmese parentage succeeded as wildly as she did in mainstream Indian cinema and how the otherwise conservative middle-class families sat through and even enjoyed her cabarets. The book is also a witty and provocative examination of Indian morality—the politics of religion, gender and sexuality in popular culture and the importance of song and item numbers in Hindi cinema.

‘Children of Paradise’ by Camilla Grudova

Grudovas’s first novel, ‘Children of Paradise’ is set in an old cinema hall called Paradise. It is “a Frankenstein’s monster of a place”, with a trapdoor casually opening onto a river of raw sewage below, and a mysterious red screening room which manifests in hallucinatory fashion from time to time, and from which no one who enters emerges again. The novel’s narrator, Holly is a new hire at the Paradise—she cleans toilets, sweeps popcorn, learns to deal with the old owner, Iris, and is ignored for the most part by her aloof colleagues—until the hall is sold to a faceless corporation. What follows is the unravelling of the relationships of the cinema workers, their obsession with cinema and their work. Each of the short chapters has a film title, and pays homage to the magic of cinema while dealing with themes of identity and isolation.

Light of Asia: Indian Silent Cinema 1912-1934 by Suresh Chabria

Thanks to loud songs and screeching background scores, we have caught ourselves getting nostalgic for the era of silent cinema. ‘Light of Asia: Indian Silent Cinema’ 1912- 1934 by Suresh Chabria celebrates the centenary of Indian cinema and the release of Dadasaheb Phalke’s Raja Harishchandra in 1913. It provides a close-up view of the nascent days of Indian filmmaking and the first steps of the Indian movie industry. Extensively researched with archival records, new essays by celebrated film historians and commentators, crisp reproductions of silent film stills, photos of emerging movie moghuls, journal covers, colour posters of films and quaint publicity material of the times—unearthed and restored by the National Film Archive of India, this book is a certain collectable.

‘The Nine Emotions of Indian Cinema Hoardings ‘by MP Dakshna

Have you wondered where the giant film posters and cutouts have gone? ‘The Nine Emotions of Indian Cinema Hoardings’ pays a fitting tribute to the disappearing craft of film poster culture and its talented makers. According to the Natyashastra, a second-century Indian theory of aesthetics, there is a spectrum of nine emotions that superior works of art should evoke. This book explores each of the emotions through Tamil cinema billboards or hoardings. For the initiated, the book is also packed with insightful essays that illuminate the intersection of culture, commerce, and politics.

‘Subramaniyapuram: The Tamil Film in English Translation’ by M.Sasikumar and Anand Pandian

Every Tamil film lover has certainly heard of ‘Subramaniyapuram’ (2008) one of the first in a wave of realist Tamil films that caught the attention of filmmakers from around the world. Directed by M Sasikumar, Subramianyapuram is a gritty tale of love, betrayal, and violence set in the South Indian temple city of Madurai in the early 1980s. This collector’s volume brought together by Blaft Publications comprises of the English translation of the screenplay, a gallery of stills and posters, essays about the film by critics like Baradwaj Rangan, Anand Pandian, Constantine Nakassis and Preminda Jacob, nuggets on its context in Tamil film history, the innovative publicity campaign that accompanied its release and an exclusive interview with the director himself.

Life at Champaca

How has the monsoon been treating you? Despite the rain playing havoc, we were thrilled to welcome fresh blooming Champaca flowers at our store and harvest avocados from the tree next door. In August, we have lined up a set of exciting events - from book launches to storytelling, including a cyanotype workshop—check them out here! If you’re in Bangalore, we invite you to come to our lush, leafy store, attend the events and browse through our shelves with some cold ginger ale or a hot cup of coffee, as per the whims and fancies of the ever-changing Bangalore weather!

And as always, you can find us, our book recommendations, and keep up with our upcoming events, on our website, Instagram, and Twitter!