The Theory of Pleasure-Pauses

Abstract

Scholars like Ganti (2004), Mishra (2002) and Desai (2004) have described how Bollywood has its own unique structure with a focus on its song-and-dance sequences but Gopalan (2002) in her book Cinema of interruptions: Action genres in contemporary Indian cinema provides a framework of interruptions specifically detailing the narrative features that render Indian films unique. She notes that Indian films can be understood as an assemblage of interruptions that halt the linear narrative and flow of the film. Since Bollywood films differ from the diegesis of other film narratives they need to be analyzed from a uniquely Indian perspective rather than a Western critical perspective. The aim of this article is to first take these interruptions and rename them as ‘pleasure-pauses’ to better explain their presence within an Indian context and then analyze their functional aspects from a Bollywood perspective.