ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at the recent phase of Bhojpuri cinema, which many scholars trace back to the unexpected success of Sasura Bada Paisawala, the cinema’s emergence resonates with recent changes in the urban ecology, particularly in relation to the migrant working classes. The most resilient accusation by the middle classes against Bhojpuri cinema is that of vulgarity. In Bhojpuri films, the provincial remains a direct as well as indirect referent; it uses the province as a place but also as a metaphor. Another remarkable aspect of Bhojpuri film audiences is that the theatre compound, displaying various posters of the films to be released in the next few weeks, often becomes a space which regular spectators approach to merely stare at the posters. There are two primary types of complaints launched against Bhojpuri films: lamenting the loss of traditional bourgeois morality through culturalist nostalgia; and lamenting the slow maturity of the film industry.
