From Space to Location

This article considers a possible logic of evolution in Indian cinema, which rests on the movement from space as stage of action, imbued with value, to a multiplication of secularized intermediary spaces. The encounter with the city—a defined geography and grid—made its own contribution to this process of narrative rationalization. At the same time, that encounter also released the impulse of pure recording and description, at odds with the narrative propulsion. The article places this logic in relation to the demise of the mass film in contemporary times, and it attempts to read the treatment of space in Indian cinema in relation to the location of film production itself.