Naqal and the Aesthetics of the Copy

Abstract

In the last two decades, South Asian film studies have called attention to its generic difference from Euro-American cinemas by locating it within Indian narrative, visual, and performative traditions. This chapter interrogates the popular perception of Indian commercial cinema as a poor imitation of Western popular cinema not only through the concept of mimicry as defined by postcolonial theorists, but also through the traditional trope of naqal or imitation, the defining principle of several Indian performing arts. The question to be addressed is whether the element of imitation complicates the summary dismissal of Indian cinema as copy in order to isolate an alternative aesthetic of the “copy.”