This is a bit of a mixed bag. It's a great introduction for those who assume Indian cinema has little to offer other than item numbers, people running around trees and scripts full of holes. For readers who fall into that category, Shoma A Chatterji is more than qualified to connect the dots and come up with an introduction that puts today’s industry as a whole into perspective.

A still from the film, Raja Harishchandra, India' first full-length feature film