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A Qualitative Analysis of Young Hindi Film Viewers' Readings of Gender, Sexuality and Politics On- and Off-Screen

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A Qualitative Analysis of Young Hindi Film Viewers' Readings of Gender, Sexuality and Politics On- and Off-Screen A Qualitative Analysis of Young Hindi Film Viewers' Readings of Gender, Sexuality and Politics On- and Off-screen by Shakuntala Banaji This thesis is submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Culture, Language and Communication Institute of Education University of London July 2004 Abstract This thesis presents a qualitative analysis of the connections between meanings made from discourses of gender, sexuality and ethnicity in commercial Hindi films and the construction of gender, sexual and ethnic identity by young adult viewers. While expressing an understanding of cinema texts and audiences as always shaped by and responding to complex intersections of social, psychological and historical events, it also identifies and describes mechanisms of pleasure and discourses of gender ideology in Hindi films from the points of view of 'academic' and 'ordinary' viewers. Original photographs, observations and interviews at cinema halls and transcripts from in-depth interviews with young viewers from diverse social, linguistic and religious backgrounds in Bombay and London provide the bulk of the data. Critical discourse analysis and aspects of social semiotics and Screen theory provide the tools for analysis of the data. This study suggests that young viewers respond to films from a variety of intersecting subject positions; they rarely experience film texts as unitary and organic entities, treating certain sequences as far more significant than others. This study also finds strong connections between the discourses of gender, sexuality and politics articulated by or read into Hindi films and those voiced by young South Asian viewers. Saliently, though certain viewers use sequences in Hindi films as justifications for their political beliefs and/or private actions, others who express similar enjoyment, ridicule or despise the meanings they read into film sequences, remaining wary of their perceived 'effects'. Many Hindi films may be read as ambiguous or overt interventions in conflicts over religious, national, gender and sexual identity, and some young viewers clearly show a predisposition to what can only be called certain films' authoritarian or fascistic imaginaries. For others, pleasure and involvement in aspects of these films does not preclude skepticism or ideological critique. 3 Contents Abstract 2 Contents 3 List of illustrations 6 Acknowledgements 7 1 Introduction 8 1.1 Beyond the heroic: commercial films meet ordinary viewers 8 1.2 Guilty pleasures 9 1.3 A framework for 'viewing' Hindi films 13 1.4 Entering the 'diasporic imaginary'? 15 1.5 The thesis 19 Notes 21 2 Hindi films and their audiences: theoretical debates and contemporary studies 22 2.1 Introduction 22 2.2 Early accounts: from escapist fantasy to textual pleasure 22 2.3 Ideology, hegemony and interpellation: exploiting the form of Hindi films 29 2.4 Cultural critics and 'popular' texts 36 2.4.1 Gender representations: textual analysis and feminist critique 36 2.4.2 The researcher's lens: Southall youth talking popular culture 39 2.5 Reconciling 'fantasy' and 'reality'; beyond 'compliance' and 'resistance' 42 2.5.1 North Indian men watching movies 42 2.5.2 North Indian women watching television 45 2.6 Beyond simplistic oppositions: which 'modernity' and whose 'tradition'? 49 2.7 Conclusion 52 Notes 54 3 'Sex roles' and the media: theorising identity and spectatorship through notions of gender 56 3.1 Introduction 56 3.2 'Sex roles': functionalist conjectures or elusive facts? 58 3.3 Beyond sex 'roles' 63 3.3.1 Interaction, power and change 63 3.3.2 Constitutive discourses and the fragmentation of identity 66 3.4 Conclusion 75 Notes 76 4 Methodology 77 4.1 Introduction 77 4.2 Data collection 78 4.2.1 The sample 79 4.2.2 Participant observation 83 4.2.3 Interviewing 84 4.2.4 Ethical considerations 87 4 4.3 Data analysis and the politics of theory 89 4.3.1 Breaking down the data, building up the narrative 91 4.3.2 Discourse Analysis and Cultural Studies 94 4.4 Conclusion 98 Notes 99 5 Contemporary Hindi films and the viewing context in two countries 100 5.1 Why watch audiences? 100 5.2 Cinema-halls and audiences in historical and geographic perspective 102 5.3 Going to the cinema in Bombay: reality, refuge or romance 105 5.4 Hindi films in London: ethnic nostalgia or empowered viewing? 115 5.5 Conclusion 119 Notes 121 6 'A man who smokes should never marry a village girl': comments on courtship and marriage 'Hindi film-style' 122 6.1 First, the texts 122 6.2 Everyone's favourite movie 125 6.2.1 Locating the subject: 'abroad' or 'at home' in cultural practice 128 6.2.2 'Hero' versus 'Daddy': winning a woman 'Indian-style' 134 6.2.2.i Loving Daddy? 134 6.2.2. ii Heroic Pleasures? 137 6.2.2.iii The Cost of Honour 140 6.2.3 'What's the point of mother?' or 'How your son-in-law always knows better': responses to female dissent in Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge 145 6.3 Romancing the family: Hum Aapke Hain Koun... ! and its viewers 148 6.3.1 Unveiling 'fascist utopia': critical accounts of HAHK 150 6.3.2 Deriding sacrifice: the pleasures of harsh judgement 155 6.4 Conclusion 159 Notes 161 7 Short skirts and hot kisses: young viewers talk about clothing, sex and Hindi films 163 7.1 Introduction 163 7.2 Show and sell: young viewers read clothing in Hindi films 164 7.3 Concealment, repression and 'enticement': sex, sexuality and Hindi films 171 7.3.1 Clothing, the body and the erotic promise of Hindi films 171 7.3.2 Sexuality, chastity and national honour: 'being' Indian in Switzerland and various other sexual encounters 182 7. 4 Conclusion: passion, experience and meaning 199 Notes 204 8 Politics and spectatorship: viewers discuss religion, violence and nation 206 8.1 Introduction 206 8.2 Films, viewers and the politics of Hindutva fascism 207 5 8.3 'Counterfeit collective memories': riots, religion and subjectivity in contemporary Hindi films 213 8.3.1 Bombay 213 8.3.2 Viewing Bombay 215 8.4 Policing the borders: fables of national and religious purity 227 8.4.1 'Pinching Pakistan': the pleasures and pitfalls of jingoistic nationalism 227 8.4.2 Spectatorship — beyond the text 235 8.5 Who's an authentic Indian? — films, state violence and terrorism 236 8.6 Conclusion 243 8.6.1 Hindi film politics 243 8.6.2 Politics beyond the texts 244 8.6.3 Class and religion 245 8.6.4 Spectatorship: experience, rationality, emotion 246 Notes 247 9 Conclusion 249 9.1 Looking back 249 9.2 Research questions and key assumptions 250 9.3 Learning from the fieldwork 251 9.4 The findings 252 9.4.1 Texts and Audiences 252 9.4.1.i Spectatorship and identity 252 9.4.1.ii Realism, pleasure and ideology 253 9.4.1.iii Alternatives, not escapes 254 9.4.1.iv Ending not closure 255 9.4.2 Gender, sexuality and spectatorship 257 9.4.2.i Gendered visions? 257 9.4.2.ii Sexual tales? 258 9.4.3 Politics and spectatorship 261 9.4.4 India and the U.K. 263 9.4.4.i Class and modality 264 9.4.4.ii The social experience of film viewing 265 9 .4.4.iii Cultural ' authenticity' 265 9.5 Muddying the waters again: unanswered questions? 267 9.6 Implications for the future 269 Notes 272 Appendix 1— Plot summaries of selected Hindi films 273 Appendix 2 — Demographic outline of in-depth interview sample 278 Appendix 3 — Transcription conventions 280 Appendix 4 — Consent statement and themes for interview analysis 281 Bibliography 283 Filmography 305 6 List of illustrations Figure Caption Page 5.1 Poster for Gadar: ek prem katha 105 5.2 Entrance hall at Shaan theatre, Bombay 106 5.3 The contrasting sensory environment of four Delhi cinema halls 108 5.4 Food and drink 'inside' the cinema complex — if you can afford it 108 5.5 Food stalls outside the cinema hall — part of the working-class cinema experience 109 5.6 3 young women, unchaperoned, attend a 6-9 showing of Devdas in Bombay 110 6.1 'Harassing Simran' 138 6.2 'Harassing Simran' 138 6.3 'Flirting, Shah Rukh Style' 138 6.4 'Lecturing Mother' 145 6.5 'Placating Father' 146 6.6 'Exclusionary rituals?: wedding the family in HAHK' 152 6.7 'Pursuing "individual" desire' 157 6.8 'Embracing sacrifice' 157 7.1 'Inviting harassment?: shame, modesty and dress' 168 7.2 'Sexual harassment and men's honour' 168 7.3 Kaho Na ... Pyar Hai Hrithik dancing 176 7.4 'Acceptable objectification?' 176 7.5 Karishma and Aamir push boundaries in Raja Hindustani 179 7.6 'The "smooch"' 179 7.7 'Drunk and seductive, Simran sings her desire' 182 7.8 'Swiss hotel: the morning after' 183 7.9 "'Tell me what happened last night!' 183 7.10 'Fetishising chastity in DDLJ: "I am an Indian man and I know what respect is for an Indian girl."' 192 8.1 Gadar — Pursued by a mob of men, Sakina begs the hero to save her 228 life 8.2 'Gadar — heroic masculinity' 228 8.3 "'She's a Muslim and she's our prey. We haven't chased her all this 232 way for you to "enjoy" her!"' 8.4 Sakina's face as she is 'made' into a 'Sikhni' by the hero 232 7 Acknowledgements My research was supported by funding from the Economic and Social Research Council (studentship number R42200034038). For this I am enormously grateful, as it made possible both the work itself and three most enjoyable years.
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