Understanding Indic Civilisational Ideas through Modern Audio-Visual Content

What you’ll do

Audio-visual content — films, shows, web series — is one of the most powerful contemporary mediums for shaping cultural narratives. Indian cinema in particular enjoys wide popularity across Latin America, parts of Africa, the Middle East, parts of Eastern Europe, Central Asia, China, and Southeast Asia. How Indic civilisation and its ideas are portrayed through this medium — by Indians and others, accurately and inaccurately — is therefore worth careful examination.

This studio invites you to treat films and shows as cultural texts. You’ll watch a set of carefully chosen films, do focused readings around the themes each film raises, and meet daily for guided discussion. The course also examines how modern ideas across many fields — ecology, economics, spirituality, science — often have meaningful correspondences in Indic intellectual traditions, and how those correspondences surface in cinema.

By the end, you should be a more discerning viewer of films and shows, more capable of identifying and analysing narratives (whether central or incidental to the plot), and better equipped to explain Indic ideas in conversation — in whatever field you enter, from media to creative arts to policy-making.

What you’ll walk away with

• Familiarity with the best of Indic civilisational ideas across multiple domains — ecology, economics, spirituality, science — and their practical relevance today
• An appreciation for how audio-visual content as a popular cultural medium can carry, popularise, or distort civilisational ideas
• The ability to recognise where Indic ideas have been subject to misrepresented or biased portrayal, and to offer a nuanced critique
• The capacity to engage meaningfully with Indic perspectives in a global, cosmopolitan setting

What you’ll make

A 2,000–3,000-word review with an Indic analysis of a film or show you choose yourself — chosen from outside the list of those watched in class.

Your six days

Each day runs roughly 10am–6pm. Mornings and afternoons are organised around films watched in advance, paired with readings and videos, followed by guided discussion and a closing lecture.

Films you’ll watch (across the course)

The course is anchored in a set of films you’ll watch before and during the week. The list spans Indian and international cinema, mainstream and arthouse — including (among others) Jagga Jasoos, Drishyam, 7aum Arivu, Toilet: Ek Prem Katha, Vikram Vedha, Oh My God, Goodbye, Ship of Theseus, Brahmastra, The Man Who Knew Infinity, Mallesham, Newton, Raavan, Kantara, Kantara Chapter 1, Water, Maharaj, and several others. Two Indonesian films on Hinduism in Bali and Borneo are also part of the viewing list. The full list will be sent to you in advance.

How you’ll be assessed

What to expect (the workload)

This studio is reading- and viewing-heavy. Before the course begins, you’ll receive a list of films to watch and readings/videos to complete. Most days include multiple films and substantial readings; additional materials may be assigned the previous evening based on classroom discussion. Daily written summaries are due each morning. If you’re enrolling, plan accordingly.