Cinema in the city: Tangible forms, transformations and the punctuation of everyday life

In India, cinema does not exist merely on the screen; it permeates everyday life. Just as formula films are punctuated with song and dance, fantastic interludes which at times break from the narrative to express the dreams, wishes and desires-in short the "inner-world" [Kakar 1980] of characters-everyday life in India may be seen to be punctuated with the fantasy world of cinema. If popular Indian cinema is indeed a "collective fantasy" or "group daydream...containing the unconscious material and hidden wishes of a vast number of people" [Kakar 1980: 12], what is to be made of the images from this fantasy world which populate the urban landscape? What does cinema's spectacular presence in the Indian city mean for cinema? For urban life? Scholars of film in India have commented on cinema's ubiquity and presence outside the theater, noting the pervasiveness of film music, film fashions and film magazines and of the posters and other visible icons of films, such as "decals, painted signboards, giant movie hoardings [billboards] and towering cut-outs" that clutter urban space [Dickey 2005: 69; see also Dickey 1993]. The colorful posters, "cut-outs" and hoardings which announce a film and which make cinema's presence in the city tangible have been studied as art [Dwyer and Patel 2002] and as advertisements, "circulations and reproductions" of cinema which form a mediascape and which provide urban spectacle [Jacob 1998]. Taking a phenomenological perspective, this essay provides a descriptive analysis of the incorporation of cinema into everyday settings, addressing the significance of this presence in the context of the flow of urban life and for the "extra-cinematic experience" [Spitulnik 2002]. While study of posters and billboards as advertisement acknowledges their intentional role, this essay comments on the unintentional aspects of cinema's visual and tangible presence outside the theater, and the kinds of reaction and interaction it attracts.