Book Review: Bollywood – The Films! The Songs! The Stars!

By Joginder Tuteja -

November 7, 2017 - 1:02 PM IST

'A perfect coffee table book on Bollywood'

Book Review: Bollywood – The Films! The Songs! The Stars!

This could well be the best way to describe Bollywood - The Films! The Songs! The Stars! in just a few words which is simply brilliant. While there have been coffee table books on Bollywood and there would be many more in time to come as well, Bollywood - The Films! The Songs! The Stars! strikes the best balance by all means when it comes to content, design, layout and price.

On that note, accolades are in order for publishers DK who come up with an excellently packaged 350 odd page coffee table book that comes with a throwaway price of Rs. 1299/=. While most of the coffee table books (and not even as impressive as this one) come with a ridiculously exorbitant price tag, Bollywood - The Films! The Songs! The Stars! is a steal that makes for a collector's delight.

In fact if the cover design of the book is marvellous and instantly catchy, wait before you begin to turn over the pages. Right from the quality of the print material to the design to the fonts to the manner in which content is laid out to the details that are shared to the pictures that have been put together to the flow of the narrative to the styling - just about everything is picture perfect in this book that would easily go down as gold standard when it comes to Bollywood coffee table books.

In the past there have been quite a few Bollywood books that have either concentrated on the beginning of movie making era or just the recent trends or concentrated on the history of music or sung praises about certain notable superstars. Well, Bollywood - The Films! The Songs! The Stars! amalgamates all of this and more by packaging it all so very neatly page by page that you just can't help but marvel at how the entire design team came together to make this a world class affair indeed.

Of course credit must go to contributors S.M.M. Ausaja, Karan Bali, Aseem Chabbra, Juhi Saklani, Suparna Sharma and Tanu Thakur to come up with the kind of writing that makes for a compelling read. You get to know right from 1913 to 2017 about everything notable about the Hindi film industry. Hence, right from Alam Ara to Dangal, just about everything is covered in this book that chronicles all the important events that have made this industry stand tall for over 100 years now.

In the middle of this all, there are dozens of anecdotes shared in crisp manner which make for a snappy read. This isn't all as particularly exciting is the timeline pattern of a narrative that is put together for select films. That is indeed innovative and makes you wonder why no one had ever thought about this ever before.

Indeed, Bollywood - The Films! The Songs! The Stars! is an experience and truly a collector's delight, something which is not to be missed.

Go, pick this one up!

Rating: ****1/2

Price: Rs. 1299/=