The Emotional Politics of Bombay Cinema and the British Asian Imaginary Meeta Rani
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THE EMOTIONAL POLITICS OF BOMBAY CINEMA AND THE BRITISH ASIAN IMAGINARY MEETA RANI JHA A dissertation submitted to the University of London, Goldsmiths College in accordance with the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in the Department of Sociology, September 2005. Word count: 99,989 1 ABSTRACT This thesis interrogates the ways in which British South Asians engage with Bombay cinema (known commonly as Bollywood) and assesses the cinematic texts in the context of diasporic cultural affects and identifications. The study analyses the uneven geopolitical power relations between the British South Asian Diaspora and the Bombay cinema industry by deploying a plural trans-national 'circuit of culture' methodological approach; combining an empirical study with cinematic textual, historical and production analysis. Semi-structured interviews with participants in London and Manchester (audiences) as well as in Bombay (producers) provide the empirical focus of the thesis. These accounts are used to examine the ways in which research participants interpret both the cinematic content and the contexts in which the films are watched and enjoyed. The consumption of Bombay cinema offers the symbolic means of expression, or the textual framework, through which ideas about the politics of gendered, classed, sexual, national and religious identities are explored and sometimes challenged. The research focuses on the respondents' interpretation of Bombay cinema discourse as a significant aspect of the British Asian decolonising and anti-racist struggle. The key argument of the thesis is that Bombay cinema is a cultural mechanism through which shared affective emotional experiences are facilitated. The thesis interrogates the interviews and argues that the interviewees weave fictional and imaginative narratives with real life experiences to create self-narratives of pleasure and pain. The differences between the real and the fantasy become irrelevant in 'cinema talk' as symbolic struggles of the 'reality of emotions' associated with alienation, recognition, nostalgia and survival are narrated and underscore the migratory journey. The thesis argues that the Bombay cinematic discourse produces a contested site of post-colonialism where many rejected and shamed cultural memories are reconfigured to claim public spaces in contemporary Britain. The cinematic visual and sonic spaces are converted into public and urban spaces as well as psychic and sublime spaces of sustenance for migrant identity. Moreover, this study illuminates the deployment of these narratives by the interviewees as a tool to mediate different power relations in the context of their private and public lives in order to subvert and transform dominant meanings in contemporary Britain. In this sense the cinema screen becomes a popular imaginary upon which memories are proj ected and identifications are made but also where values and traditional customs are opened up to critical scrutiny and assessment. 2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost, I would like to extend my gratitude to my respondents in Britain and to key informants in India; their 'talk' made this PhD possible. I would like to thank ESRC for funding me. I would like to express gratitude to Maa and Babuji for their unconditional love; I hope I can learn to give like you. I would like to thank my supervisors, Chetan Bhatt and Celia Lury; Celia, for staying with my process, 'letting me be' and Chetan for his passionate and challenging engagement, for stretching and structuring me. Words are not enough for my life sustaining supports: Neeta Jha and Lynne Humphrey for keeping their metaphorical arms around me. Chotki didi, I could not have finished without your enduring love and the daily chats. Lynne, thank you, for weekly sharing of 'our blues and laughs' over the years. Thanks to Shamshad for 'taking us to different realms' and for creating beauty with her poetry and to Yvonne for her purposefulness. Thanks to Prita for our shared passion in nihari and film trips and to Salma for just being dazzling, reflexive and loving. Sangeeta and Sunil for their love of Bombay cinema. Thank you to Barki didi for her understanding and providing support to Maa and Babuji therefore enabling me to focus on my studies. Thanks to Pinku for his enthusiasm and intellectual curiosity. To Denise and Monica, thank you for sharing the journey of frustrations and frequent 'voicing out.' I would also like to thank Matthew for his generous and meticulous attention in reading my PhD, and for our discussions. A big thanks to Ash for intellectual engagement over the years and 'opening up the way.' I would like to thank Eyal for his friendship, 'straight up' talk and last minute 'style' improvisations. I would like to thank, Pappuji (Sanjay Jha )in Bombay, who 'opened up' his heart and the filmy world for me. Big thanks to Sarnath Bannetjee (for zillions of contacts and homely hospitality for a month), Aaruti (Delhi), Jayashree (Banglore) and Vtsa (Osho for his expansiveness), Moi Ghosh, Leo Mirani and Anjum Rajabali (Bombay) for being so generous with their homes, contacts and information. I would like to send a big hug to N eha and Chandan for our ' weird dancing' to Bombay cinema songs. I would like to thank Sukhwant and Ashika and Sonia for keeping me politically and socially engaged in London; Sukh for her generosity; and Ashika for her groundedness; Sonia for her singing and pragmatism (making roti with a vodka bottle); and Simone for giggling with me and repairing my dresses. 3 AUTHOR'S DECLARATION I declare that the work in this dissertation was carried out in accordance with the Regulations of the University of London. The work is original, except where indicated by special reference in the text, and no part of the dissertation has been submitted for any other academic award. Any views expressed in the dissertation are those of the author. SIGNED: ......................................... DATE: ................................ 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter 1 Introduction 7 Chapter 2 Research Methodology 18 Introduction 18 Section 1: Feminist Epistemology and Methodological Approaches 22 Section 2: 'Circuit of Culture , Methodology 36 Section 3: Research Methods and Techniques 43 Conclusion 60 Chapter 3 Literature Review and Popular Bombay Cinema 63 Introduction 63 Section 1: History, Themes and the Cinematic Aesthetic 65 Section 2: Contemporary Bombay Cinema, and My Key Informants 86 Conclusion 96 Chapter 4 Cinema Analysis: Gender, Class and Religion 98 Introduction 98 Section 1. Nation, Gender and Tradition 100 Section 2: The Crisis ofDemocracy and the Cinemas ofRevenge 109 Section 3: The Crisis of the National Secular: Amar Akbar Anthony and Bombay 116 Conclusion 123 Chapter 5 The 'Mother' versus the 'Hero': British Asian Cultural Norms 126 Introduction 126 Section 1: Ambivalence and 'tinsey wincey space' 127 Section 2: Self-negation and Martyrdom: Mother India and SUa 130 Section 3: The Mothers and the Daughters 138 Section 4: The Mother-Son Fixation: Criticisms ofSouth Asian masculinity 149 Conclusion 152 Chapter 6 The British Asian Body: Sexuality and Consumption Practices 155 5 Introduction 155 Section 1. Family and Sexuality 156 Section 2: Asian Women's Bodies: Regulation and Embodiment 167 Conclusion 175 Chapter 7 Vamps and Courtesans: Sexual Expression and Transgression 179 Introduction 179 Section 1: The Pleasures of a Female Icon: Madhuri 179 Section 2: The Pleasures ofFeminine Self-transformations 193 Conclusion 201 Chapter 8 Songs, Pain, and the Courtesan 204 Introduction 204 Section 1: The Melancholic Pleasures ofSongs: Mourning, Compulsion and Nostalgia 205 Section 2: The Pleasure ofMelodrama and the Affect of the excess ofPain 217 Conclusion 230 Chapter 9 The British Asian, Becoming and Belonging 233 Introduction 233 Section 1: The Utopia ofBelonging and Unity 236 Section 2: British Asian Differences and Dystopia 251 Conclusion 265 Chapter 10 Conclusion 270 Bibliography 286 Appendix I: Topic Guideline and Interview Prompts 298 Appendix II: Key Informants in India 301 6 CHAPTER! INTRODUCTION Hazaaron Khvaahishen aisii ki har Khvaaish pe dam nikale bahut nikale mere armaan lekin phir bhii kam nikale (Ghalib, Mirza Asadullah Beg Khan, b. December 27th, 1797) A thousand and more yearnings exist in such a way, I want to give my life to each one/ Even when many of my hopes and desires have left mel Yet very few have actually been satisfied. (My translation) This thesis is one such yearning and explores the nature of subjectivity and the desires of British Asians through the study of cinematic practice. I doubt when Ghalib wrote these words, he had any idea that his conception of subject formation (subjectivities with insatiable appetites) would be appropriated by global capitalism. The ideas for this thesis originated in 1991 in Glodwick (Oldham) when I was working with a group of Pakistani and Bangladeshi women homeworkers on employment rights. However, the idea only came to fruition when I started the PhD in 2001. My connection with many of the homeworkers was through 'cinema talk', where many differences were 'negotiated' and erased. Cinema talk created a familiar space for many of the homeworkers (and many other South Asians) to assuage the isolation and alienation of migration and settlement in Britain. I set out to explore the ways British South Asian subjects give meaning/s to their emotions in their articulation of Bombay cinematic experiences. I wanted to understand, the seeing, feeling and thinking of