IndiaClub.com Top Items in CoffeeTable

Bollywood Themes (by Tushar K Amin)

This book is a celebration of commercial Hindi cinema across the years. It explores the recurring themes and popular characters in Hindi films and offers a fascinating overview of the evolution of commercial cinema in India. Entertaining, insightful and sprinkled with anecdotes and trivia from the glitzy world of films, the book is a trip down Bollywood Boulevard.

Bridal Durries of India (by Ann Shankar)

With 152 illustrations including 55 in color, this richly illustrated book breaks new ground in exploring the background to this fascinating village tradition. For generations women in villages of northern India has woven durries, flat tapestry, as part of the trousseau they take to their future home. Imaginative in design, bold in their use of color, the durries are treasured items that are laid over the rough string webbing of the charpoi, the traditional Indian bed which is the central item of furniture in a village house. As women are reluctant to part with their durries, these are largely unknown outside the area in which they have been woven.

New Directions in Indian Dance (by Sunil Kothari)

Indian dance does finds contemporary expression - one could term it Modern Indian Dance, but it is not as an imitation of a term from the West, but indigenous and essentially Indian. Illustrated generously with images by photographers of international repute, this book reveals the mystique of the new Indian dance, wherein voices of dancers, choreographers, innovators, scholars, and critics are heard.

Dreams of India (by Raghu Rai)

From breathtaking mountain and desert scenes to the opulent architecture of Mughal India to life in the villages the more than hundred and twenty magnificent pictures on these pages take you on a voyage of discovery, through the eyes of one of the world�s finest photographers. This India album brings together over twenty years of Raghu Rai�s work in color.

Khajuraho (by Louis Federic)

This remarkable art book with 104 color illustrations vividly evokes the atmosphere of Khajuraho, while enlarged details of individual carvings reveal the extraordinarily lifelike, supple quality with which sculptures endowed the stone some ten centuries ago.

Oriental Carpets - A Complete Guide (by Murray L Eiland Jr)

The book�s focus is the nineteenth and twentieth-century weaving of the Middle and Far East.The authors have extended the range of the book by incorporating new material on Chinese and Indian rugs, and the text has been completely revised. The plates of all the illustrations have been remade, and many of the rugs shown are new to this edition.

Jewels of the Nizams (by Usha Ramamrutham Bala Krishnan)

This work is the first ever study of one of the most outstanding collections of gemstones and jewellery acquired by the Indian government. Sometimes worn but never shown, these jewels belonged to the Nizams of the Hyderabad, reputed to be the richest men in the world. Jewels of the Nizams documents this unique collection of jewels that give credence to legends, apocryphal tales and fading memories of a fabulously wealthy dynasty that ruled the Deccan for seven generations.