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A rather tedious and unfortunate affair: the Rahi saga and the troubled origins of Indo–Soviet cinematic exchange

McGarr, Paul M.

Authors

Paul M. McGarr



Abstract

This article breaks new ground by reframing the context in which the governments of India and the Soviet Union arrived at an understanding that determined the course of cinematic exchange between the two countries during the cold war. It suggests that official Indian attitudes to the export of commercial films to the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics were not formulated on the basis of carefully calibrated political considerations, but rather on an ad hoc footing, and in response to a combination of unwelcome Soviet pressure and commercial concerns voiced by Indian film-makers. To fully understand the origins of Indian cinema’s emergence as a prominent feature of cultural life behind the Iron Curtain, it is necessary to travel back to the early 1950s, when an unlikely alliance was forged between K.A. Abbas, a flamboyant and politically well-connected Indian film-maker, and N.P. Koulebiakin, a dour commu- nist apparatchik in charge of the Indian arm of Sovexportfilm, the Soviet agency responsible for the import and export of feature films. Specifically, this article recovers the hitherto elided role played by Indian film-makers, such as Abbas, and lesser known Indian films, such as Rahi, in establishing the political ground rules that governed bi-lateral Indo–Soviet cinematic interchange.

Citation

McGarr, P. M. (2016). A rather tedious and unfortunate affair: the Rahi saga and the troubled origins of Indo–Soviet cinematic exchange. Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, 36(1), 5-20. https://doi.org/10.1080/01439685.2015.1134106

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Sep 1, 2015
Online Publication Date Feb 1, 2016
Publication Date Jan 2, 2016
Deposit Date Aug 11, 2016
Publicly Available Date Mar 28, 2024
Journal Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television
Print ISSN 0143-9685
Electronic ISSN 1465-3451
Publisher Routledge
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 36
Issue 1
Pages 5-20
DOI https://doi.org/10.1080/01439685.2015.1134106
Public URL https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/773991
Publisher URL http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01439685.2015.1134106
Additional Information This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television on 1 Feb 2016, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/01439685.2015.1134106

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