FOOD AND FEMININE CONNECTION IN THE BENGALI MOVIE, SWADE AHLADE- AN INTERPLAY OF OPPRESSION AND FREEDOM

Abstract

Womanhood and its connection with food is an area which has been explored in Indian cinema many a times. While a lot has been conveyed through close-ups and silent gaze of the female protagonists about the fettered, homely environment, the claustrophobic kitchen bound lives, being the sex item in a patriarchal society, a different perspective about the liberation through food and culinary skills has also been proposed. This research paper is an attempt to study the portrayal of the feminine gender with its relation to food in the Bengali movie, Swade Ahlade and show the other side of the coin, where it becomes a form of freedom with all its art and creativity. It also gives the women, economic emancipation, thereby providing them with a new identity to vouch upon. The kitchen, which is initially looked upon as a menace to the female identity, becomes the source of upliftment, with monetary benefits. Food, the basic provider of life, is symbolic of womanhood, with its power to give birth and nourishment. The way a child is reared with love, affection and care, is similar to a recipe, with its various ingredients. It is unfortunate that the nurturer herself is exempted from the desired respect, due to its consideration of unpaid labour. The movie, Swade Ahlade explores the possibility of converting this gendered thought process into a powerful weapon of freedom. The paper is based on the theoretical framework of Nivedita Menon’s Seeing Like A Feminist and Laura Mulvey’s ‘male gaze’, as explored in her seminal work, “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema”.