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

Authors

  • Minakshi Dutta Assam Women's University

DOI:

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

Keywords:

Woman, Assamese Cinema, Indian Cinema, Femininity, Representation

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.

Author Biography

Minakshi Dutta, Assam Women's University

Assistant professor, Cultural Studies Department

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.

Downloads

Published

2020-12-03

How to Cite

Dutta, M. (2020). A Reading of Bhabendra Nath Saikia’s Films from Feminist Lens. CINEJ Cinema Journal, 8(2), 247–274. https://doi.org/10.5195/cinej.2020.261

Issue

Vol. 8 No. 2 (2020): Fall 2020

Section

Articles

License

Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:

  1. The Author retains copyright in the Work, where the term “Work” shall include all digital objects that may result in subsequent electronic publication or distribution.
  2. Upon acceptance of the Work, the author shall grant to the Publisher the right of first publication of the Work.
  3. The Author shall grant to the Publisher and its agents the nonexclusive perpetual right and license to publish, archive, and make accessible the Work in whole or in part in all forms of media now or hereafter known under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License or its equivalent, which, for the avoidance of doubt, allows others to copy, distribute, and transmit the Work under the following conditions:
    1. Attribution—other users must attribute the Work in the manner specified by the author as indicated on the journal Web site;
    with the understanding that the above condition can be waived with permission from the Author and that where the Work or any of its elements is in the public domain under applicable law, that status is in no way affected by the license.
  4. The Author is able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the nonexclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the Work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), as long as there is provided in the document an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
  5. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post online a prepublication manuscript (but not the Publisher’s final formatted PDF version of the Work) in institutional repositories or on their Websites prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work. Any such posting made before acceptance and publication of the Work shall be updated upon publication to include a reference to the Publisher-assigned DOI (Digital Object Identifier) and a link to the online abstract for the final published Work in the Journal.
  6. Upon Publisher’s request, the Author agrees to furnish promptly to Publisher, at the Author’s own expense, written evidence of the permissions, licenses, and consents for use of third-party material included within the Work, except as determined by Publisher to be covered by the principles of Fair Use.
  7. The Author represents and warrants that:
    1. the Work is the Author’s original work;
    2. the Author has not transferred, and will not transfer, exclusive rights in the Work to any third party;
    3. the Work is not pending review or under consideration by another publisher;
    4. the Work has not previously been published;
    5. the Work contains no misrepresentation or infringement of the Work or property of other authors or third parties; and
    6. the Work contains no libel, invasion of privacy, or other unlawful matter.
  8. The Author agrees to indemnify and hold Publisher harmless from Author’s breach of the representations and warranties contained in Paragraph 6 above, as well as any claim or proceeding relating to Publisher’s use and publication of any content contained in the Work, including third-party content.

Revised 7/16/2018. Revision Description: Removed outdated link.