Popular Indian cinema reveals the desires and hardship of the masses and the utopian ideals of directors and actors.  From the Marxist black and white films of the 1950s to the hopeful nationalisms of the 1970s, these films offer insight about the transformation of a post-independence socialist nation-state into a global economic power in a free-market economy. Bollywood then and now will trace the ideals of past and present popular Hindi-language films and their intersection with the harsh realities of communalism, economic disparity, gender inequities, and disability rights.  Themes such as gender, violence, friendship, love, and inner experience will focus our discussion of films as we explore methodologies including formalism, auteurship, stardom, social history, textual analysis, and performance theory in relation to dance and music.   We will conclude with an examination of new cinema in and out of India to pose the Gramscian question of whether cinema is simply a pleasant distraction, or an opiate for the masses, or even a liberating medium of change.