The Routledge Companion to Caste and Cinema in India

1. Auflage 2024
ISBN: 978-1-032-38120-6
Verlag: Taylor & Francis

Buch, Englisch, 440 Seiten, Format (B × H): 174 mm x 246 mm, Gewicht: 721 g

This companion is the first study of caste and its representation in Indian cinema. It unravels the multiple layers of caste that feature directly and indirectly in Indian movies, to examine not only the many ways caste pervades Indian society and culture but also how the struggle against it adopts multiple strategies.

The companion:

• Critiques Indian cinema production through the lens of anti-caste discourse;

• Traces the history of films beginning from the early twentieth century, focusing on caste representations across India, including Hindi, Malayalam, Kannada, Marathi, Bengali, Punjabi, Tamil as well as silent films;

• Makes a foray into OTT media;

• Includes analysis of popular films such as Padmaavat, Masaan, Fandry, Sairat, Sujata, Article 15, Chomana Dudi, Lagaan, Court, Ee.Ma.Yau, Kaala, Pariyerum Perumal, Perariyathavar, among many others, to critique and problematise the idea of caste.



A major intervention, this book alters traditional approaches to ‘caste’ in Indian cinemas and society and explores new political strategies implemented through cinematic creation and aesthetics. It will be indispensable for scholars and researchers of film studies, social discrimination and exclusion studies, human rights, popular culture, and South Asian studies. It will also be of interest to enthusiasts of Indian cinematic history.

Zielgruppe

Postgraduate

Autoren/Hrsg.

Abraham, Joshil K

Misrahi-Barak, Judith

Fachgebiete

• Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaften Interdisziplinär Regionalwissenschaften, Regionalstudien
• Geisteswissenschaften Theater- und Filmwissenschaft | Andere Darstellende Künste Filmwissenschaft, Fernsehen, Radio Filmgeschichte
• Sozialwissenschaften Ethnologie | Volkskunde Volkskunde Minderheiten, Interkulturelle & Multikulturelle Fragen
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Soziale Gruppen/Soziale Themen Gewalt und Diskriminierung: Soziale Aspekte
• Geisteswissenschaften Theater- und Filmwissenschaft | Andere Darstellende Künste Filmwissenschaft, Fernsehen, Radio Filmführer, Filmkritik
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Spezielle Soziologie Stadt- und Regionalsoziologie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

List of figures

List of contributors

Acknowledgments





Shifting the Gaze



Introduction

Joshil K. Abraham and Judith Misrahi-Barak





From Spectatorship to Agency



1. Dalit Representation in Hindi Cinema

Harish S. Wankhede





2. To Kill or To Allow to Live: Caste Necropolitics, Ozhivudivasathe Kali, and Malayalam Cinema

Rajesh James, Binu K. D., & Aswin Prasanth





3. The Oppositional Bahujan Agency

Jyoti Nisha





4. Magizhchi! ‘The Casteless Collective’ and the Sensorial Exscription

Dickens Leonard and Manju Edachira





Making the Invisible Visible



5. Historiography and Historiophoty in Anubhav Sinha’s Article 15

Debjani Banerjee





6. Arakshan and Article 15: Is there any Transformation in the ‘Brahminical Gaze’?

Runa Chakraborty Paunksnis





7. Visualising the Invisible: Decoding Caste Pride and the Casteist Slur in Bollywood Films

Sumit Rajak





The Bigger Picture



8. Over-the-top: Online Media, Chromatics, and the Transnational Travels of Caste

Purnima Mankekar and Sucharita Kanjilal





9. Indian Cinema, Hunger, and Food: Family, Class, and Caste

Swarnavel Eswaran





Caste and Gender



10. Re-cast(e)ing the New Woman: Caste and Gender in Contemporary Indian Cinema

Megha Anwer and Anupama Arora





11. The Construction and Representation of Lower Caste Women in Bollywood Films

Farhana Naaz





12. P. K. Rosy and Devaki Bai: Cast(e)ing the Malayalam Silent Film Actresses

Geetha





13. Examining the Domain of Caste, Gender, and Sexuality through Select Films of Jayan K. Cherian

Ved Prakash





Caste on Trial



14. Dalit Subjectivity, Democracy, and Radical Equality or, What Bollywood Could Learn from Ambedkar

Chinmaya Lal Thakur





15. The Constitution of/and Caste: Portrayal of Caste and Legal Justice in Three Contemporary Indian Films by Savarna Filmmakers

Rituparna Sengupta





16. Beyond Violence and Non-violence: A Study of Dalit Resistance and Accommodation in Cinematic Popular Justice

Ram Kumar Thakur





The Entanglements of Caste and Nature



17. The Caste of Nature: Wholesome Bodies and Parasites in Bimal Roy’s Sujata and Gogu Shyamala’s ‘A Beauteous Light’

Nicole Thiara



18. The Pig, the Black Sparrow, and the Sheep: Human-Animal Entanglements in Fandry and Khwada

Shalmali Jadhav



19. Landless, Homeless, and Nameless: Locating Caste in the Environmental In/Justice in Perariyathavar

P. Rajitha Venugopal





Not Two but Three States



20. Framing Local Legends and the Caste Matrix in the Tamil Cinema of the late 1980s

Stalin Rajangam and P. Aadhavan





21. The Alienation of the Other: Examining Marginal Narratives in Select Punjabi Films

Amandeep Kaur & Sahil Sharma





22. Caste, Voyeurism and Kannada New Wave Cinema

Mahima Raj C.





From Closer Up



23. Exploring Caste on Screen and Beyond: A Study of Chomana Dudi

Jaishree Kapur





24. Screening Caste: ‘Untouchable’ Body, Labour and Remuneration in Lagaan

Purnachandra Naik





25. The Untouchable Rajputs of Padmaavat and Beyond: A Cas(t)e Study

Tanya Singh





26. Masaan, a Tale of Forbidden Love

Ravinder Singh Rana





27. Beyond Narratives of Modernity, Pain and Pathos: Dalit Aesthetic in Kabali and Kaala

Reju George Mathew





28. ‘Ella Manusanum inga onnu illa’: Imag(in)ing the Claustrophobia of Caste in Pariyerum Perumal

B. Geetha



29. Caste, Coast, and Christianity in Kerala: Analysing the Visual Representation of Latin Catholics in Ee.Ma.Yau.

Grace Mariam Raju

Filmography

Select Bibliography

Index

Über Autor(innen)

Joshil K. Abraham is an independent researcher. He is currently working on the Open University project for Cornerstone OnDemand.

Judith Misrahi-Barak is Associate Professor at Université Paul Valéry Montpellier 3, France. She teaches in the English Department and is a member of the research center EMMA.