Dr. Jyotika Virdi’s new book, Indian Art Cinema and its Cultural Elites, examines films, filmmakers and institutions from the mid-1950s to the 1990s in post-independence India. (Submitted by Jyotika Virdi/ University of Windsor)
By Lindsay Charlton
A University of Windsor professor's new book revisits India's art cinema movement, arguing it was both shaped by and helped reinforce class distinctions while elevating the country's global film profile.
Dr. Jyotika Virdi’s new book, Indian Art Cinema and its Cultural Elites, examines films, filmmakers and institutions from the mid-1950s to the 1990s in post-independence India.
"Film studies as a discipline often looks at popular cinema and cinema in general in terms of race, gender and sexuality. My project pushes us to look at these art films in terms of the neglected category of class," Virdi said.
She explained that postwar art film movements emerged in Europe, challenging Hollywood trends in dramatic ways, centred on smaller, artisanal style productions, lower budgets and lesser-known actors — a departure from Hollywood's industrial-scale productions and star system.
A parallel movement was emerging in India in the mid-1950s, driven by cinephiles building their own alternative institutions and mobilizing state support.
"There was this deep divide and sharp animosity between popular and art cinema culture, but when you look closely at the films, there's not much difference in the kind of issues they address," Virdi said.
"The difference is primarily about the aesthetic codes art cinema deploys. These films tend to be contemplative, talk about the existential crisis, are open-ended and invite discussion rather than the sensorial spectacle popular Indian films offer. And because film is such an expensive medium, it needs popular support."
Art films, however, circulated through film festivals, universities, exclusive film societies and theatres, reached smaller audiences and an elite social segment.
"I was just amazed at how such a small sliver of the population managed to assert itself so vociferously, create an art form that addresses them, win international acclaim, and build extensive institutional support. It speaks to their class power," she said.
Virdi examines around 30 films, including Satyajit Ray's iconic Apu Trilogy (1955–59), showing how a minuscule middle class in post-independence India held outsized cultural influence.
"When it comes to popular films, we look at them in terms of genre, so I adopted that approach with art cinema, classifying them in terms of their themes and narrative motifs," Virdi said.
"And interestingly, I discovered that the protagonists are almost always middle-class figures contending with what's happening socially, looking at the nation's development and its future in narratives that focus on and elevate their own sense of self — and their custodial responsibility."
Films, according to Virdi, are ultimately about identity and desire, and her book argues that art cinema of this period helped shape middle- and upper-class identity in India.
Leaning on French theorist Pierre Bourdieu, whose work explores cultural capital — the idea that what people consume helps signal who they are — Virdi examines how taste in film can reflect and reinforce class identity.
"This cultural capital is built through years of education and shapes how people come to value certain aesthetic codes. Cultural elites often assert the superiority of the art they prefer through the works they consume. That distinction of taste becomes central to forming and reinforcing class boundaries," she said.
What initially drew Virdi to this period is what she describes as a "cultural amnesia" around these films. While they were widely discussed in their time and mark the origin of film studies as a discipline, they are now underrepresented in both public conversation and academic study as popular cinema dominates the field.
"I believe there's this awkward embarrassment about the fact that the discipline was so besotted by those films at a particular time; there's a way of trying to brush that under the rug," she said.
She added that discussions of art cinema today are often folded into broader conversations about festivals, transnational funding and global film networks.
"What was staring at me was the fact that what we're not talking about is the class affiliation of the audience and people like ourselves, academics who are the ones who are drawn to these films and to the festivals, so it's also sort of turning the spotlight on ourselves," she said.
Virdi is an associate professor in the Department of Communication, Media and Film. Indian Art Cinema and Its Cultural Elites (Bloomsbury, 2026) is available as an e-book at Leddy Library.