Aliens, Monsters, and Flying Saucers: Indian Space Films and the Spector of the Cold War

Abstract

Indian space films are largely a phenomenon of the past half decade, their production fueled by ever-burgeoning budgets. But their appearance marks only the second cluster of space films in the history of Indian cinema, the first having occurred in the mid-1960s. In Kalai Arasi (1963), we meet extraterrestrials whose love of the arts prompts them to abduct an Indian dancer. Chand Par Chadayye (1967) pits Indian astronauts against moon monsters on pulpy sets infused with a Stalinist aesthetic. Coming as such projects did after the Hollywood alien craze of the 1950s had subsided and before global audiences marveled at Star Wars and E.T., this gravitation toward the space genre should not be attributed to mimicry but instead to distinctly Indian concerns about the young nation’s future. With the state’s commitment to Cold War neutrality belied by its new nuclear program, audiences rightly wondered how India would fit into a world defined by futuristic technologies. Increasingly uncertain as they looked around the globe, Indian audiences, this paper contends, found some solace in looking to the stars.