Ritwik Ghatak’s Cinema as a Space for Intercultural Encounter: The Reception of the Film Meghe Dhaka Tara (1960) by Turkish Female Audiences

Dilar Diken Yücel; Esma Gökmen

doi:10.5195/cinej.2026.1004

Ritwik Ghatak’s Cinema as a Space for Intercultural Encounter: The Reception of the Film Meghe Dhaka Tara (1960) by Turkish Female Audiences

Authors

Dilar Diken Yücel İnönü University https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2993-9903
Esma Gökmen Ondokuz Mayıs Üniversitesi https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9327-4558

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5195/cinej.2026.1004

Keywords:

Ritwik Ghatak, Meghe Dhaka Tara, film reception, Turkish women viewers, melodrama, Yeşilçam cinema, intercultural encounter, South–South cinema

Abstract

This article examines how 12 women in Türkiye interpreted Ritwik Ghatak’s Meghe Dhaka Tara (1960) in small-group screenings followed by individual interviews. Drawing on Hall’s encoding/decoding model and feminist film reception research, it analyzes the participants’ responses to Neeta’s self-sacrifice, family obligation, and masculinity, and shows how memories of Turkish Yeşilçam melodrama shaped those responses. Participants sympathized with Neeta while questioning the expectations placed upon her, and several contrasted the film’s passive male characters with the authoritative fathers they recalled from Yeşilçam. The findings reveal both cultural recognition and critical distance within this purposive sample of women aged 40 or older; the study makes no claim to represent Turkish women or audiences generally.

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Published

2026-10-15

How to Cite

Diken Yücel, D., & Gökmen, E. (2026). Ritwik Ghatak’s Cinema as a Space for Intercultural Encounter: The Reception of the Film Meghe Dhaka Tara (1960) by Turkish Female Audiences. CINEJ Cinema Journal, 14(2), 747–778. https://doi.org/10.5195/cinej.2026.1004

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Issue

Vol. 14 No. 2 (2026): Fall

Section

Ritwik Ghatak: The Visionary of Cinema

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