Portrayal of Muslim Female Character: A Critical Study of Bollywood Movie Raees

Abstract

The Indian film industry provides a huge source of entertainment to the masses not only in India but also across the borders as well. With the help of artistic fictional expressions, it not only caters to locating facts and realities in the contemporary social structure but also has the undeniable capacity to persuade viewers in a certain way. Indian cinema or “Bollywood” has marked its place in the minds of its consumers and consequently restyled their perceptions about the world around them. There is a variety of subjects, issues and cultures that are projected by the Indian cinema. Amongst them, the portrayal of Muslim females has been the popular theme of Indian cinema. However, Muslim characters like women remain subject to bias. To dissect this phenomenon in Bollywood, present study is an attempt to examine the depiction of Muslim women in Bollywood. For this purpose, Movie, “Raees” (2017) has been selected. Norman Fairclough’s three-dimensional model of Critical Discourse Analysis (2003) used as the methodological framework. Under the theoretical realm of framing theory, this study focuses on the portrayal of the female character in the Bollywood movie Raees. The study concludes that Muslim women are being portrayed as disconnected from their religious beliefs. Keywords: Framing, Muslim women, Critical discourse analysis, Bollywood, Raees,