The Cultural Codes of Home in Indian Cinema

Abstract

The housing typology introduced by architects in India after independence departed dramatically from traditional settlement patterns. This break, as in Chandigarh, was an attempt to forge a new future. Concurrently, Indian cinema too set out to emphasize domesticity, yet one that alluded to real and imagined traditions. There were distinct differences, and between the two, it is cinema which ended up furnishing a more acceptable cultural and aesthetic model. Even today, cinema’s home contrasts sharply with the placeless geography of an actual house. This paper traces cinema’s typology of home in post-independence India.