Cinema Through Rasa: A Tryst with Masterpieces in the Light of Rasa Siddhanta

Prachand Praveer has produced an original path-breaking book. He has used his learning of the classical texts, the Natyaśästra of Bharata Muni and its famous commentary, the Abhinavabharati to connect the ancient thought regarding drama with a modern medium like cinema.

Since the inception of the modern Indian state from the British rule in 1947, a schizophrenia was inserted into the Indian psyche by the first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru through his reformist socialist agenda, that for India modernity was not an inseparable extension of tradition and heritage, but instead a rejection of it. For him alteration in heritage continuity was not essential. Thus, a strike was made on one of the major practices of Indian culture which presumes that cultural change must preserve and embellish tradition.