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When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given e.g. AUTHOR (year of submission) "Full thesis title", University of Southampton, name of the University School or Department, PhD Thesis, pagination http://eprints.soton.ac.uk UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHAMPTON FACULTY OF HUMANITIES Department of Film Studies Beyond ‘Masala’: Horror and Science Fiction in Contemporary Bollywood by Zubair Shafiq Thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy July 2015 UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHAMPTON ABSTRACT FACULTY OF HUMANITIES Department of Film Studies Thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy BEYOND ‘MASALA’: HORROR AND SCIENCE FICTION IN CONTEMPORARY BOLLYWOOD Zubair Shafiq Since the early 1990s, Bollywood has witnessed a significant shift from its traditional ‘formulae’, particularly in terms of formal elements (i.e. narrative, themes, mise-en- scène) in its attempt to reach international audiences. The term Masala, often used to refer to all Bollywood films, has become one of the most popular genres of Bollywood. The ‘angry young man’ era of the 1970s and 1980s has lost its popularity in the last two decades as a self-conscious genre cinema has developed in Bollywood. This change has not only influenced genre conventions but also audience expectations. As a result, genres such as horror and science fiction have gained popularity within India and abroad. Despite changes in form and expectation, the critical discourse on Bollywood has mostly retained its focus on the genres of ‘classical’ Bollywood and its ‘golden era’. These shifts in Bollywood in the new millennium require re-visiting our understanding of this cinema. One of my central arguments is that horror and science fiction have developed through a process of Bollywoodization while the dominant discourse often credits Indianization as the main factor. Bollywoodization, in this case, refers to the transnational cinematic shifts in which genre conventions from other industries are appropriated to a specific Bollywood style. This thesis aims to expand the understanding of genre cinema in Bollywood whilst claiming it as what Tom Ryall has called a ‘cinema of genres’. i List of Contents ABSTRACT ... ....................................................................................................................................... I LIST OF CONTENTS ....................................................................................................................... III LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................................................... V LIST OF FIGURES ......................................................................................................................... VII DECLARATION OF AUTHORSHIP .............................................................................................. IX ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................................... XI NOTE ON STYLE AND TRANSLATION ................................................................................... XIII CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................... 1 GENRE CRITICISM .............................................................................................................................. 3 TRANS(NATIONAL) HYBRID GENRES ................................................................................................ 13 GENRE APPROACH FOR BOLLYWOOD ............................................................................................... 17 METHODOLOGY ............................................................................................................................... 36 THESIS STRUCTURE .......................................................................................................................... 41 CHAPTER 2: TOWARDS NEW BOLLYWOOD - FROM THE MYTHOLOGICAL TO MASALA 45 HISTORICAL OVERVIEW ................................................................................................................... 46 Phase One: The Beginning (1910s-1920s) ................................................................................. 49 Phase Two: Experimentation – all-talking, all-singing, all-dancing (1930s-1940s) .................. 57 Phase Three: The Social and Historical Genre (1950s-1960s) .................................................. 62 Phase Four: 1970s – 1980s (The Angry Young Man era and the Horror genre) ....................... 64 Phase Five: Global Bollywood (1990s – present) ...................................................................... 65 CONTEMPORARY BOLLYWOOD GENRES .......................................................................................... 70 DECLINE OF THE MYTHOLOGICAL GENRE ........................................................................................ 71 RISE OF THE MASALA GENRE ........................................................................................................... 81 Dabangg as a Masala Film ........................................................................................................ 85 iii Rasas in Dabangg ........................................................................................................................ 88 CONCLUSION ..................................................................................................................................... 94 CHAPTER 3: HORROR ................................................................................................................... 97 THE APPEAL OF HORROR ................................................................................................................ 101 HORROR’S SPECIFICITY ................................................................................................................... 104 BOLLYWOOD HORROR – AN HISTORICAL OVERVIEW ..................................................................... 106 Phase One – (1930s - 1960s) ..................................................................................................... 107 Phase Two – (1970s – 1980s) .................................................................................................... 109 Phase Three – Contemporary Horror ....................................................................................... 116 CASE STUDY 119 CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................................... 140 CHAPTER 4: REMAKES ............................................................................................................... 143 BOLLYWOOD AND REMAKES .......................................................................................................... 152 CASE STUDY 156 CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................................... 177 CHAPTER 5: SCIENCE FICTION ................................................................................................ 183 THEMES IN BOLLYWOOD SCIENCE FICTION .................................................................................... 193 CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................................... 230 CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................................. 233 APPENDIX A : SEGMENTATIONS .............................................................................................. 241 APPENDIX B : LIST OF HORROR FILMS ................................................................................. 253 APPENDIX C : LIST OF SCIENCE FICTION FILMS ................................................................ 259 BIBLIOGRAPHY ............................................................................................................................. 261 iv List of Tables TABLE 1: GENRE CLASSIFICATION BY DIFFERENT SCHOLARS .................................................................. 33 TABLE 2: NUMBER OF FILMS PRODUCED IN SELECT YEARS IN INDIA FROM 1932 - 2011 ..................... 67 v List of Figures FIGURE 1: GENRE CIRCULAR MODEL BASED ON ANDREW TUDOR'S CATEGORISATION. ......................... 10 FIGURE 2: INDIAN CINEMA INDUSTRY GROWTH .................................................................................... 69 FIGURE 3: POV SHOT OF THE SNAKE WOMAN IN HISSS ......................................................................... 77 FIGURE 4: HINDU GOD GINESHA IN SOFT FOCUS. .................................................................................... 77 FIGURE 5: SNAKE WOMAN TURNS INTO A SNAKE ................................................................................... 79 FIGURE 6: IMAGE FROM