Table Of Content

ReFocus: The Films of Zoya Akhtar ReFocus: The International Directors Series Series Editors: Robert Singer, Stefanie Van de Peer and Gary D. Rhodes Board of Advisors: Lizelle Bisschoff (Glasgow University) Stephanie Hemelryck Donald (University of Lincoln) Anna Misiak (Falmouth University) Des O’Rawe (Queen’s University Belfast) ReFocus is a series of contemporary methodological and theoretical approaches to the interdisciplinary analyses and interpretations of international film directors, from the celebrated to the ignored, in direct relationship to their respective culture – its myths, values and historical precepts – and the broader parameters of international film history and theory. Titles in the series include: ReFocus: The Films of Susanne Bier Edited by Missy Molloy, Mimi Nielsen and Meryl Shriver-Rice ReFocus: The Films of Francis Veber Keith Corson ReFocus: The Films of Jia Zhangke Maureen Turim and Ying Xiao ReFocus: The Films of Xavier Dolan Edited by Andrée Lafontaine ReFocus: The Films of Pedro Costa: Producing and Consuming Contemporary Art Cinema Nuno Barradas Jorge ReFocus: The Films of Sohrab Shahid Saless: Exile, Displacement and the Stateless Moving Image Edited by Azadeh Fatehrad ReFocus: The Films of Pablo Larraín Edited by Laura Hatry ReFocus: The Films of Michel Gondry Edited by Marcelline Block and Jennifer Kirby ReFocus: The Films of Rachid Bouchareb Edited by Michael Gott and Leslie Kealhofer-Kemp ReFocus: The Films of Andrei Tarkovsky Edited by Sergey Toymentsev ReFocus: The Films of Paul Leni Edited by Erica Tortolani and Martin F. Norden ReFocus: The Films of Rakhshan Banietemad Edited by Maryam Ghorbankarimi ReFocus: The Films of Jocelyn Saab: Films, Artworks and Cultural Events for the Arab World Edited by Mathilde Rouxel and Stefanie Van de Peer ReFocus: The Films of François Ozon Edited by Loïc Bourdeau ReFocus: The Films of Lucrecia Martel Edited by Natalia Christofoletti Barrenha, Julia Kratje and Paul R. Merchant ReFocus: The Films of Zoya Akhtar Edited by Aakshi Magazine and Amber Shields edinburghuniversitypress.com/series/refocint ReFocus: The Films of Zoya Akhtar Edited by Aakshi Magazine and Amber Shields Edinburgh University Press is one of the leading university presses in the UK. We publish academic books and journals in our selected subject areas across the humanities and social sciences, combining cutting-edge scholarship with high editorial and production values to produce academic works of lasting importance. For more information visit our website: edinburghuniversitypress.com © editorial matter and organisation Aakshi Magazine and Amber Shields, 2022 © the chapters their several authors, 2022 Edinburgh University Press Ltd The Tun – Holyrood Road 12 (2f) Jackson’s Entry Edinburgh EH8 8PJ Typeset in 11/13 Ehrhardt MT by IDSUK (DataConnection) Ltd, and printed and bound in Great Britain A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 978 1 4744 7641 6 (hardback) ISBN 978 1 4744 7643 0 (webready PDF) ISBN 978 1 4744 7644 7 (epub) The right of Aakshi Magazine and Amber Shields to be identified as editors of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 and the Copyright and Related Rights Regulations 2003 (SI No. 2498). Contents List of Figures vii Notes on Contributors viii Introduction: Intersecting Industries 1 Aakshi Magazine and Amber Shields Part I Growing up Industry 1 Loving but Critical: The Empathetic Gaze of Luck by Chance 21 Aakshi Magazine 2 Relocating Bollywood: Gully Boy and the Worlds of Hip-hop 38 Sangita Gopal 3 New Forms, New Stories: Zoya Akhtar’s Short Films 59 Amber Shields 4 Zoya Akhtar as a Screenwriter: Making Niche the New Mainstream 75 Vyoma Jha Part II Reworking Bollywood Themes 5 The Heterotopia of Family Relation-Ship in Dil Dhadakne Do 93 Debnita Chakravarti 6 Sabka Time Aayega: Language and the City in Gully Boy 108 Kamayani Sharma 7 Queer Love: He is Also Made in Heaven 126 Iqra Shagufta Cheema Part III A New Era of Gendered Politics 8 Conflicted and Confused: The Changing Complexity of Masculinity in Zoya Akhtar’s Films 147 Amber Shields vi contents 9 Señoritas at Work: Gendered Work, Aspiration and Leisure in the Films of Zoya Akhtar 164 Sharanya 10 Self-made vs Self-respect: The Politics of Belonging in Zoya Akhtar’s Films 180 Vijeta Kumar Part IV The Word and the Screen 11 Deconstructing the Perception of ‘The Elite Class Filmmaker’: A Critical Analysis of Mainstream Film Reviews of Zoya Akhtar’s Cinema 199 Ruchi Kher Jaggi and Mudita Mishra 12 The Final Word: An Interview with Zoya Akhtar 217 Aakshi Magazine and Amber Shields General Index 232 Index of Films 238 Figures 1.1 The final conversation: Sona and Vikram 33 2.1 One of the worlds that Gully Boy depicts is the space where gully rap happens 53 3.1 Sudha hears the whispers invading her confined space 70 4.1 The Mehras board the ship in this tale of the modern Indian family 85 5.1 The Mehras find a space of regeneration on the lifeboat 105 6.1 Murad is shown toiling over his writing, dispelling its mystery 118 7.1 Karan and his lover in the light 139 8.1 Each of the protagonists in ZNMD runs towards his own fate 153 9.1 Sona stares at the domestic apparatus Vikram won 175 10.1 Aftab’s demonstrations of patriarchal violence are present throughout Gully Boy 183 Notes on Contributors Debnita Chakravarti is Associate Professor (English literature) with a doctoral degree from the University of Reading, UK. She was awarded a post- doctoral Charles Wallace fellowship to the University of Southampton and Chawton House in Alton. She has been published by Pearson, Peter Lang, Ashgate and Routledge (chapters in books) and in several peer-reviewed academic journals. She has reviewed films and books as a freelancer for Indian magazines and dailies and is a regular literary conversationalist at the annual Kolkata Literary Meet and in the series An Author’s Afternoon. Iqra Shagufta Cheema recently earned her doctorate in postmodernist comparative literature from the University of North Texas. Currently she is working on a book manuscript, The Films of Annemarie Jacir, and editing an anthology, The Other #MeToos. Sangita Gopal is Associate Professor of English at the University of Oregon. She is author of Conjugations: Marriage and Form in New Bollywood Cinema (2011) and co editor of Global Bollywood: Transnational Travels of Hindi Film Music (2008). Ruchi Kher Jaggi is Professor and Director of Symbiosis Institute of Media and Communication, and Dean of the Faculty of Media and Communication, Symbiosis International (Deemed University), Pune, India, with an expe- rience of two decades in higher education. Her research interests include media representations, popular culture analysis, media and children, tele- vision studies, journalism studies, media literacy, streaming platforms and emerging discourses of identity on the new media. notes on contributors ix Vyoma Jha is a socio-legal scholar who recently graduated from the doctoral program at Stanford Law School. She holds law degrees from Stanford Law School, New York University School of Law, and National Law University, Jodhpur. Vyoma focuses her research on climate change law and policy, international economic law, and India’s foreign policy. Her writing has appeared in journals such as Economic and Political Weekly, Journal of World Investment and Trade, and Trade, Law and Development. Vijeta Kumar teaches English and Journalism in St Joseph’s College, Bangalore. Her research interests include Dalit Literature, Auto ethnography, and Narrative Journalism. She is currently working on a book of essays on caste and the city. Her work has appeared in Huffpost, First Post, and India Today. In 2018, she was shortlisted for the Toto award in creative writing, and as of 2017, she has been conducting writing workshops exclusively for Dalit women. Aakshi Magazine is a writer and academic based in India. She received her PhD in Film Studies from the University of St Andrews in 2020. Her doctoral thesis, The 1950s Hindi Film Song: Between Transgression and Memory, is on the relationship of the film song to the contradictions of the Indian nationalist discourse. She has published several journal articles, a book chapter and film criticism in popular publications. Mudita Mishra is an Assistant Professor and a doctoral candidate at Symbiosis Institute of Media and Communication, Symbiosis International (Deemed Uni- versity), Pune, India. Her research interests and areas of work include consumer culture and audience studies for video streaming platforms. Sharanya is Lecturer in Theatre at Brunel University London. Her work has previously appeared in Theatre Research International, Performance Research and elsewhere. She is part of the editorial team of Contemporary Theatre Review’s online platform Interventions. In 2021, she was a Fellow at the Mellon School of Theater and Performance Research at Harvard University. Kamayani Sharma studied philosophy and gender studies at Fergusson College, Pune and has a Master’s from the School of Arts and Aesthetics, JNU. A former text editor with ART India, Sharma has written for Artforum, The White Review, Momus, The Caravan, Open and Firstpost. Her academic articles have appeared in or are forthcoming in Studies in South Asian Film and Media and in an edited volume on the South Asian Gothic being published by the University of Wales Press. She has been a research associate to a Brown Uni- versity anthropologist, taught philosophy at Ashoka University, and been a researcher with the media studies organisation, Sarai (CSDS). x notes on contributors Amber Shields received her PhD in Film Studies from the University of St Andrews where she focused on how fantasy is used to tell stories of individual and collective trauma in films from around the world. She has taught Film and English courses at Mount Tamalpais College and currently works with nonprofits reimagining education and supporting the development of young leaders. She has published several journal articles and book chapters.