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ID157873
Title ProperTransnational Publics, Nationalist Ideology and the ‘Woman Question’ in Hindi Cinema
Other Title InformationThe Film Queen (2014)
LanguageENG
AuthorSharma, Shubhra
Summary / Abstract (Note)Recent scholarship has pointed to a new obsession in the male-dominated Bollywood industry—of engaging with the status of the urban, middle-class, post-colonial woman. Using the example of the 2014 film Queen, I discuss this recent trend towards ostensible female empowerment. In the film, the main character, Rani, is a middle-class woman seeking freedom from tradition—from man and marriage—by going on her honeymoon alone. As she plays the tourist in Europe, the viewer is led to believe that she has come into her own, finding her self and her purpose. I argue against this reading, contending instead that constructing Rani's empowerment abroad is in fact a medium for re-conceptualising private and public spheres and reinstitutionalising indigenous patriarchies transnationally, for even abroad Rani is not free. She is both an agent for and a victim of reconstituting middle-class, nationalist ideologies. For this reason alone, the film is about subjection rather than empowerment.
`In' analytical NoteSouth Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies Vol. 41, No.1; Mar 2018: p.106-120
Journal SourceSouth Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies 2018-03 41, 1
Key WordsNationalism ;  Europe ;  Indigenous Patriarchies ;  Male Bollywood ;  Private and Public Spheres ;  Subject/Subjection/Subjectification ;  Transnational Publics ;  Woman Question