Sawani Jain

AR3596

The cinematic lens has been capturing the city throughout history, giving context to characters and narratives, bringing out its various layers, colours and moods. Films provide the viewers with a perceptual opportunity to get acquainted with a city and become tools for them to experience the everyday nuances of the city, influencing the way of living and perceiving the city. Cinematic construction and representation of the city, shape and filter its image. Apart from the physical character of the city, cinema also reflects the culture, lifestyles, social structures and economic developments of the city through the story-telling, which further helps the viewers to apprehend and interact with the socio-cultural, economic, political and historical context of the city. Different genres and themes of movies portray different shades of the city : the genre of political dramas renders a nationalist city, the genre of social dramas portrays the day-to-day life of the city, the genre of crime dramas and dark cinema shows the urban underworld, the genre of period-drama renders a (conjectured) historical city, while the sci-fi genre often shows a dystopian view to the city. The juxtaposition of all these cinematic depictions brings out a new lens to look at our cities.