This document discusses the portrayal of women in mainstream and art cinema in India. It provides a brief history of Bollywood and analyzes how women have been depicted from the 1930s to present. In mainstream films, women's roles have largely been reduced to decorative objects for male pleasure or upholders of tradition. In contrast, parallel or art cinema presents more realistic and complex portrayals of women, addressing topics like sexuality, violence and social issues in a way that challenges stereotypes. The document debates whether cinema should prioritize entertainment or social change through its influence on society.

1. Portrayal of Women in
Mainstream & Art Cinema
Course: Gender and Media
Chapter: 7&8
Jagri> Shankar
Gender And Media
Dept. of Women’s Studies, Goa University

2. Outline
• History of Mainstream Hindi Cinema
• Analysis of Women-Centric Hindi Films
• Mainstream vs. Alterna>ve Cinema

3. Importance of Indian Cinema
• Indian films are screened in 100+ countries
• Watched by nearly 4 billion people worldwide
• Indian film industry produces 1000+ films each
year in more than 20 languages (Hollywood
less than 400 films per year)
• 90% of revenue from non-English films

4. Brief history of Bollywood
• The first Bollywood film Raja Harishchandra
(1913), directed by Dadasaheb Phalke (silent)
• First film with sound Alam Ara (1931)
• First colored film was Kisan Kanya (1937)
• Setback in 1940s (WWII, Par>>on & violence)
• 1950s commercial films with songs, music,
drama

5. 1930s-1940s

6. 1950s

7. 1960s

8. 1970s

9. 1980s

10. 1990s

11. 2000s

12. Do you think women’s roles in Hindi
movies are changing? Give example.
If yes, is the change posi>ve or
nega>ve?

13. Golden Era of Bollywood
• 1950s to late 1970s
• Rural India, vibrant tradi>ons, rela>onships,
norms and ethics of Indian society, issue of
poverty, socialist ideas, social evils, etc.
• Male lead, but women were given considerable
roles and space
• Melodious songs
Kaagaz Ke Phool, Mother India, Pakeezah, Half Ticket,
Padosan

14. Bollywood Heroines 1980s
• 1980s was an ac>on era
• Heroines lost their strength and space to the
hero
• Heroines reduced to being a glamorous
component of the films, dancing around trees,
being kidnapped, raped or killed
• Rape scenes were long & glorified, male gaze
took over
• Few excep>ons included actresses like Shri Devi
(Himmatwala) ‘Is Sridevi a hero?’ (Show>me, Sep I987)

15. • Films were shifed towards an urban segng
• Heroines were shown liberal, literate, wearing
fashionable clothes, with a set upper limit (Mohra)
• Films were male-centric, heroines’ existence was to
add glamour & masala
• The more India became global the more Bollywood
films regressed
• Post-liberaliza>on 1990s, brought western influence,
technology, & technique
…and a desire to hold our ‘Indian-ness’, and women’s
roles started to reduce to decora>ons & homemakers,
bearer of ‘Tradi>onal Indian Values’ & ‘Sanskri>’.
Bollywood Heroines 1990s

16. Super hit of late 1990s
• Love above All,
Career at the Bomom
• Find a life partner &
keep him
• Ambi>ous women’s
portrayal not in good
light (Biwi no.1)

17. What’s women’s Iden>ty?

18. Changing Roles of Vamps
• Moral vs. Immoral
• Dichotomy of heroine
& vamp slowly
disappeared
• The heroines started to
dressed boldly and
provoca>vely as the
bad girl of old >mes

19. All in one- Have a Glamorous Girl-friend &
a Sanskari Bahu

20. Name the movies related to:
1. Patriarchy/ Strong male lead
2. Ideal Woman/Ideal Mother
3. Indian values
4. Extra-ordinary love story
5. Love Triangle
6. Extra-marital affair
7. Size zero
8. Robbery/ Gangsters/
9. Heroic act of hero saving heroine

21. Name the movies related to:
1. Domes>c violence
2. Dowry death
3. Rape & Jus>ce to vic>m
4. Sexual abuse
5. Sexual harassment at workplace
6. Acid amack
7. Self-esteem of women
8. Trashing thin body image of girls
9. Female sexuality

22. Summary of Mainstream Bollywood

23. Do we need to create a parallel
Bollywood for women ?
Because in the current Bollywood women are
under-represented and misrepresented.

24. Gender is indeed contested and that because of this there can be
no closure on gendered categories. Gender is bemer understood
as processual because persons are constantly engaged in making,
re-making, nego>a>ng and in some cases challenging their
gendered iden>>es along with all other social iden>>es such as
class and caste (Butler 1993).
Perceiving Indian women as ideologically
‘fixed’ within pure and homogenous
categories of mother and wife severely
compromises women’s status as complex
subjects- Macdonald A. (2009)

25. • The Parallel Cinema: Serious and ar>s>c in its
representa>on, mainly amrac>ng the elites
• Middle cinema: Cross between the
commercial and parallel cinema, meant for
the masses.

26. Parallel Cinema/Middle Cinema

27. Comparison
Mainstream Cinema
1. Utopian/Ideal world
2. Limited Subjects
3. One point of view
4. Establish Stereotype
5. Female Sexuality is a
taboo
Parallel Cinema
1. Real world
2. A wider subject range
3. Contradic>ons & mul>ple
views
4. Challenge stereotype, show
mul>plicity of the real life
5. Female sexuality is addressed

28. Analysis of Women-centric Hindi films
• ‘Real women & men’ & their life situa>ons
• Women characters possess agency to break
the exis>ng power structures, and nego>ate
their own posi>on within the structure
• Women not presented as objects of male gaze
• Cinema’s aim is not to entertain a par>cular
class of society, rather it a quest for social
change through entertainment

29. Few Parallel Films
1983 Arth Mahesh Bham Extra-marital affair
and unfaithful
spouse
1995 Bandit Queen Shekhar Kapur Rape, Sexual abuse,
Caste system, Child
marriage
1998 Fire Deepa Mehta Homosexuality,
infidelity and
infer>lity
2001 Daman Kalpana Lazmi Domes>c &marital
violence
2005 Water Deepa Mehta
Widow pros>tu>on,
child marriage and
widowhood

30. Biwi No. 1 Vs. Arth
• Category
• Subject & its treatment
• Portrayal of Female lead
• Portrayal of the Male lead
• Portrayal of the ‘Other Woman’
• Stereotypes
• Symbols
• Male Gaze
• Women’s agency
Compare these two movies based on the
criteria given below:

31. Discuss
Do you favor ‘real’ or ‘imaginary’ portrayal of
women & men in films?

32. “Films should entertain, take the
common man far from reality, to an
extra-ordinary imagined world, where
he can relax and forget his worries”
Discuss

33. Then what about ‘her’?

34. References
• Agarwal, Ruchi (2014), “Changing Roles of Women in Indian
Cinema”, Silpakorn University Journal of Social Sciences,
HumaniCes, and Arts Vol.14(2) : 117-132
• Bagchi, Amitabha. (1996). Women in Indian Cinema. Retrieved from
hmp://www.cs.jhu.edu/~bagchi/women.html
• Sarkar, Srijita (2012), "An analysis of Hindi women-centric films in
India.” Electronic eses and DissertaCons.
• Tere S. Nidhi (2012), “Gender reflec>ons in mainstream hindi
cinema”, Global Media Journal – Indian Edi>on Vol. 3/No.1
• Ahmed, S. Akbar (1992). ‘Bombay Films: The Cinema as Metaphor
for Indian Society and Poli>cs’. Modern Asian Studies 26, 2 (I992)
• Laura Mulvey (1988), ‘Visual Pleasure and Narra>ve Cinema’. In
Constance Penley (ed), Feminism and Film Theory, New York:
Routledge

35. • Burra, R. (ed.) (1981). ‘Film India: Looking Back
1896-1960’. The Directorate of Film Fes>vals,
New Delhi.
• Interview with Shoma Chamerji- Role of Women
in Indian Cinema, October 8, 2010. Source:
hmps://oorvazifilmeduca>on.wordpress.com/2010/10/08/
interview-with-shoma-chamerji-role-of-women-in-indian-cinema/
#comments
• Ghosh R. Arup, “Post-Colonial Feminist Theory
and Film, Source: hmp://www.angelfire.com/ar/
view/2.html

36. Thank you!