Review Article l M ba ed o i l a G Global Media Journal 2021 J ournal Vol.19 No.41:252 The Global Network of ISSN 1550-7521 Representation of Gender and Female Grishma Trivedi* Sexuality: An Analysis of Selected Department of Literature and Culture, st The Maharaja Sayajirao University of ‘Controversial’ Hindi Films of the 21 century Baroda, Gujarat, India Abstract *Corresponding author: Grishma Trivedi India is one of the world’s largest film-producing and film-viewing nations. Yet, very little focus has been placed on the subject on the female gender and their sexuality. This research paper focuses on films like Deepa Mehta’s Fire (1996),
[email protected] Shonali Bose’s Margarita With a Straw (2015), Leena Yadav’s Parched (2016), Alankrita Shrivastava’s Lipstick Under my Burkha (2017) dealing with the ‘taboo’ cis-female sexuality. These films received immense criticism and backlash for Department of Literature and Culture, The choosing to subvert the gaze and focusing on controversial things like masturbation, Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, homo-sexual love and sexuality in ‘differently-abled’, hetrosexual sex workers, the Gujarat, India meaning of a woman’s sexual consent and sex beyond the constraints of marriage. These films reflect the Indian woman’s unrestrained exploration of her sexuality along with the intersections of Class, Gender and Patriarchy. The reason for taking Citation: Trivedi G (2021) Representation of these films is their unflinching approach of putting female sexual desire at their Gender and Female Sexuality: An Analysis of forefront and allows their female protagonists to breathe as independent sexual Selected ‘Controversial’ Hindi Films of the creatures.