Indian Cinema Research Articles

A Study on the Relationship between the Evolution of Female Images in Indian Films and Social Change

A Study on the Relationship between the Evolution of Female Images in Indian Films and Social Change

Rift in Marriages: A study of Family Dynamics in Jhumpa Lahiri’s Interpreter of Maladies

Jhumpa Lahiri is a writer of South Asian origin who was born and brought up in the United States. She debuted with her short story collection Interpreter of Maladies. The stories in this collection glance at the Indo-American diaspora. All the nine stories in this collection are aligned with the recurring patterns. The institution of marriage, romantic relationship and Indian family system vs American family pattern has been focused at length. The subtitle of the novel goes perfectly with the themes of the stories. Geetha Ganapathy- Dore’ notes that “Indian people, films, novels, beauty-queens, food and spirituality cross borders easily.” She adds that Lahiri’s collection was originally sub-titled ‘Bengal, Boston and Beyond’ (58) The three stories chosen for study reflect a modern world that witnesses the assimilation of different cultures and problem of immigrants while living in an ethnic group. “Temporary Matter”, “Sexy” and “Interpreter of Maladies” have been chosen to make the study specific. All of these emphasize on the life and circumstances leading to the rift in marriage and relationships deficit of love. This work also reflects the diaspora experiences of the Indian immigrants belonging to the first and second generation. The lucidity of language and expression are quite commendable.

The Concept of the Anti-Hero in Modern Literature: An Analytical Study

In contemporary India, the idea of the anti-hero has become a well-liked literary and cinematic cliche. Characters that embody flawed, complex, and frequently conflicting attributes are considered anti-heroes. They lack standard heroic traits like selflessness, morality, and nobility. With its more complex depiction of human nature, this archetype challenges conventional ideas of morality and heroism. The modernization of India's social and cultural scene is responsible for the anti-hero's rise. The notion of the ideal hero has lost some of its appeal because of globalization and the emergence of a more individualistic society. The way that Indian characters are portrayed in literature and film has also changed because of increased exposure to Western media. In contemporary Indian literature and film, the anti-hero is frequently portrayed as an outsider, a rebel, or a victim of circumstance. These characters are approachable and human since they frequently battle their inner demons and societal standards. In general, the idea of the anti-hero in contemporary India differs from the classic heroic archetype and provides a more accurated representation of human behaviour.

Some Remarks on the Perso-Arabic Nominal Lexica in Bollywood Movie Song Lyrics

The Indian film industry releases thousands of movies every year, with those in the Hindi language forming a significant part of that number. These movies, and the songs used in them, have been the object of research within the scope of various scientific disciplines, including linguistics. The author of the present paper, however, believes that there are still numerous language phenomena to study within the lyrics of the Bollywood songs. The present text is dedicated to research of the Perso-Arabic lexica in these songs over the period of 80 years (1940–2020). It also analyses the frequency of the Perso-Arabic forms as opposed to native Indo-Aryan ones. Particular attention is paid to the forms of the highest frequency, especially the Persian word dil.

Emerging trends of dalit portrayal in Hindi cinema: An analysis of the movies Aarakshan and Masaan

This research paper aims to explore the emerging trends of Dalit portrayal in Hindi cinema, with a special focus on two films Aarakshan and Masaan released in the twenty-first century and encapsulating the much-needed and long-awaited new paradigms of Dalit representation. The representation of Dalits in mainstream Indian cinema has evolved over the years, reflecting changing social dynamics and the increasing recognition of Dalit narratives. Dalit representation in Hindi cinema has also undergone significant transformations, moving beyond stereotypical roles and simplistic narratives. The films Aarakshan (2011) and Masaan (2015) stand out as examples of recent movies that have explored the Dalit experience with depth and nuance. By analyzing these two critically acclaimed movies, this paper seeks to examine the portrayal of Dalit characters, their socio-economic context, and the impact of these films on public discourse. These films depict the struggles, aspirations, and resilience of Dalit individuals in different social contexts. This research paper will analyze the portrayal of Dalit protagonists of these two movies, their agency, and the social issues they confront, shedding light on the evolving trends of Dalit representation in Hindi cinema.

Top & Bottom: Indian Servants and Masters on Screen. Part I

Four films, three Indian and one American adaptation of an Indian novel, are sources for the authors’ analysis of the cinematographic presentation of domestic servants, traditionally ‘invisible’ but vitally important members of almost every, even modest, Indian household. Cinematic art, to be sure, reflects not just social phenomena as such, but their perception by public opinion determining what should and what should not be. In Indian cinema plots, usually, domestic servants play episodic roles, glimpsed like shadows. However, the films chosen for analysis are significant as the servants, their work and relations with their employees appear on the forefront as a basic clue of the story and the author` s concepts. Differing by genre (a vaudeville comedy, a social drama, a ‘motivational’ movie, and a thriller) as well as by the creators’ talent, those films, each in its own way, reconstruct mutually attracting and repelling worlds of servants and masters, keeping silence on the core problem of those relations, caste hierarchy.

Paralinguistic Investigation of the Phrase ‘Acha’ in the Indian Movie PK

Paralinguistic Investigation of the Phrase ‘Acha’ in the Indian Movie PK

Development of Algorithm for Person Re-Identification Using Extended Openface Method

Deep learning has risen in popularity as a face recognition technology in recent years. Facenet, a deep convolutional neural network (DCNN) developed by Google, recognizes faces with 128 bytes per face. It also claims to have achieved 99.96% on the reputed Labelled Faces in the Wild (LFW) dataset. However, the accuracy and validation rate of Facenet drops down eventually, there is a gradual decrease in the resolution of the images. This research paper aims at developing a new facial recognition system that can produce a higher accuracy rate and validation rate on low-resolution face images. The proposed system Extended Openface performs facial recognition by using three different features i) facial landmark ii) head pose iii) eye gaze. It extracts facial landmark detection using Scattered Gated Expert Network Constrained Local Model (SGEN-CLM). It also detects the head pose and eye gaze using Enhanced Constrained Local Neural field (ECLNF). Extended openface employs a simple Support Vector Machine (SVM) for training and testing the face images. The system’s performance is assessed on low-resolution datasets like LFW, Indian Movie Face Database (IMFDB). The results demonstrated that Extended Openface has a better accuracy rate (12%) and validation rate (22%) than Facenet on low-resolution images.

Indian Hindi Cinema and Queer Gaze: Presentation Of LGBTQ+ In Bollywood

Cinema has long been a pillar of our culture. On a variety of subjects, it shocked, amused, inspired, and exceeded hopes and expectations. Film is also seen as a powerful tool for accelerating social change, subtly influencing society's way of thinking. Indian cinema is said to have different genres as they should appeal to a wide range of audiences. The topic undergoes constant paradigm shifts. Various epics, myths, tales, and retellings of side stories were shown at the beginning of the movie. The film then highlighted the ideas of the freedom movement and Gandhi's philosophy. More recently, true events have been incorporated and film actors have waged battles for social justice. In addition, through widespread publicity, they started enacting important changes that affected politics and other political dramas. The contents of the film are frequently taken from society and vice versa, and the term is used to designate a broad range of sexual identities, including non-cisgender. Without a doubt, the LGBT movement in India has benefited enormously from the movies. Like many other modern social movements, the Indian queer movement seeks to change society. a shift in our perception of sexuality away from seeing it as a passing phase. His objective is to dismantle the constructed barriers of predominate notions that characterize the typical adult's sexual world.

Portrayal of the Colonization in Indo-Pak Cinema: A Case Study of Four Period Movies

Cinema is considered a substantial medium in the advancement of narratives. The intention of this study was to determine how the Cinema of the subcontinent responded to the British colonization of India after 50 years of its independence. This paper explores the portrayal of colonization in Indian and Pakistani cinema with special reference to two Indian period films namely “The Legend of Bhagat Singh (2005)” and “Khelein Hum Jee Jaan Sey(2010)” besides two Pakistani period films namely “Jinnah (1998)” and “Laaj (2003)” by the qualitative method of research. After reviewing the tradition of Occidentalism and the historical background of Indian and Pakistani Cinema, the researcher analyzed the films by employing thematic narrative analysis and contextual analysis techniques which enabled him to understand the nature of such depictions besides similarities and differences between Indian and Pakistani Occidentalism. The researcher observed that selected Indian films depict secular nationalist construction; whereas selected Pakistani movies depict religious construction.

Portrayal of Pakistan in Bollywood: A Content Analysis of Movies

Films have become an effective tool of propagation of messages, cultures, conflicts and ideologies. USA, Russia, China, Iran and other countries are also using it to achieve their goals to project their national agendas. Indian film industry has become the largest film producing industry in the world, and the Bollywood movies are being watched and liked all over the globe. Since the partition in 1947, India and Pakistan are considered harsh rivals. This study examined the portrayal of Pakistan image in Bollywood movies during the year of 2013. The researcher used mixed method to conduct this research. The Sample of this study was Bollywood movies released in 2013. For this purpose, the researcher scientifically investigated and analyzed about how and to what extent Bollywood movies are showing the face of Pakistan querulously. The study applied theory of framing to investigate that how Bollywood represent Pakistan.

From Race and Orientalism in A Midsummer Night’s Dream to Caste and Indigenous Otherness on the Indian Screen

The article discusses an Indian film adaptation of William Shakespeare’s play A Midsummer Night’s Dream entitled 10ml Love (dir. Sharat Katariya, 2012). There is little scholarship on 10ml Love, which has been studied mainly as an independent film in Hinglish that depicts the lives of the cosmopolitan youth in urban India. Drawing upon recent readings of the play that identify elements of racism and whiteness as well as an analysis from an Orientalist lens that sees India as a gendered utopia, I suggest that the film adaptation highlights not racial/white supremacy but caste supremacy; furthermore, it indulges not in Orientalist tropes but tropes of indigenous Otherness based on religion, gender, caste, and class. I argue that this film presents two opposing political utopias—a right-wing utopia that stands for the maintenance of traditional values and a left-wing utopia that attempts to challenge, question, and subvert the conservative order. However, 10ml Love seems to endorse neither of the two utopias wholly; its reality appears to lie between the two utopias, a reality that is marked by stereotypes of Otherness. This paper analyses the audio-visual depiction of the tension between the utopias at both the ends of the political spectrum, as well as the realities of Otherness created by the presence of various social locations and identities in Indian society.

Matrilineality and the portrayal of women in Meghalaya cinema

Films from Northeast India, a region that exemplifies diversity in language as well as culture, have gained global recognition over the years and are thriving artistically, yet they remain largely unexplored. Although a lot of studies have been done on gender inequality in Indian mainstream films, regional films, especially films from the northeast, have received very little attention. The current study investigates the representation of women in films from Meghalaya, a region known for its unique matrilineal social structure. The top ten most viewed films from each of the three tribal languages of Meghalaya were selected to examine women’s on-screen presence and the nature of the portrayal. Results indicate that despite Meghalaya society being matrilineal, women are underrepresented and are portrayed more in stereotypical character types. It is indicated that women in Meghalaya’s cinema experience symbolic annihilation through representational absence, condemnation, and trivialization.

Contemporary relevance of OTT platforms in the entertainment world with special reference to Indian cinema industry

OTT platforms has increased craze in the youth and the larger audience attention due to variety in the content which focus not only on entertainment but also on the information. The major factors contributing the rise of the video streaming platforms are subscription with heavy discounts for the unlimited content, many content based work in the films in the form of documentaries in which information is given in an entertaining way. Another factor helped is the increased usage of smartphones and internet availability in the country. One of the spices of OTT is the web series which is a very trending program format. This study was carried on by the observation method, focus group study & the interview method of the research. The generalized conclusion the researcher got was that the people are more inclined to the OTT platform contents due to the ample of time available to them during COVID-19 pandemic, which worked as an inclined habit into people’s routine.

Cultural Monsters in Indian Cinema: The Politics of Adaptation, Transformation and Disfigurement

Cultural Monsters in Indian Cinema: The Politics of Adaptation, Transformation and Disfigurement

Gendered Modernity and Indian Cinema: The Women in Satyajit Ray’s FilmsGendered Modernity and Indian Cinema: The Women in Satyajit Ray’s Films (Oxon and New York: Routledge, 2022).

Gendered Modernity and Indian Cinema: The Women in Satyajit Ray’s FilmsGendered Modernity and Indian Cinema: The Women in Satyajit Ray’s Films (Oxon and New York: Routledge, 2022).

Industrial Networks and Cinemas of India: Shooting Stars, Shifting Geographies and Multiplying Media, Monika Mehta and Madhuja Mukherjee (2021)

Review of: Industrial Networks and Cinemas of India: Shooting Stars, Shifting Geographies and Multiplying Media, Monika Mehta and Madhuja Mukherjee (2021) London and New York: Routledge, 275 pp., ISBN 978-0-42932-602-8, e-book, £39.99

Bollywood Actresses’s Evolving Figure Consciousness & Role in Hindi Cinema: Comparative Study From 1950 to 2020

Abstract: Bollywood is the name given to the Hindi film business because it is based in Bombay (Mumbai). For decades, Bollywood has been a popular source of entertainment for millions of people not only in India but also around the world. Dada Saheb Phalke launched the Indian cinema business with silent films, and from that time until now, Bollywood has experienced numerous ups and downs and undergone significant changes in terms of technology, fashion, and the impact of political, social, and cultural developments in the nation. The primary Hero (protagonist), The Heroine (his love interest), and the Villain (his enemy) are a few aspects that, despite all these variations, are consistent and common in Bollywood film plots. These components can be found in any Bollywood film from any era. Without it, a Bollywood film is incomplete. The Bollywood heroine has been the style symbol for decades, from Madhubala and Nargis of the 1950s to Sridevi and Madhuri Dixit of the 90’s to Deepika and Katrina of the 2020s. They might be seen as a reflection of the social and cultural attitudes about beauty parameters of the period. Women, in addition to young girls, also look up to and emulate these heroines for their beauty, fashion sense, and way of life. This study paper analyses the changes in the attractiveness and Physical appearance of Bollywood heroines, as well as the reasons for these changes.

Nature of a film contributing author’s ‘right to royalty’ under Indian copyright law: an analysis

In the Indian film industry, authors contributing to films have for decades been powerless to secure for themselves a fair remuneration from producers that is commensurate with the utilization of their works, predominantly due to their weak bargaining position. Amongst other objectives, it was to address this anomaly that the Indian copyright law underwent extensive changes in the year 2012 and established a new statutory ‘right to royalty’ in support of authors. This article sheds light on the nature of this legislative solution, which India has adopted through amendments to ss 18 and 19 of the Copyright Act 1957, and briefly touches upon its effectiveness in meeting this objective. The article largely relies on legislation and studies from the European Union to conclude that the nature of the right to royalty provision introduced within the Indian copyright law framework is akin to a ‘residual remuneration right’, which amalgamates the benefits of an exclusive right and a remuneration right, thus balancing the interests of both producers and authors. Nonetheless, it is felt that the existing provision may require more textual clarity for the model to become effective and to safeguard the remuneration interest of authors. Since the Indian government has begun consultations to further amend India’s copyright law, this is an opportunity to not only identify the shortcomings in the law but fill in the gaps where necessary.

Disability and Indian Cinema: A Paradigm Shift in Bollywood from being Neglected to being in the Limelight

Abstract: Disability, according to medical terms, is a condition which is hard to compare to others. The issue of disability is neglected and lacks a lot of awareness among people. Indian cinema especially Bollywood is known for making films on different issues and they have made a lot of movies based on this. Unfortunately, the portrayal was negative or comic and ignored and many are shown weak and rely on a person who is physically fit. Most of the films were nothing but just making films for commercial interest. It is really important to promote awareness and real-life issues faced by them. This paper will explore the shift from being neglected to becoming the centre of attention where they become path-breakers, who are confident, and strong. With reference to the famous characters like-Naina from Hichki (2018), Rizwan from My Name is Khan (2010) and the most popular character Akash from Andhadhun (2018), this paper will give an insight into how these characters are different from the other characters and whether Bollywood was successful or not in order to showcase their characters in a different form, how they are bringing a different form within the films mentioned.