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Home , Amar Akbar Anthony, Bajrangi Bhaijaan, Chhapaak, Gulzar, Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam, Muzaffar Ali

ANS 372 & Society © gautami shah Unique # 32274 Note: Since this course is a repeatable course, in order to factor the background of the participants in the course, the full syllabus for the course shall be uploaded only after the first week of classes. This document is only reflective of the first two classes and course requirements in terms of work load and grading policy and other class policies.

! Spring 2020

gautami shah (she/her/hers)

Topic Title: Bollywood: Shaker, Maker or Breaker of Society?

FLAG: This course carries the Global Cultures Flag.

Course Description: This course explores the dual role of Bollywood in society, viz., that as an agent of social change on the one hand, and as a mirror of social reality on the other. By examining the representations of South Asian society in Bollywood over the years, as well as the influence of Bollywood cinema on society at various points in South Asian history, this course begs us to critically reevaluate the role of cinema and popular culture as mere entertainment in society.

Topics explored will include the relationship between cinema and the concept of “nation”; notions and representations of “self” and “other”Hindi cinema and representations, roles and perceptions of gender; Hindi cinema and the diaspora; notions of tradition and modernity; centers and margins of society; the role of caste, religion and class in shaping HIndi cinema and vice-versa.

Students who have had no prior experience with South Asian literature and cinema will get an exposure to a new world-view. Students who have already been exposed to South Asian literature and cinema will find and articulate new ways of approaching and interpreting the material. Course Materials: All assignments, including names of films to be viewed, as well as reading materials will be available on the course CANVAS site (https://utexas.instructure.com/). Films are an integral part of the course. All students are expected to see the assigned film before the class period when it will be discussed. One copy of each film shall be available on reserve at the PCL and Fine Arts libraries. Please be considerate of other class-students if you checkout the films from the library, in that please return them as soon as you have finished viewing it. Students may watch the film on their own or in groups. If you so desire, you may also use the CANVAS announcement page to post inform others of when you will be viewing the film, so that they may join you. Many of the films are also available online for purchase at a nominal fee through various sites like , YOUTUBE, AMAZON VIDEO, etc. Please be aware that the contents of some of the films may be disturbing to some students.

Organization of the Course: Students will take turns in leading classroom discussions on the assigned readings. Each student shall be responsible to lead at least one classroom discussion on at least two of the assigned texts and all assigned audio-visual materials being discussed that week. The schedule for leading the classroom discussion shall be posted on CANVAS. All students are expected to complete the reading assignments and view all assigned audio- visual materials before coming to class, and to actively participate in classroom discussions. Classroom participation will weigh heavily on the final grade. Classes and classroom discussions will all be conducted in English. All films are subtitled in English.

Assignments:

Written:

(i) Weekly BLOGs: Students will be required to contribute to weekly BLOG posts at the course CANVAS site at least once a week as follows: a minimum of 7 original BLOG posts over the course of the semester, and comments on at least one BLOG each week. For an original BLOG post to be counted towards credit in a particular week it must be posted by 11am Wednesday of that week. Only one original BLOG per week per student shall be counted. Additionally, each week only the first 10 original BLOG posts shall be counted towards “the 7 original BLOG credit”. So please be mindful and do not plan to do all original BLOG posts at the end of semester -- it just won’t work. Besides, your BLOGs can be used to bounce off ideas for your first essay and help you formulate your thesis for the same. So the early you start posting original BLOGs, the better off you are as it will then feed into your first essay. BLOGs should be around 200-300 words long and comments should be around 50-100 words - however, quality is more important than quantity, so I would not worry too much about exact word count as long as the BLOG and comment are well thought out and substantial.

Original BLOGs should be reflective commentaries on the film and readings being discussed the upcoming week. They can and will naturally build on previous BLOGs and class discussions from previous weeks but you must tie them in with the upcoming week’s film and readings. BLOG posts and comments on BLOGs can include statements, questions, critique of the film and/or readings in the case of an original post, and the BLOG itself in the case of a comment, specifics quotes from the readings that raise interesting points, agreements/disagreements with points made/raised in the readings and/or BLOGs as supported or disproved by the film, etc.

(ii) One review/critique of materials related to the discussion the student leads [see (i) of “Oral Presentation” below]. The review should be around 500-1000 words long. (iii) Two essays over the course of the semester. Each essay should be around 2500-3500 words long, typed and double spaced.

(a) 1st essay: The aim of the first paper is for students to develop their own thesis and to argue for it with evidence from the course readings, films, class discussion and/or media articles. Students will be required to support their arguments by drawing on at least four of the course readings and two films. They will be required to include a bibliography at the end of the paper.

(b) 2nd essay: For the second paper students will be required to choose at least one film of their choice that we have not viewed or discussed in class, and critically examine the role of that film in shaping social consciousness and vice-versa. Students will be required to give a historical context and support their arguments by drawing on at least four written sources. Students can also include additional written and/or multimedia sources if desired. At least two of the four written sources have to be from class readings done over the semester.

Oral presentation:

(i) Each student will be required to lead a classroom discussion at least once during the course of the semester. Guidelines shall be discussed in class. Students will submit a 500-1000 word review/critique of materials related to the discussion they lead. For the discussions students will be required to have a teaching plan ready and prepare "thought questions" to elicit discussion on the readings and film.

(ii) At the end of the semester, students will be required to give a brief in-class presentation of their 2nd paper mentioned above. Grading: - Class Participation 20% - BLOGs and weekly comments on BLOGs 15% - Original BLOGs should be posted y 11am Wednesdays. - Leading class discussion 10% - Written review/critique of class discussion led - 10% -Due Sunday before the relevant class discussion - Essay 1 - 15% - Due Wednesday, March 11th - no exceptions - Essay 2 - 15% - Due Friday, May 8th - no exceptions - Oral presentation of Essay 2 - 15% - and Wednesday April 29th and Wednesday May 6th.

Note: All assignments must be turned in on time for full credit. Also, although attendance per se is not used to determine the grade, please be mindful that class participation is not possible without attending the class. Active participation includes meaningful participation. The cutoffs for the final grade shall be based on the +/- grading scale recommended by the Department of Asian Studies: 92-100 A 89-91 A- 86-88 B+ 82-85 B 79-81 B- 76-78 C+ 72-75 C 69-71 C- 66-68 D+ 62-65 D 59-61 D- 0-58 F

Academic Integrity: Students are expected to abide by the University of Texas Honor Code. Plagiarism and academic dishonesty including cheating is is considered to be acts of academic dishonesty and taken seriously.

Schedule for weeks 1 &2: week 1: Framing Bollywood: Is it an Experience or can it be Understood?? Introduction, popular perceptions, beliefs, notions and understanding of what is “Bollywood” Film to be viewed for week 2: “Amar, Akbar, Anthony”, Directed by , 1997, 185mins week 2: Situating Bollywood Discussion of: Film:“Amar, Akbar, Anthony”, Directed by Manmohan Desai, 1997, 185mins Readings: (i) Kabir, Nasreen Munni, “Bollywood Basics” chp 1, pgs. 1-23 in Bollywood: The Indian Cinema Story, (2001)

(ii) Vasudevan, S., “Addressing the spectator of a ‘third world’ national cinema: the Bombay ‘social’ film of the 1940s and the 1950s”, Screen 36:4 (Winter 1995):305-324

(iii) Thomas, Rosie, “Indian Cinema: Pleasure and Popularity”, Screen 26 (May-August 1985): 116-131 The rest of the weekly schedule shall be updated after feedback received from students during the 1st day of class.

Note: Since this course is repeatable for credit, to ensure that students taking the course are exposed to new materials, concepts and ideas, the rest of the schedule shall be put up on CANVAS after the second week of classes as the instructor needs to factor all student responses to the initial questionnaire before preparing the full schedule. However, the format of the course shall be similar to that of the first two weeks, in that, each week, students shall be assigned a film and relevant readings as homework to be discussed in class the following week.

Potential list of films (still to be finalized after feedback from all students): - “Ankur”, - Directed by , 1974 - "Amar, Akbar, Anthony" - Directed by: Manmohan Desai, 1997 - “Aradhana", Directed by: Shakti Samanta, 1969 - “”, Directed by , 2015 - “ Begum Jaan”, Directed by: Srijit Nukherji, 2017 - "Bombay", Directed by: , 1995 - “”, Directed by Meghana , 2020 - “”, Directed by , 1975 - “Dharm” Directed by: Bhavna Talwar, 2012 - "Dil Se", Directed by: Mani Ratnam, 1998 - "Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge" Directed by: ,1995 - “Ek Ladki Ko Dekha To Aisa Lagaa”, Directed by: Shelly Chopra Dhar, 2019 - “Fanaa”, Directed by Kunal Kohl, 2006, - "Hasee To Phasee", Directed by: Vinil Mathew, 2014 - "", Directed by: , 1999 - "Julie", Directed by: K.S. Sthumadhavan, 1975 - “”, Directed by 2012 - “Kapoor and Sons (since 1921)", Directed by: , 2016 - "Mother ", Directed by: Mehboob, 1957 - “Mirch Masala”, Directed by: Ketan Mehta, 1989 - "PK", Directed by: Hirani, 2014 - "Pyaasa", Directed by: Dutt, 1957 - "", Directed by: , 2014 - "Raat Aur Din", Directed by: Satyen Bose, 1967 - “”, Directed by: Meghana Gulzar, 2018 - "" Directed by: , 1975 - "The Lunchbox", Directed by:Ritesh Batra, 2013 - “Umrao Jaan”, Directed by , 1981 - “Uri: The Surgical Strike”, Directed by Aditya Dhar, 2019 - "Veer-Zaara", Directed by: Yash Chopra, 2004 - “War”, Directed by Anand, 2019

Other potential multi-media materials: Selected episodes of “Satyameva Jayate” an Indian talk show Selected news clips

Potential Reading List: (A selection from the following, subject to change, depending on feedback from students as to prior exposure to a course on Bollywood)

Akhtar, Javed 1995 “Lifting the Veil: A Daring Film Explores Hindu-Muslim Relations,” Asiaweek Vol 21:33 pgs 30-31

Bharucha, Rustom. 1998.” In the Name of the Secular: Contemporary Cultural Activism in India”, Oxford University Press.

Cooper, Darius “The Hindi FIlm Song and Guru Dutt”, East-West Film Journal, 2:2 (1988): 49-65

Derne, Steve, "Men Ebrace Individualism and Love", chp 5 in Movies, Masculinity and Modernity: An Ethnography of Men's Filmgoing in India (2002) 89-111

Divakaruni, Chitra Banerjee, “Clothes” short story from Arranged Marriage (1995) 17:33

Dwyer, Rachel and Christopher Pinney, Eds., 2001 “Pleasure and the Nation: the History, Politics and Consumption of Public Culture in India”, Oxford University Press Fareeduddin Kazmi, “How Angry is the Angry Young Man? `Rebellion’ in Conventional Hindi Films,” in The Secret Politics of Our Desires: Innocence, Culpability and Indian Popular Cinema, ed. Ashis Nandy. (London: Zed Books, 1998): 134-156.

Gokulsing, K. Moti and Wimal Dissanayake, "The Beginnings”, chp 1in Indian Popular Cinema - a narrative of cultural change, (2004) 9-24

Kabir, Nasreen Munni, “Bollywood Basics”, chp 1 in Bollywood: The Indian Cinema Story, (2001) 1-23

Kabir, Nasreen Munni, “The Heroine”, chp 3 in Bollywood: The Indian Cinema Story, (2001) 53-80

Kabir, Nasreen Munni, “The Villains and the Vamps”, chp 1 in Bollywood: The Indian Cinema Story, (2001) 81-102

Mallhi, Angie 2006 “The Illusion of Secularism: Mani Ratnam's Bombay and the Consolidation of Hindu Hegemony”, University of Victoria: CAPI Occasional Paper #31.Victoria: Centre for Asia-Pacific Initiatives.

Mankekar, Purnima, 2015, “Unsettling India: Affect, temporaity, Transnationality”, Duke University Press.

Manuel, Melissa, “The Changing Role of Women in Bollywood”, in Gender Studies, an online forum http://sc2220.wikifoundry.com/page/Changing+role+of+women+in+Bollywood/ history (2013)

Mukherjee, Madhuja, “ Mustard Fields, Exotic Tropes and Travels through Meandering Pathways: Reframing the Yash Raj Trajectory” , in Travels of Bollywood Cinema: From Bombay to LA, edited by Anjali Gera Roy and Chau Beng Huat (2012) 35-53

Premchand, “The Child”, a short story in Selected Short Stories by , translated by Madan Gupta pgs 72-78

Raghavendra, M. K., “ The Family as the site of conformity”, in Deep Focus, (March 2002) 55-59

Ram, Anjali 2002 "Framing the feminine: Diasporic readings of gender in popular Indian cinema", Women's Studies in Communication, Vol. 25:1 pgs 25-52

Roy, Anjali Gera Excerpts from “Introduction” chp 1 in The Magic of Bollywood: At home and Abroad(2001) 1-8 Sinha, Mrinalini, “Epilogue: History, Memory, Event” in Specters of : The Global Restructuring of an Empire, (2006) 248-253

Sinha, Mrinalini, “Refashioning Mother India: Feminism and Nationalism in late Colonial India”, in Feminist Studies, 26:3 (Autum 2000) 623:644

Tagore, Rabindranath,“Exercise-Book” a short story in : Selected Short Stories, by William Radice, (1991) 143-148

Thomas, Rosie, “Indian Cinema: Pleasure and Popularity”, Screen 26 (May-August 1985): 116-131

Thomas, Rosie, ““Sanctity and Scandal: The Mythologization of Mother India,” Quarterly Review of Film and Video 11:3 (1989): 11-30

Vasudevan, Ravi S.1995 "Addressing the spectator of a "third world" national cinema: the Bombay social film of the 1940s and 1950s." Screen, Vol 36, pgs 304-324

Vasudevan, Ravi, “Bombay and Its Public”, in Pleasure and the Nation: The History, Politics and Consumption of Public Culture in India, edited by Rachel Dwyer and Christopher Pinney (2001) 186-211

Virdi, Jyotika “The Idealized Woman”, chapter 2 in The Cinematic ImagiNation: Indian Popular Films as Social History, (2003) 60-86

Viswanath, Gita and Salma Malik, "Revisiting 1947 through Popular Culture: A Comparative Study of India and ", Economic and Political Weekly, Sept 5, 2009, vol XLIV #36, 61:69

Selection of news items from Asiaweek, , Times of India, India Today and The week.

Selection of short poems from “Women Writing in India: 600 B.C. to the present”, eds. Susie Tharu and K. Lalita

Class Policy on Inclusivity: This class welcomes and respects students of all backgrounds, identities, and abilities. Professional courtesy and sensitivity to one another, and polite, respectful discourse when view points differ, are core values in this class.

If you have a preferred name other than the legal name provided on the class roster and/or have a preferred gender pronoun you use (she/he/they/ze, etc), please advise me of the same early in the semester so that I may make appropriate changes to my records. Class Etiquette: Please do not amble into and out of class during the class period. Please arrive on time. If you are unavoidably late, as a courtesy to the class, please enter quietly so as not to interfere with the concentration of other students. Please limit the use of your computer and cell phones only to pull up texts/materials we are working on at that point of time in class. Please do not send messages, emails, engage in social media, etc. when in class — doing so will affect your class participation grade adversely. Use of cell phones and computers are not allowed during quizzes and exams. Please do not work on your Hindi homework and/or on assignments from other classes during class.

Remember, polite, respectful discourse when view points differ, are core values in this class.

Senate Bill 212 and Title IX Reporting Requirements: Under Senate Bill 212 (SB 212), the professor, and TAs if any, for this course are required to report for further investigation any information concerning incidents of sexual harassment, sexual assault, dating violence, and stalking committed by or against a UT student or employee. Federal law and university policy also requires reporting incidents of sex- and gender-based discrimination and sexual misconduct (collectively known as Title IX incidents). This means we cannot keep confidential information about any such incidents that you share with us. If you need to talk with someone who can maintain confidentiality, please contact University Health Services (512-471-4955 or 512-475-6877) or the UT Counseling and Mental Health Center (512-471-3515 or 512-471-2255). We strongly urge you make use of these services for any needed support and that you report any Title IX incidents to the Title IX Office.

Class Activities & Campus Carry law: Please note that from time to time some of the in-class activities and exercises will require course participants to move about the room, go to the front of the room and/or participate in a presentation. Please be mindful of the Campus Carry law and University policies regarding the same. University policy and the implementation of the law would be violated by the separation of the gun owner from their weapon that may result from these required classroom activities. Please plan accordingly as no storage place is available in the classrooms.

Disability Accommodations: Documented Disability Statement: Students with disabilities may request appropriate academic accommodations from the Division of Diversity and Community Engagement, Services for Students with Disabilities at 471-6259 (voice), 232-2937 (video phone) or http://www.utexas.edu/diversity/ddce/ssd)

© [email protected] last updated 01/18/20