Every day, over twelve million people go to the movies in India. Seated on planks of wood and on the floor, in air-conditioned movie palaces and open fields, the world's most avid cinema-goer watches the hundreds of films that roll out of the world's most prolific film industry. Our class will examine the pleasures of this cinema that has frequently been dismissed for being saccharine, melodramatic, and escapist. We will be watching and discussing a cluster of Hindi films made in Bombay (or Bollywood, as it is often called). We will pay particular attention to the manner in which these films embody public fantasies--those of gender and masculinity, religion and nation, sexuality and the state, family and friends--in an effort to examine how Bombay's blockbusters have dealt with India's preoccupation with its emerging modernity and its increasing global economic prowess. Screenings are scheduled for Wednesday evenings and may sometimes run over the scheduled course time.