Abstract
Item Songs have recently become established as new genre of songs in the mainstream Indian Cinema, although they have remained a part of Bollywood movies since at least the 1970s. Such songs, despite their widespread appeal to masses, have often been panned by Film critics (particularly from the Radical Feminist School) for their erotic dances, and an overly glamorized and sexualized depiction of half-nude female bodies. Based upon the textual analysis of two popular item songs in recent Indian cinema, Sheila ki Jawani from Tees Maar Khan (2010) and Munni Badnam Hui from Dabangg (2010), this paper seeks to problematize such readings which focus exclusively on the issue of the objectification of women through the concept of the male gaze. Drawing upon more recent studies in Psychoanalytic Feminist Scholarship, the paper departs from this conventional understanding. It argues that such item songs can also be interpreted as a means of liberation for women, and as devices for reclaiming the narrative on female sexuality, and a woman’s right to her body. More broadly, using Judith Butler’s concept of Gender Performativity in the Feminist Phenomenological tradition, the paper argues that items songs can be construed as performative acts that subvert the male gaze and viewed as constitutive of new feminine subjectivities in the contemporary Indian society.
Highlights
This journal is published by the University Library System of the University of Pittsburgh as part of its D-Scribe Digital Publishing Program and is cosponsored by the University of Pittsburgh Press
This paper aims to examine the concept of the vamp and female item song performers in contemporary Indian cinema
The paper argues that such item songs performances, while bordering on a soft version of eroticized depictions of female bodies- are serving as an important means to empower women, and are ways of reclaiming the narrative on female sexuality, gender roles and a woman’s right to her body and more generally her life
Summary
The paper argues that such item songs performances, while bordering on a soft version of eroticized depictions of female bodies- are serving as an important means to empower women, and are ways of reclaiming the narrative on female sexuality, gender roles and a woman’s right to her body and more generally her life. The carefully worded lyrics and dance sequences of the item songs “Sheila” and “Munni” elucidate how and why the male viewers derive pleasure as this play of fantasy is maintained by a game of absence and presence: the performer is both nude and clothed, and the dancer moves very close to the audience and goes back again in a teasing way.
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