What To Carry Away

Indian cinema leaves you with a few core ideas:

• The masala mix reflects a culture that wants emotional completeness in one film
• "Bollywood" is just the Hindi industry among many distinct language cinemas
• An audience over a billion strong needs no Western stamp of approval
• A new wave is blending art and commerce with real craft

Its boldest gift to world cinema is one idea: a single movie can make you laugh, cry, dance, and think at once, treating feeling as one whole rather than something to file into separate genres.