therefore at all something new, it is so only in the sense that it gives an old search, generated by the voraciousness of the mass-spectacular, a new turn. The Raj films are already upon us, and as the Indian government gets the hang of the form, Naxalbari, India Gandhi's 1971 election victory and the growth of Sanjayism are all subjects that await an inspired filmmaker to sense in them their 'epic' possibilities. At the time of writing this, Gandhi is entering its eleventh week in six theatres in Bombay. It has been granted tax-exemption by the Maharashtra government, and a directive has been issued from the Prime Minister's desk to all state governments that they grant a similar exemption. Every show in the city sees seats block-reserved for primary-school children who see the film as part of their history lesson, and it is not only them who are being shown the film as history come alive. Practically the whole of Bombay's upper middle class is awash in a wave of nostalgia for the leaders of its nationalist movement. It is clear, in a way, that there has been a certain merging of interests — between Attenborough's financial backers who must have first seen commercial possibilities in an 'authorized' biographical on Gandhi, and the Indian ruling * classes, who have received their main myth polished and renovated for their own ideological use. Such a merger of interests between professional merchandizers of culture, in particular those from the American cinema, and large-scale political interests, is not new. It happened in the mid-thirties in America when the big studio came more and more under the Republican influence both economically, for they had been practically taken over by the large banks and corporations, and politically, for with other Republican interests they too felt the looming threat in Roosevelt's new policies. The market then was mainly foreign, the product - as vehicle for American propaganda -emphatically American. The product itself was completely artifical, for it did not need to have any quality other than that of a well-packaged commodity, and the artificiality was emphasized by the fact that very few films were ever shot outside of the studios then. • It also happened clearly in the late fifties and early sixties when Hollywood, in response to post-war conditions, first opened out and then turned towards Europe. The films shot in Spain and Italy were initially justified on economic grounds — as with Lean's Doctor Zhivago - but later, as it took roots in the new land, certain European genres 34 April' June 1983