Reena Dube provides a rich and stimulating analysis of Satyajit Ray's only big budget commercial foray into Hindi-Urdu cinema, The Chess Players (1977). In doing so she models an innovative theoretical approach to the critial study of postcolonial Indian films. She frames Ray's film both within the subaltern studies perspective on colonial and nationalist Indian history and postcolonial theoretical concern with issues of subjectivity, sexuality, cultural production, and discourses of labour and childhood. The book offers a comparative analysis of postcolonial films, juxtaposing them with global cinema and simultaneously placing them within the context of film and literature studies, exploring these themes through an examiniation of Ray's cinematic re-telling of a short story about an oral tale.