Portrayal of Women in Nepali Movies
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PORTRAYAL OF WOMEN IN NEPALI MOVIES I Portrayal of women in Nepali movies: An analysis of three popular romantic movies Nirmala Adhikari Master’s thesis — Department of Media and Communication UNIVERSITY OF OSLO Autumn 2018 PORTRAYAL OF WOMEN IN NEPALI MOVIES II Portrayal of women in Nepali movies: An analysis of three popular romantic movies Nirmala Adhikari Master’s thesis at the Institute for Media and Communication University of Oslo Autumn 2018 PORTRAYAL OF WOMEN IN NEPALI MOVIES III © Nirmala Adhikari 2018 Portrayal of women in Nepali movies – An analysis of three popular romantic movies Nirmala Adhikari http://www.duo.uio.no/ Printed: Reprosentralen, Universitetet of Oslo PORTRAYAL OF WOMEN IN NEPALI MOVIES IV Abstract This thesis examines the portrayal of women in three Nepali romantic movies over a period of the last 30 years. The movies the thesis looks at are - Kusume Rumal (1985), Darpan Chhaya (2001) and Bir Bikram (2016). In order to study the representation of women in Nepali movies and compare the changes over time, theories on women and cinema - Laura Mulvey’s ‘Theory of the Male Gaze’, Simone De Beauvoir’s ‘The Second Sex’ and Daphne Spain’s ‘Gendered Spaces’- have been used and various texts and images among other elements of Mise-en-scene have been analyzed using textual analysis. The findings suggest that there is no change in the portrayal of women in the Nepali movies at present compared to the past. Women in Nepali movies continue to be portrayed in traditional stereotypical roles as housewives, caretakers of men, objects of desire and as the second sex while the men continue to dominate the family, workplaces and public space. In an epilogue, the thesis begins to compare the findings to Nordic cinema using the available literature on women and cinema in Nordic movies to have an insight on how this representation is similar or different in Nepal and Nordic countries. The comparison shows similar arguments in both cinemas, however, there has been some changes in the portrayal of women in Nordic cinema over the years. PORTRAYAL OF WOMEN IN NEPALI MOVIES V Preface I would like to thank my supervisor Timotheus Vermeleun for all the help, comments and suggestions that he provided during the thesis writing process. The thesis wouldn’t have been completed without his support which has been invaluable, and I cannot thank him enough. I would like to extend my thanks to my family and friends for having faith in me and motivating me through the process. The topic for the thesis has indeed been interesting and something close to me personally and I would like to thank everyone who motivated me and helped me in this incredible journey. PORTRAYAL OF WOMEN IN NEPALI MOVIES VI Table of Contents 1 [Introduction]….…………………….……………………………………………………….1 1.1 Nepali Movie Industry - Background………………………………...…….……………2 1.2 Theme and Scope…...……….……………………………………...…….…….……….4 1.3 Research Question………………...…………………….………………….…………....7 1.4 Research Aims……...……………………………………………………….…………...8 2 [Methodology]….…………………….……………………………………………………...10 2.1 Textual Analysis…………………….………………………………...…….………….10 2.2 Mise-en-scene………...……….……………………………………...…….…….……...11 3 [Theory and Literature Review] ….……….……………….………………………………...16 3.1 The Male Gaze Theory – Laura Mulvey………………………………...…….………...20 3.2 The Second Sex – Simone de Beauvoir …………………………...…….…….……….25 3.3 Gendered Spaces – Daphne Spain………………...…………………….………….........29 3.4 Conclusion………………………….……………...…………………….…………........31 4 [Analysis] ….……….……………….……………………………………………………….33 4.1 Chapter I: Women as objects of desire for men………………………...…….…………33 4.1.1 Women being looked at by men ………………………...…….…….………...…36 4.1.2 Women and Silence: Man’s word; woman’s silence ………….……………........38 4.1.3 Women as fragments…………….…………………...…….…….………………44 4.1.4 Conclusion …………………………....………………...…….…….…………....50 4.2 Chapter II: Women, The Second Sex ………………………...…….…….………….…52 4.2.1 Women as caretakers and housewives ………………...…….…….………….…57 4.2.2 Woman, the one who always waits for the man …………………….…………....62 4.2.3 Marriage is a woman’s ultimate career………………………...…….……….…. 65 4.2.4 Conclusion …………………………….………………...…….…….………. ….71 PORTRAYAL OF WOMEN IN NEPALI MOVIES VII 4.3 Chapter III: Gender and Space………….……………...…………………….………….72 4.3.2 Analysis of spaces of men and women in Darpan Chhaya….…….…………….72 4.3.2 Conclusion ………………………………………...…….…….……………. ….91 5 [Conclusion] ….……….……………….…………………………………………………... 93 5.1 Summary of Findings………………………………...…….…………………………... 93 6 [Epilogue] ….……….……………….……………………………………………………… 95 6.1 Portrayal of women in Nordic media and movies…………………...…….…………… 96 6.2 Comparison of portrayal of women in Nepali and Nordic Cinema…...…….…………. 97 6.2.1 Women as victims and objects ………………………...…….…….…………….97 6.2.2 Women as housewives and caretakers ………….………………….…………....99 6.2.3 Women and Marriage…………….…………………...…….…….…………….100 6.2.4 Women and Space …………………….………………...…….…….……….…101 6.3 Conclusion……………………………………………………………...…….…………104 Works Cited …………………………….……………….……………………………………106 PORTRAYAL OF WOMEN IN NEPALI MOVIES 1 1 [Introduction] The thesis aims at examining the portrayal of women in three Nepali romantic movies over the period of the last three decades. In order to study this, I have selected three popular movies from the last 30 years from the romantic genre: Kusume Rumal (1985), Darpan Chhaya (2001) and Bir Bikram (2016). By popular I mean the movies of their time who were able to become successful commercially and were able to be popular among most of the audience (thecinematimes, n.d.). I have selected the movies from the last 30 years to present, one from each decade, respectively, in order to study the portrayal of women and compare the changes over time. In an epilogue, I will further begin to compare my findings to the Nordic context to have an insight on how this representation is similar or different in Nepali and Nordic cinema. When I talk about female representation in Nepali movies, academically, I believe I am adding a Nepali perspective to the global debate regarding women and cinema. Reviewing the literature addressing female representation in movies and media in Nepal, I found that there has been very little writing on this topic. Acknowledging this, the thesis aims at opening up a new debate on female and cinema in the Nepali context. And doing this I aim to add a Nepali perspective to the global issue of women in cinema; add a global debate on women and cinema to the Nepali perspective and look at how these classic global debates on women and cinema play out in the Nepali context. In the epilogue of the thesis, I begin to compare the portrayal of women in Nepali movies to that of Nordic media and movies. Nordic countries (Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Iceland) are well-known for their high level of gender equality. The Gender Inequality Index (GII) 2017, a report by United Nations Development Program (UNDP), which sheds light on the position of women in 160 countries, ranks Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland and Iceland in 2nd, 3rd, 5th, 8th and 9th position respectively with very low level of GII value (United Nations Development Program, 2017). The higher the value of GII, the more disparities between male and female. Meanwhile, the report ranks Nepal in 118th position showing high level of gender gap in major areas of human development including reproductive health, empowerment and economic status (United Nations Development Program, 2017). PORTRAYAL OF WOMEN IN NEPALI MOVIES 2 In this sense, comparing the status of women in Nepali movies to a region with very high level of gender equality would be useful in studying how the female representation in these two different regions of the world measure up to each other. I believe it is interesting to see how female representation in Nepali cinema compares to that of Nordic cinema, given that there is a huge difference in these movies as they come from countries with huge difference in cultural norms and values. As per the requirement of the degree, I begin to look at this comparison in the epilogue, which is also my attempt to situate Nepali film making into a broader context of women and cinema. 1.1 Nepali Movie Industry – Background The history of Nepali movies dates to 1951 when the first Nepali movie Satya Harishchandra was produced from India (National Film Policy Drafting Committee, 2013). The first movie produced in Nepal was in the year 1964 and was titled Aama, meaning “Mother” (Film Development Board, Nepal, n.d.). The first Nepali production movie Aama was produced by the Department of Information of the Government of Nepal. It was only in 1966 that a private company produced a Nepali movie. The first film produced by a private production house in Nepal was Maitighar, meaning “The birth home of a girl” released in 1966 by Sumonanjali Films Pvt. Ltd (National Film Policy Drafting Committee, 2013). Since then, there has been a significant production and development in the Nepali movies. The number of movies increased after the Government of Nepal established an organization called Royal Nepal Film Corporation in 1971, which would contribute to the production of movies in Nepal and help enhance their quality. The film industry has been said to grow and develop rapidly after the introduction of democracy in 1990 (“Nepali Film Industry,” n.d.) as democracy secured people’s right to freedom, speech, and broadcasting. This development has been seen through the rapid increase in the production of movies, their distribution and the increase in the number of cinema halls after 1990. A total of 140 movies were released during a period of three years while more than 300 cinema halls were built after the restoration of democracy in Nepal (“Nepali Film Industry,” n.d.). PORTRAYAL OF WOMEN IN NEPALI MOVIES 3 The movies in Nepal have been highly inspired by the Hindi Film industry, also known as Bollywood. Being a small and underdeveloped country, Nepal has always been dependent on its neighboring countries, India, and China, for business, trade, import and many others and has been learning from their developmental activities. The same applies to the Film Industry of Nepal.