Studies in South Asian Film & Media - Volume 6, Issue 1, 2014

The goddess genre of films, popular in South India, has traditionally been conceived of as dedicated to presenting the glory and power of the Hindu goddess as divine mother, saviour and protector. The imaging of the goddess is interesting and unique in that it seems to stand outside the normal representations of women in (Indian) cinema. This has made it worthwhile to investigate this genre from the perspective of feminism. This study begins by discussing and demonstrating ways in which the goddess figure has been imaged in extra/ordinary ways to stand outside male scopic regimes. It then establishes how despite this supreme empowerment of the goddess within the filmic diegesis there is little concomitant empowerment of the mortal female. Finally, the study argues that in recent years even the empowerment of the goddess appears compromised.

Niche has become a key word in Indian media and Hindi film industry discourses ever since economic liberalization led to a rapid escalation in the consumption power of the urban, affluent, English-educated middle classes. Like any other leisure industry sector, the entertainment industry sought to reap the benefits of this trend by making films that would appeal to this section of the population, thus redefining the term ‘masses’, which has been conventionally used to describe Hindi popular cinema spectators. This article analyses how the industry has tailored its narrative content and modes of address in order to articulate the shifting identity markers of the urban middle classes. How do Hindi film narratives and their ancillary texts make their prioritization obvious? A further segmentation of the target audience is taking place through the industry’s increasing focus on young people. Industry and media discourses have used the term ‘youth’ to indicate a generation of consuming classes with a high level of disposable income. Their cinematic representations connect them to global – particularly western – identities but, at the same time, distinguish their construction of a national identity that is informed by and inflected with foreign cultural influences but not entirely dominated by them. Citing interviews conducted with industry executives, the article looks at how the Hindi film industry is imagining its intended audiences and structuring their identities through negotiations between local and global. The aim of the article is to explore the processes of signification through which the industry is articulating that imagination.

In this article, I argue that archival footage of the historical real constitutes the documentary’s unique truth claim and examine three instances of films (Amar Kanwar’s A Season Outside (1998), Mani Rathnam’s fictional Bombay (1995) and Rakesh Sharma’s testimonial documentary Final Solution (2004)) that use such archival footage in different visual economies of the indexical, iconic and symbolic, or in tension between them. As examples of films that represent communal violence in India, I compare their differing modes of invoking this footage aimed at activating a documentary consciousness that in turn addresses and creates a particular kind of embodied, ethical citizen/spectator.

I interviewed Wanphrang Diengdoh about his most recent film, Where the Clouds End, in Shillong on the 15th of August 2014. This day is not only nationally significant but also politically fraught in north-east India. ‘Dissident’ outfits call for bandhs to protest against the Indian state while the regional state machinery mobilizes citizens to celebrate the day and defy the bandhs. Unlike earlier years, when people silently allied with the dissidents by remaining indoors, this time round there was public movement, even celebration, as restaurants offered reduced price menus and concerts were held in public squares. As the sun went down and dusk crept up over the hills and into the city, we gathered around my tape recorder. Clutching mugs of Sharawn tea, a delicately flavoured Khasi variety that is yet to be discovered by the rest of the world, we exchanged stories and discussed complex ideas. This article is based on that wide ranging conversation as well as my critical appraisal of the film.

Media, Erotics, and Transnational Asia, Purnima Mankekar and Louisa Schein (eds) (2012) Durham and London: Duke University Press, 392 pp. ISBN: 978-0-8223-4577-0, $ 27.95 (paperback)

Conjugations: Marriage and Form in New Bollywood Cinema, Sangita Gopal (2011) Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 242 pp. ISBN:13: 9780226304267/ ISBN:10: 0226304264, (paperback)

Crossover Cinema: Cross-cultural Film from Production to Reception, Sukhmani Khorana (ed.) (2013) London and New York: Routledge, 172 pp. ISBN: 9780415630924, h/bk; ISBN: 9780203097212, $89.98

Cut-pieces: Celluloid Obscenity and Popular Cinema in Bangladesh, Lotte Hoek (2013) New York: Columbia University Press, 252 pp. ISBN: 978-0-231-16289-0, (paperback), $27.50

More than Bollywood: Studies in Indian Popular Music, Gregory Booth and Bradley Shope (eds) (2014) London: Oxford University Press, 358 pp. ISBN; 978-0-19-992885-9, (paperback), £25.00