scholarly journals Marxist Feminism: An Analysis on Class Structure and Position of Women in Malayalam movie -“Chemmeen”

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 78-83
Author(s):  
Ann Rose Davis
Keyword(s):  
Strong Influence ◽  
Film Industry ◽  
Class Structure ◽  
Indian Cinema ◽  
Primary Focus

The Malayalam film industry, prominently known as “Mollywood,” is one of the fast-changing faces in Indian cinema. This paper tries to examine one of the Malayalam movies, Chemeen, through the lens of Marxist Feminism. The primary text chosen for the study is the movie, Chemeen, an adaptation of Thakazhi Sivasankara Pillai’s novel with the same name. The story revolves around the lives of Karuthamma and Pareekutt, lovers whose life cannot be led together because of the strong influence of caste and class in their society.  This is one of the liberal texts in Malayalam Literature narrating the Kerala fishing community’s lives, customs, traditions, and beliefs. The research paper’s primary focus will be on society’s hierarchy through the reflection of Mollywood cinema, the stereotyping of certain characters based on their class and caste, the aftermath of marriage, and the domineering male-centric society female fellowships through deities.

scholarly journals The power of Bollywood: A study on opportunities, challenges, and audiences’ perceptions of Indian cinema in China

2021 ◽  
pp. 205943642110226
Author(s):  
Yanyan Hong
Keyword(s):  
Film Industry ◽  
Mainland China ◽  
Chinese People ◽  
Key Factors ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Chinese Market ◽  
Star Power ◽  
Indian Cinema ◽  
Cultural Connections

India has long been known for its prestigious Mumbai-based film industry, namely Bollywood, and remains by far the largest producer of films in the world. With the growing global reach of Indian cinema, this study looks at an intriguing Indian-film fever over the last decade in the newly discovered market of China. Through examining key factors that make Indian films appealing to Chinese and exploring the opportunities and challenges of Indian cinema in China, this article draws upon insights gained from the narratives of local audiences. Data were collected from semi-structured interviews with 32 Indian-film audiences residing across 14 different cities in mainland China. Thematic analysis identified the following five appealing factors, which explain why the Chinese enjoy Indian films: content-driven story, social values, star power, audience reviews and cultural connections. While a comprehensive list of opportunities was derived showing the potential future of Bollywood in China, results found that China’s unique institutional context and an ongoing India–China geopolitical tensions also present challenges, which in turn add to the overall complexity of films’ success in the Chinese market. This article argues the powerful role of Bollywood in bridging cultures and improving India–China ties, as Indian films have made Chinese people more aware of India in a favourable way.

scholarly journals A Reading of Bhabendra Nath Saikia's Films from Feminist Lens

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 247-274
Author(s):  
Minakshi Dutta
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Film Industry ◽  
Feminist Movement ◽  
Historical Overview ◽  
Representation Of Women ◽  
Indian Cinema ◽  
The Third ◽  
Women’S Representation ◽  
The World ◽  
Images Of Women

Feminist movement deconstructs the constructed images of women on the screen as well. The gap between real and reel woman is a vibrant topic of discussion for the feminist scholars. As a regional genre of Indian film industry Assamese film flourished during the third decades of twentieth century. Like the films of other parts of the world, Assamese films also constructing the image of woman, particularly Assamese women, in its own way of projection. Hence, this article is an attempt to explore the questions related to women’s representation by taking the films of Assamese director Dr. Bhabendra Nath Saikia as reference. Moreover, as per the demand of the article it will cover a historical overview of the representation of women in Indian cinema and Assamese cinema. Different theories from psychoanalysis and feminism will be applied to analyze the select movies.

Unruly Cinema

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rini Battacharya Mehta
Keyword(s):  
Film Industry ◽  
First Century ◽  
Art Cinema ◽  
Popular Cinema ◽  
Indian Cinema ◽  
History Of ◽  
Hindi Cinema ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
Historical Periods ◽  
Systematic Exposition

Unruly Cinema is a meta-history of Indian cinema’s emergence and growth in correspondence with the colonial, postcolonial, and the neoliberal state. Indian popular cinema has grown steadily from the largest national film industry to a global cultural force. Between 1931 and 2000, Indian cinema overcame Hollywood’s domination of the Indian market, crafted a postcolonial national aesthetic, resisted the high modernist pull of art cinema, and eventually emerged as a seamless extension of India’s neoliberal ambitions. The major agent of these four shifts was a section of the Hindi cinema produced in Bombay, which came to be named and marketed as Bollywood in the twenty-first century. Through a systematic exposition of four historical periods, this book shows how Bollywood’s current dominance is an unlikely result of unruliness, that is, of a disorganized defiance of norms. Perpetually caught between an apathetic and adversarial government and an undefined public, Indian commercial cinema has thrived simply by defying control or normalization. The aesthetic turns of this cinema are guided by counter-effects, often unintended and always unruly.

K. Balachander: An Innovative Filmmaker

2009 ◽  
Vol 37 (4) ◽  
pp. 574-598 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sathiavathi Chinniah
Keyword(s):  
Film Industry ◽  
Audience Reception ◽  
Female Representation ◽  
Indian Cinema ◽  
Rural And Urban ◽  
Tamil Cinema ◽  
New Perspective

AbstractThis study aims to contribute to existing literature on Indian cinema by exploring the works of K. Balachander. An academic enquiry into K. Balachander's films is justified given his presence in the Tamil film industry for some 40 years and the numerous awards he had obtained over this period for his filmic contributions, including the prestigious Padmashree Award which he won in 1987. In the bigger study of which this is a small part, I also study female representation in his films, as well as how various groups of audience interpret the portrayal of women in three specific films directed by him. Keeping in mind the varied audience groups of Tamil cinema, three different groups have been selected for this purpose, namely the rural and urban audiences in India and the diaspora audience in Singapore. Emphasis on the audience allows this study to build on earlier research on the reception of films at the point of consumption. I hope in this to provide a new perspective on audience reception of female portrayals in Tamil films.

scholarly journals From the event to the everyday: distributor-driven film festivals

2020 ◽  
pp. 1329878X2093847
Author(s):  
Stuart Richards ◽  
Lauren Carroll Harris
Keyword(s):  
Film Industry ◽  
Interesting Case ◽  
Film Festival ◽  
Film Festivals ◽  
Film Culture ◽  
European North ◽  
The Everyday ◽  
Important Field ◽  
Primary Focus

Film festival research is an important field within screen and cultural studies, with festivals mainly theorised as a cinephile phenomenon occurring in European/North American contexts. Though cinephilia is indeed a major aspect of film festivals, adopting cinephilia as a primary focus for festival research obscures, and cannot explain, other motivations for running festivals, as well as how festivals fit into other trends in the film industry and film culture today. As researchers and film critics working in Australia, we have observed trends in festival culture that do not fit the dominant cinephilic framework. Principal among these trends is the emergence of Palace Cinemas, an arthouse cinema chain, and Palace Films, its distribution arm, as the curator and presenter of its own chain of film festivals. This essay presents an interesting case study that considers Palace Cinemas in relation to dominant understandings of the film festival. These film festivals do not exclusively fit either of Mark Peranson’s ideal models of festivals – audiences festivals or business festivals – but rather between these two positions. These distributor-driven film festivals, such as those run by Palace, greatly diminish any association with festival time, defined by Janet Harbord as a key feature of festivals.

scholarly journals “Cultured Women” do not act in films: Tracing Notions of Female Stardom in Bombay Cinema (1930s–1950s)

2020 ◽  
Vol 01 (02) ◽  
pp. 2050012
Author(s):  
PRIYAM SINHA
Keyword(s):  
Female Sexuality ◽  
Urban Landscape ◽  
Film Industry ◽  
Upper Class ◽  
Women's Bodies ◽  
Indian Cinema ◽  
Pros And Cons ◽  
Bombay City ◽  
Film Making ◽  
Ideological Construction

Women were absent from the archives and rendered as invisible within the film business that was changing the urban landscape of Bombay city in the 1930s through talkies. Questions were raised about female sexuality and respectability primarily due to a morality discourse closely associated with women acting in films. Tension, moral panic and distress had emerged from the dominant stigma regarding films making industries being a heterosexual and hybrid workspace. Moreover, an economy that capitalizes on voyeuristic pleasures of its male audience by objectifying women’s bodies. So, even though it offered women higher salaries unlike other professions, it was deemed as “dangerous” for women. Therefore, “cultured women”, essentially from the upper class, were discouraged from being a part of the studio film industry situated in the cosmopolitan Bombay city. Taking forward Neepa Majumdar’s (2009) dialogue on the denial of agency to women in Indian cinema, this paper traces the incorporation of feminist agenda into film making. This paper is limited to studying the biographical, autobiographical details and picturization of three eminent actresses: Nargis, Kanan Devi and Durga Khote. Further, I would elaborate on the struggles undertaken by them and the roles they played in films in order to deconstruct the notion of female stardom and an “ideal Indian woman” picturized in Bollywood from the 1930s–1950s. This period holds relevance in film historiography due to the ideological construction of female stardom that had its pros and cons which I would be discussing in depth through the paper.

scholarly journals Remapping the Visual Contours: An Enquiry into the Film Narratives of Adoor Gopalakrishnan

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (S1) ◽  
pp. 96-100
Author(s):  
Simi Varghese
Keyword(s):  
Film Industry ◽  
Indian Languages ◽  
Visual Narratives ◽  
Indian Cinema ◽  
World Languages ◽  
World Cinema ◽  
Master Craftsman ◽  
Satyajit Ray

Adoor Gopalakrishan has been the greatest film director who had elevated Malayalam film to the level of World Cinema. Truly, he is the master craftsman of Indian cinema second only to Satyajit Ray. He had discovered the identity of Malayalam through his visual narratives. He had metamorphosed each film as an experience and eked out a new visual repertoire for Malayalam films. Hitherto, no serious study has been conducted to absorb the visual magnificence of Adoor films. Concerted efforts have been initiated in other Indian languages and world languages to trace the visual dynamics employed in Adoor films. When foreign film critics approach his films seriously, even today we often falter to imbibe the film sensitivity and culture kickstarted by Mr Adoor Gopalakrishnan. Still, he is the ‘unravished fragrance’ of Malayalam film industry. Adoor has been truly one of the masters of world cinema and had carved a special niche for him in the global film map. My paper tries to portray the new visual fervor inculcated by Adoor films in the Malayalam psyche and will unravel the subtle nuances which deeply touch the labyrinthine milieu of Malayalam film world.

scholarly journals Indian Cinema: Making Departure from the Stereotypical Presentation of Women in Nuptial

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 43-49
Author(s):  
Dr. Priyanka Kulhari
Keyword(s):  
Female Sexuality ◽  
Film Industry ◽  
Sexual Consent ◽  
Indian Society ◽  
Work Place ◽  
Popular Cinema ◽  
Healthy Environment ◽  
Indian Cinema ◽  
Made In

In the late 20th and 21st century various movements took place which challenged the stereotypical notions of gender in society. #MeToo movement gave a momentum to the society where people started talking about any kind of violence, sexual assault and harassment against women. Many government policies and laws were framed and implemented to provide equal opportunities to women in every field. Vishakha Guidelines and Internal Complains Committee are made mandatory at work place and education institutions to assure a safe and healthy environment for females. Now the issues brushed under the carpet for long have been brought into light. Issues which were considered taboo even to talk about are now discussed on public forums and academia, penned down in literature and projected in media and cinema. Women and their concerns and point of views found space in popular cinema and were acclaimed too by the critics as well as spectators. Bollywood has made deviations from the stereotypical portrayal of women and broke the silence on issues like sexual consent and female sexuality. It also showed the role of woman in marriage and how it’s changing with woman becoming economically independent and realizing her real worth. The present paper will deliberate on the institution of marriage and the role of woman in it in the Indian society especially in the context of Indian cinema. It will discuss recent Indian cinema which came with stories in which decision-making power has been exercised by women in a nuptial and consent of a girl in a marriage has been considered. Gender roles in a marriage will also be analysed which has been shown deviating from the stereotypical notion especially in the movies Ki & Ka and Tumahari Sulu. It will include the movies which have at the centre the idea that the courage of a woman can put a full stop to the deep-rooted patriarchy of centuries in our society. The paper will include only popular cinema made in Hindi language film industry known as Bollywood in the last decade like Dil Dhadkane Do, Badrinath Ki Dulhania, Secret Superstar, Parched and Tumhari Sulu.

Portrayal of Female Nurses in Indian Cinema

2020 ◽  
pp. 127-134
Author(s):  
Seeta Devi Akyana
Keyword(s):  
Significant Influence ◽  
Gender Issue ◽  
Film Industry ◽  
Nursing Profession ◽  
Indian Cinema ◽  
Female Nurses ◽  
The Way

Hollywood and film industries in India continue to portray the character of female nurses, which remains a debatable topic from time to time. When it comes to the portrayal of female nurses in Indian films, it creates a significant amount of discussion. Since the gender issue in India is a unique issue in India, understanding the representation of female nurses in films is of paramount importance. Mostly, the characters of female nurses are represented in a bad light. Sometimes their characters are comically or sexually depicted. Films in India have a more significant influence on society and vice versa. Moreover, the Indian film industry has its own identity. The way the films depict the characters of nurses raises ample issues in the nursing profession as well as in public. Nurses wonder why writers, journalists, producers, directors, etc. do not have an accurate image of the nursing profession. This chapter attempts to understand the characters of female nurses in Indian films.

Introduction

2015 ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Omar Ahmed
Keyword(s):  
New Media ◽  
Film Industry ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
The West ◽  
Indian Cinema ◽  
Current State ◽  
World Cinema ◽  
Low Culture ◽  
Film Language

This introductory chapter traces how critical discourse on Indian cinema has evolved over the last ten years. It addresses some of the factors that have played a part in accelerating the breadth of research on Indian cinema, particularly the proliferation of new media such as the Internet, YouTube, blogging, and DVDs. The chapter then provides some wider context to the current state of Indian cinema and how it has changed considerably in the new millennium. The term Bollywood, ‘a slang term for the commercial side of the Indian movie business’, continues to be a term of contention among those who work in the Indian film industry, conjuring up unpleasant connotations of low culture and trashy escapism. Yet there is no denying that Bollywood has entered the lexicon of film language and that, at least in the West, this derogatory term points to the film industry based in Mumbai (formerly Bombay). Like ‘world cinema’, Bollywood has become a catch-all term and a marketing-friendly one, but it fails to cover the sheer diversity and specificities offered by what is one of the world's leading film industries.

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