Université De Montréal /7 //F Ç /1 L7iq/5-( Dancing Heroines: Sexual Respectability in the Hindi Cinema Ofthe 1990S Par Tania
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/7 //f Ç /1 l7Iq/5-( Université de Montréal Dancing Heroines: Sexual Respectability in the Hindi Cinema ofthe 1990s par Tania Ahmad Département d’anthropologie Faculté des arts et sciences Mémoire présenté à la Faculté des études supérieures en vue de l’obtention du grade de M.Sc. en programme de la maîtrise août 2003 © Tania Ahrnad 2003 n q Université (1111 de Montréal Direction des bibliothèques AVIS L’auteur a autorisé l’Université de Montréal à reproduire et diffuser, en totalité ou en partie, par quelque moyen que ce soit et sur quelque support que ce soit, et exclusivement à des fins non lucratives d’enseignement et de recherche, des copies de ce mémoire ou de cette thèse. L’auteur et les coauteurs le cas échéant conservent la propriété du droit d’auteur et des droits moraux qui protègent ce document. Ni la thèse ou le mémoire, ni des extraits substantiels de ce document, ne doivent être imprimés ou autrement reproduits sans l’autorisation de l’auteur. 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While this may affect the document page count, it does not represent any loss of content from the document. Université de Montréal faculté des études supérieures Ce mémoire intitulé: Dancing Heroines: Sexual Respectability in the Hindi Cinema ofthe 1990s présenté par: Tania Ahmad a été évalué par un jury composé des personnes suivantes: Bob White John Leavitt Chantai Nadeau Résumé Dans cette étude, 1’ «héroïne dansante > fait figure d’outil permettant d’identifier les différentes formes que peut prendre la représentation culturelle de la sexualité féminine telle qu’elle est exprimée dans les médias, plus particulièrement dans l’industrie du film hindi. La personnalité de l’héroïne que l’on retrouve dans le cinéma commercial des armées 1990 en mdc montre qu’il s’est produit une transformation au sein du modèle de la féminité que l’on considère comme étant acceptable en mdc. Ce dernier se trouve continuellement négocié, notamment au niveau des idéaux du comportement sexuel, en fonction des standards de respectabilité ou de certaines notions populaires de moralité. Cette transformation que l’on observe au sein des perceptions du fait féminin se manifeste simultanément à travers l’étude de la mise en scène des personnages dans les films et dans les entrevues réalisées en anglais avec des comédiennes par la revue populaire fitmfare. Les résultats de cette étude révèlent que la perception populaire de la sexualité féminine telle qu’elle est présentée dans ces médias traitent d’une problématique concernant les notions de contrôle, de domesticité, d’honneur et de chasteté (lij) ainsi que de la négociation des normes chez les femmes en milieu de travail. Mots clés : Anthropologie, Asie du Sud, Inde, média, hindi, cinéma, femme, sexualité, Fitnfare II Summary In this study, the ‘dancing heroine’ is used as a figurative means to trace representations offeminine sexuality through South Asian entertainment media and popular culture forms, specifically in the Hindi film industry. The heroines or female protagonists in the commercial Hindi cinema ofthe 1990s mark a trarisfonnation of notions of acceptable femininity that are continually renegotiated in terms of respectability and sexual morality. This transformation is traced through a concurrent examination of on-screen heroines in the filmic narratives ofpopular films, and off-screen star texts through interviews with heroines in the English-language fan magazine fitnfare. The findiiigs presented in this study show how the issues of sexuality with respect to the Hindi film heroine are addressed in tenns of control, domesticity and làj (honour/chastity), as well as the dynamics ofrenegotiating respectability as a working woman. Keywords: Anthropology, South Asia, India, media, Hindi, cinema, women, sexuality, filrnfare 111 Table ofConteiits Résumé en francais et mots clés français j Summary and keywords ii Table of Contents iii Acknowledgements y 1. Introduction 1 a. Theoretical framework 6 2. The Hindi Film Industry 14 a. Indian cinema: sketching beginnings 18 b. Commercial Hindi cinema in the 1 990s: new narrative strategies 19 3. Women in Hindi films 24 a. Women in Hindi films: vamps and ideal heroines 25 b. Women in Hindi films: dancing heroines 26 c. The ‘New Indian Woman’ 29 4. On-screen, Off-screen: stardom, gender and performance 31 a. Star theory, star texts 32 b. Gender and performance 33 c. Films 35 d. Filmfare 36 5. Non-stop dancing: heroïne issues 41 a. The heroine as (potential) wife: ail in the family 43 b. Love, love marnages and heterosexual desire 58 i. ‘We’rejust friends’ 69 e. Working and unmarried 73 j. On professionalism 76 ii. On being ‘tougli’ $0 iii. On exposure & ‘vulgar’ performances $4 iv. On redefining the sex symbol $8 y. On natal family ties 90 vi. On star texts 92 vii. On privacy & the media 94 viii. On heroines & the industry 96 6. Conclusion 103 iv Bibliography 109 fiÏmfare Bibliography 115 Filmography 120 V Aclaiowledments I would like to express my appreciation of ail those who mustered the resilience to offer their support for this study, financial and emotional as wefl as intellectual. I extend my thanks ta my director, John Leavitt. I am grateffil for the encouragement and enthusiasm of Bob White, whose perspectives on the anthropology of media were an indispensable catalyst for my research, and for the keen criticisms and sharp observations made by Chantai Nadeau, who guided me through studying representation and sexuality. I would also like to thank Gilles Bibeau, Ellen Corin and John Leavitt for including me as a research assistant for their project “The Work of Culture in Limit Expenences: Spirituality and Its Shadow”, and for inviting me to participate in their reading group focusing on South Asia. The Department of Anthropology at l’Université de MontréaÏ helped fund this study with a Bourse de rédaction in the summer of 2003. I would also like to express my appreciation for the time and patience of Patrice Desroches, who offered criticism and much-valued feedback thraughout the writing process. I thank Simran Karir, who talked me through the difficuit parts, and offered keen and succinct feedback on draft work. I would aiso like to thank Catherine Lemieux, for transiating my résumé and offering moral support. A hast of Bollywood film fans and informal transiators helped me grasp the nuances and conventions of the commercial Hindi film. Most important among them was my father, Athar Ahmad, who patiently reviewed countless film sequences with me in the early hours of the moming and verified my transliterations of on-screen dialogues. I thank Tehzib Morad (Auntie Biili) and her mother (Ummi) for their unending heipfuÏness in responding ta unprompted phone cails requesting translations offllm siang. I am also grateful for bath the wonderful coaking and hospitality of my aunt, Tajie Katana, who helped me navigate the channels ofthe New York Public Research Libraries on several occasions. Without the generosity of Ellen Corin, who was instrumental in helping get access ta Filnfare in Mantreal, and that of the staff of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts Dorothy and Lewis B. Cuilman Center, this study could flot have been possible. I also extend my thanks ta the friendly and knowledgable local videa merchants of Chahat Audio Video on Jean-Talon and Baba Video Centre on boul. des Sources. FinaÏly, I wauÏd like ta express my appreciatian of ail the ftiends and family who listened ta my complaining and stili gave me comfort and encouragement: my parents, Farah and Peter, Faisal and Tariq, ail the Larases, especially Catherine, Pat and Alice, Nichalas Wembley Matheson Touikan for trying ta teach me math in a train, as well as Angela Kouris, Simran Karir and Dara Price who are ail far away. 1. Introduction In this study, the ‘dancing heroine’ is used as a figurative means to trace representations of feminine sexuality through South Asian entertainment media and pop culture forms, specifically in the Hindi cinema industry ofthe 1990s. I examine a figure that consistently articulates concems surrounding sexual morality, indicating the aspects of femininity that seem important not only for the industry that produces these images, but also for the viewing!reading audience that receives them. In the case ofthe popular Hindi cinema (i.e. Bollywood), a highly cornmercialized form of entertainment media, the definitive separation ofthe processes of production and reception becomes blurred, partiy because the economic success of a film depends on its capacity to appeal to the sensibilities of its audience. In order to trace the multiple trajectories ofthe ‘dancing heroine’, I use the most popular Hindi films ofthe 1990s as visual and narrative texts as well as interviews with actresses in the fan magazine fitmfare, which refer to the textualities constructed by the stars as well as by the joumalists and are located within a larger structures ofpublicity. According to Rachel Dwyer: “... texts are a good source of information, since they are produced by expert players in interpreting the desires of [their paying audience]” (2000: 5).