Dreaming the Nation: Domestic dramas in Hindi films post-1990

Abstract

Hindi cinema has functioned as a site for the production and exploration of national identities and ideologies in the popular imagination. An examination of some of the most successful films of the 1990s (Hum Aapke Hain Kaun, Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge, Pardes, Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, etc.) reveals the emergence of the domestic drama as a highly popular genre wherein a troubling new construction of Indian identity emerges. This new construction is one that considerably narrows the diversity, multiplicity and secular constructions of Indian identities in previous decades. We argue that this trend in Hindi cinema post-1990 reflects the significant socio-political (rise of the Hindutva movement) and economic changes (liberalising of the economy) that have taken place in India during this time. Domestic Hindi film dramas post-1990 display a remarkably consistent pattern in producing a monolithic Indian identity that is Hindu, wealthy and patriarchal in nature. We find that the terrain of who gets included in the signifier ‘Indian’ has shifted significantly. The wealthy among the diasporic Indian community now find a prominent place within that signifier provided they conform to a particular articulation of Indian identity and traditions. Consequently, certain minorities like Muslims and Christians find themselves excluded and increasingly erased from this terrain. We argue that this cultural conflation (of Indian with Hindu and wealthy), the product of particular socio-political and economic trends (Hindutva, global capital flows and regressive gender politics), further marginalises and often erases the experiences of religious minorities and the poor who do not fit this constructed norm, a trend that is indicative of the restricting of the national imaginary.