A Reading of Bhabendra Nath Saikia's Films from Feminist Lens

Minakshi Dutta

doi:10.5195/cinej.2020.261

A Reading of Bhabendra Nath Saikia's Films from Feminist Lens

Minakshi Dutta

Abstract

Feminist movement deconstructs the constructed images of women on the screen as well. The gap between real and reel woman is a vibrant topic of discussion for the feminist scholars. As a regional genre of Indian film industry Assamese film flourished during the third decades of twentieth century. Like the films of other parts of the world, Assamese films also constructing the image of woman, particularly Assamese women, in its own way of projection. Hence, this article is an attempt to explore the questions related to women’s representation by taking the films of Assamese director Dr. Bhabendra Nath Saikia as reference. Moreover, as per the demand of the article it will cover a historical overview of the representation of women in Indian cinema and Assamese cinema. Different theories from psychoanalysis and feminism will be applied to analyze the select movies.

Keywords

Woman; Assamese Cinema; Indian Cinema; Femininity; Representation

Full Text:

PDF

References

Agarwala, J. P. (2003). Asomor Silpa Garhat Asomiya Sarsakar Daitva In Dr. H.Gohained. JyotiPrasad Racanavali. Guwahati: Publication Board.

Bagchi, A. (1996). Women in Indian Cinema. http://www.cs.jhu.edu/>>bagchi/wpmen.html.Accessed on 19 May 2014.

Beauvoir, S. de (1949). The Second Sex, London: Vintage Books.

Bhattacharya, M. (1979). "Nagarik": RitwikGhatak's First Film. Social Scientist, 8(3), 60-63.

Bhattacharji, S. (1990). Motherhood in Ancient India. Economic and Political Weekly, 25(42/43), WS50-WS57.

Borpujari, M. (2007). New Filmmakers: Rays of Hope, in Barpujari, M. &Kalita, G. (Eds.) Perspectives on Cinema of Assam. Guwahati: Gauhati Cine Club. pp. 3-12.

Bose, B. (2008). Modernity, Globality, Sexuality, and the City: A Reading of Indian Cinema. The Global South, 2(1), 35-58.

Butler, J. (1993). Bodies that Matter: On the Discursive Limits of “Sex”. New York: Routledge.

Cavallaro, D. (2001). Critical and Cultural Theory: Thematic Variations, London: Athlone Press.

Engels, F. (2004). Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State. Australia: Resistance Books.

Fabe, M. (2004). Closely Watched Films: An Introduction to the Art of narrative Film Techniques. London: University of California Press.

Hayward, S. (2000). Cinema Studies: The Key Concepts. London & New York: Routledge. 2000

Jones, A. (2003). Introduction: Conceiving the Intersection of Feminism and Visual Culture, in A. Jones ed. The Feminism and Visual Culture Reader. New York: Routledge.

Mazumdar, R. (2007). Bombay Cinema: An Archive of the City, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

Mazumdar, R. (1991). Dialectic of Public and Private: Representation of Women in Bhoomika and Mirch Masala. Economic and Political Weekly, 26(43), WS81-WS84.

Ganti, T. (2004). Bollywood: Guidebook to Popular Hindi Cinema. London, New York: Routledge.

Gohain, H. (1993). UttaranarSadhanat. Guwahati: Lawyers Book Stall.

Gokulsing, K.M. , and W. Dissanayake. (1988). Indian Popular Cinema: A narrative of Cultural Change. Hyderabad: Orient Longman Pvt. Ltd, 1998.

Haskell, M. (1987). From Reverence to Rape: The Treatment of Women in the Movies. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Huang, J. (2004). Towards a Feminine/Feminist/Female Discourse of Virginia Woolf. Unpublished PhD thesis, Taiwan: National Sun Yat Sen University.

Jain, J., & Rai, S. (Eds.). (2002). Films and feminism: Essays in Indian cinema. Jaipur: Rawat Publications.

Kaplan. E. A. (1983). Women and Film: Both Sides of the Camera, London: Routledge.

Lakshmi, C. (1986). Feminism and the Cinema of Realism. Economic and Political Weekly, 21(3), 113-115.

Lewis, J. (2003). Cultural Studies: The Basics. New Delhi: Sage Publications.

Macdonald, A. (2009). ‘Real’ and ‘Imagined’ Women: A Feminist Reading of Rituparno Ghosh’s Films. UCL. 03. pp 1-22.

Madhuri, S. (2009). Women’s Bodies as Sites of Signification and Contestation: An Analysis of Deepa Mehta’s Critique of Narratives of Home, Nation and Belonging in the Elemental Trilogy, MA dissertation, Bangladesh: University of Dhaka.

McCabe, J. (2004). Feminist Film Studies: Writing the Women into Cinema. London: Wallflower.

Medhi, H. (2014). The Aideo and Her Others: Construction of Gender in Laxminath Bezbarua’s Select Writings, in Sarma, M. Madan & Nath, Debarshi P. (eds) Laxminath Bezbarua: The Architech of Modern Assamese Literature-Issues of Nationalism and Beyond. Guwahati: Perfect Imagers.

Moodley, S. (2003). Postcolonial feminisms speaking through an ‘accented’ cinema: the construction of Indian women in the films of Mira Nair and Deepa Mehta. Agenda, 17(58), 66-75.

Mulvey, L. (2009). Visual and Other Pleasures (2nd Ed). New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Ram, A. (2002). Framing the feminine: Diasporic readings of gender in popular Indian cinema. Women's studies in communication, 25(1), 25-52.

Saikia, P.D. (1992). Economic and Social Status of Rural Women (Non- Tribal) in Assam- A Case Study, In Baruah, S.L (Ed.) Status of Women in Assam (pp-35-50). New Delhi: Orsons Publications.

Senapati, M., Barua, J. (2007). A Path Breaker’s Trail, in Barpujari, M. & Kalita, G.(Eds.) Perspectives on Cinema of Assam (pp. 3-12). Guwahati: Gauhati Cine Club.

Robinson, C. (2011). Working Women on Film: A Realistic Representation? http://dtpr.lib.athabascau.ca/action/download.php?filename=mais/CourtneyRobinsonProject.pdf. Accessed on 14 May 2014.

Singh, I. (2007). Gender Relations and Cultural Ideology In Indian Cinema:A Study of Select Adaptations of Literary Texts. New Delhi:Deep and DeepPublications Pvt. Ltd.

Vasudevan, R. (Ed.). (2000). Making meaning in Indian cinema. New York: Oxford University Press.

Virdi, J. (2003). The cinematic imagiNation: Indian popular films as social history. Newark: Rutgers University Press.

Viswanath, K. (1997). Shame and Control: Sexuality and Power in Feminist Discourse in India. in M.Thapan, (Ed.). Embodiment: Essays on gender and identity. Oxford University Press.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5195/cinej.2020.261

Refbacks

There are currently no refbacks.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

This journal is published by the University Library System, University of Pittsburgh.

ISSN 2159-2411 (print) 2158-8724 (online)