The Road to Rāmar ājya : Analysing Shah Rukh Khan’s Parallel Text in Commercial Hindi Cinema Sunny Singh London Metropolitan University
[email protected] This paper attempts to trace the construction of Shah Rukh Khan’s parallel text with explicit references to the Hindu epic Rāmāyana through an analysis of key cinematic texts produced from 1995 to 2007. The analysis follows the development of Shah Rukh Khan’s star text as a growing narrative drawn from, and interacting with, the epic and its protagonist, Rāma , and his idealised reign, Rāmar ājya , which is used in India to refer to an epoch of social stability. In addition, the paper explores how the star’s parallel text intersects the aspirations of a nation poised at the edge of monumental change, and the ways in which it challenges and subverts the popularly accepted notions of the growth of Hindu nationalist politics in the country in the late-1990s, finally leading to the assertion of a new, post-Hindutva, post-globalization identity as an Indian Muslim. Keywords: Shah Rukh Khan; India; stars; Bollywood; Rāmāyana . Este estudio intenta delinear la construcción del texto paralelo del actor Shah Rukh Khan con referencias explícitas al clásico épico hindú Rāmāyana por medio de análisis de textos cinematográficos del actor producidos entre 1995 y 2007. El análisis demuestra el desarrollo del texto paralelo de Khan como una narrativa basada en—y dialogando con—el clásico épico, su protagonista, Rāma , y su reino ideal, el Rāmar ājya . Además, el ensayo explora las maneras en que dicho texto llega a representar las pretensiones de una nación al borde de cambios monumentales, y las formas en las que desafía y subvierte las ideas generalmente aceptadas del desarrollo de nacionalismo hindú en el país durante la década de los noventa.