Skip to content
1981
Volume 17, Issue 1
  • ISSN: 1756-4921
  • E-ISSN: 1756-493X

Abstract

In this article, I will discuss Anurag Kashyap’s film (2007) in order to explore questions about the nature and limits of masculinities in contemporary India and the ways in which these are refracted through representation in certain kinds of newly emerging popular cinema. In studying a film that seems to capture in the space of two hours a confusing and bewildering proliferation of sexed images (that are nonetheless, and significantly, ), I study the devices that popular cinema, in a putatively globalized India, seems to adopt and manoeuvre in order to come to terms with its complex identity, and in doing so what systems of traditional heteronormativity and masculinity it reinforces and/or dispels.

Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1386/safm_00093_1
2025-08-13
2026-04-23

Metrics

Loading full text...

Full text loading...

References

  1. Appadurai, A. (1997), ‘Consumption, duration and history’, in Modernity at Large: Cultural Dimensions of Globalisation, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 6685.
    [Google Scholar]
  2. Banerjee, T. N. (2025), ‘New masculinities and the aesthetics of violence in contemporary Bombay cinema: A case study of Anurag Kashyap’s Gangs of Wasseypur (2012)’, in A. Rubin, R. Goswami and I. Sharma (eds), Indian Cinema and Human Rights: An Intersectional Tale, Singapore: Springer, pp. 6587.
    [Google Scholar]
  3. Beynon, J. (2002), Masculinities and Culture, Buckingham: Open University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  4. Biswas, S. (2009), ‘Moving beyond art’, The Telegraph, 25 January, https://www.telegraphindia.com/culture/moving-beyond-art/cid/506392#goog_rewarded. Accessed 7 July 2025.
    [Google Scholar]
  5. Chakrabarty, S. (2000), ‘Fragmenting the nation’, in M. Hjort and S. MacKenzie (eds), Cinema and Nation, London: Routledge, pp. 8194.
    [Google Scholar]
  6. Foucault, M. (1984), ‘The repressive hypothesis (from The History of Sexuality, Volume I)’, in P. Rabinow (ed.), The Foucault Reader, New York: Pantheon Books, pp. 30129.
    [Google Scholar]
  7. Foucault, M. (1995), Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison, New York: Vintage.
    [Google Scholar]
  8. Hansen, T. B. (2001), ‘Bombay and the politics of urban desire’, in Violence in Urban India: Identity Politics, Mumbai and the Postcolonial City, Delhi: Permanent Black, pp. 3769.
    [Google Scholar]
  9. Hegde, P. (2007), ‘What was the director smoking?’, Rediff Movies, 26 October, http://www.rediff.com/movies/2007/oct/26smoke.htm. Accessed 5 November 2023.
  10. Honeycutt, K. (2005), ‘Black Friday’, The Hollywood Reporter, 5 May, http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/film/reviews/article_display.jsp?&rid=775. Accessed 20 February 2019.
    [Google Scholar]
  11. Kafka, F. (1995), The Trial, New York: Schocken Books.
    [Google Scholar]
  12. Kashyap, A. (2009), ‘Why can’t I question Modi or Manmohan?’, IBN Politics.com, 27 April, http://ibnlive.in.com/electionblogs/anurag-kashyap/2459/53374/why-cant-i-question-modi-or-manmohan.html. Accessed 20 February 2019.
  13. King, S. (1978), ‘Quitters, Inc.’, in Night Shift, New York: Doubleday, pp. 32454.
    [Google Scholar]
  14. Nair, J. (2005), The Promise of the Metropolis: Bangalore’s Twentieth Century, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  15. Pal, S. (2021), ‘Tracing the Kafkaesque in neoliberal India: No Smoking (2007)’, Studies in South Asian Film & Media, 13:1, pp. 3954, https://doi.org/10.1386/safm_00047_1.
    [Google Scholar]
  16. PTI (2005b), ‘No Black Friday till blasts case verdict’, Rediff Movies, 31 March, http://in.rediff.com/movies/2005/mar/31black.htm. Accessed 5 November 2023.
  17. Zaidi, H. S. (2004), Black Friday (dir. A. Kashyap), DVD, India: Adlabs Films.
    [Google Scholar]
  18. Kashyap, A. (2007), No Smoking (dir. A. Kashyap), DVD, India: Big Screen Entertainment.
    [Google Scholar]
  19. Kashyap, A. and Chaudhary, R. S. (2009), Gulaal (dir. A. Kashyap), DVD, India: Zee Limelight.
    [Google Scholar]
  20. Kashyap, A. and Motwane, V. (2009), Dev D (dir. A. Kashyap), DVD, India: UTV Motion Pictures.
    [Google Scholar]
  21. PTI (2005a), ‘SC rejects Black Friday petition’, Rediff Movies, 31 January, http://www.rediff.com/movies/2005/jan/31black.htm. Accessed 5 November 2023.
/content/journals/10.1386/safm_00093_1
Loading
This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a success
Invalid data
An error occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error
Please enter a valid_number test