The shelf behind the classroom

Story & Screenplay

• Story — Substance, Structure, Style Robert McKee The anatomy of drama — the writer's classic on what makes stories work.
• Screenplay — The Foundations of Screenwriting Syd Field The three-act paradigm that taught generations of screenwriters.
• The Anatomy of Story John Truby 22 steps from premise to final scene — structure as a living system.
• Save the Cat! Blake Snyder The beat sheet and the practical rhythms of commercial screenwriting.
• On Writing Stephen King Craft, discipline and the writer's life — told by a master storyteller.

Directing & Film Craft

• On Directing Film David Mamet The shot-by-shot logic of directing — lean, opinionated, essential.
• In the Blink of an Eye Walter Murch The editor's philosophy — why cuts work and what they really mean.
• Hitchcock / Truffaut François Truffaut A week of conversations with the master of suspense — a masterclass in itself.
• Sculpting in Time Andrei Tarkovsky Cinema as time made visible — the poetic school of directing.
• Making Movies Sidney Lumet A working director's honest account of the whole process, start to finish.

Media & Communication Studies

• Understanding Media Marshall McLuhan "The medium is the message" — the foundational text of media studies.
• Amusing Ourselves to Death Neil Postman How television reshaped public discourse — more urgent than ever.
• Media/Society — Industries, Images, and Audiences Croteau, Hoynes & Milan The standard map of how media, culture and society shape each other.
• The Medium Is the Massage McLuhan & Fiore Media theory as a visual essay — the message in its own medium.

Indian Cinema

• Our Films, Their Films Satyajit Ray Ray on cinema east and west — essays of rare clarity and warmth.
• Conversations with Mani Ratnam Baradwaj Rangan The craft of mainstream Indian storytelling, straight from the director.
• Indian Cinema: A Very Short Introduction Ashish Rajadhyaksha A compact journey through a hundred years of Indian film.

Note

This is the shelf currently taught from — recommended reading, not a complete bibliography. If there are books Panbu has authored or co-authored (chapters, research volumes, textbooks), share the details and this page becomes an author's page.