Thematizations of the Goddess in South Asian Cinema PDF
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Thematizations of the Goddess in South Asian Cinema Thematizations of the Goddess in South Asian Cinema Edited by Anway Mukhopadhyay and Shouvik Narayan Hore Thematizations of the Goddess in South Asian Cinema Edited by Anway Mukhopadhyay and Shouvik Narayan Hore This book first published 2023 Cambridge Scholars Publishing Lady Stephenson Library, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE6 2PA, UK British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Copyright © 2023 by Anway Mukhopadhyay, Shouvik Narayan Hore and contributors All rights for this book reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. ISBN (10): 1-5275-9122-0 ISBN (13): 978-1-5275-9122-6 TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction ................................................................................................ 1 Anway Mukhopadhyay and Shouvik Narayan Hore Chapter One ................................................................................................ 7 A Trajectory of the Hero and Goddess in South Asian Cinema: The Myth of Kumari from Stage to Screen Dhruba Karki Chapter Two ............................................................................................. 28 Locating the Disruptive ‘Real’ of Femininity: A Reading of Debi: Misir Ali Prothombar Prabal Bhowmik Chapter Three ........................................................................................... 37 History, Religion, and Historicity: A Study of the Documentary on Sharda Pith by Public 24x7 Srijani Chowdhury Chapter Four ............................................................................................. 45 Questioning the Propagandist Elements within Religion Through the Lens of Humour: A Critical Reading of Mookuthi Amman Ritushree Sengupta Chapter Five ............................................................................................. 52 S***: The Word that Turned the Sacred, Profane Balagopal Menon Chapter Six ............................................................................................... 65 Woman Becoming Goddess in Devipaksha: Violence, Justice, and the (Divine) Feminine Neha Chatterjee vi Table of Contents Chapter Seven ........................................................................................... 74 Goddesses of a Different Ilk: Partition and Its ‘Other’ Women in Meghe Dhaka Tara and Earth 1947 Raja Basu Chapter Eight ............................................................................................ 84 Retelling the ‘Signs’ of Holy Militia: Sujoy Ghosh’s Kahaani Takbeer Salati Chapter Nine ............................................................................................. 97 Goddess, Bride, Daughter: Nanda Devi in the Raj Jat Documentary Ankita Sundriyal Chapter Ten ............................................................................................ 108 Shakti Rupena Sangsthita: Interfacing Goddess Worship, Sacred Geography and the Flesh Trade in the Hindi Movie Chingaari Praggnaparamita Biswas Chapter Eleven ....................................................................................... 123 Back to (Im)Purity: An Alternative Umbilical Discourse in Tumbbad Dipannita Chatterjee and Gourab Singha Chapter Twelve ...................................................................................... 132 Bandhu Singh ki Faansi: Maa Tarkulha Devi: The Goddess of a “Forgotten” Hero Utkarsh Chaubey Chapter Thirteen ..................................................................................... 143 Re-creating the Goddess Sita in Subarnarekha and Pinjar: Depicting the Partition and Women’s Subjectivity in Indian Cinema Adity Roy Chapter Fourteen .................................................................................... 166 From Devi to Bulbbul: Cinematic Representations of the Embodied Goddess Jaya Sarkar Chapter Fifteen ....................................................................................... 176 Kali and Indian Horror-Thriller Films: The Malevolent Muse Dipanwita Paul Thematizations of the Goddess in South Asian Cinema vii Chapter Sixteen ...................................................................................... 192 The Medium and Its Limits: The Goddess in Marutirtha Hinglaj and Devi Sreejit Datta and Ahana Chaudhuri Chapter Seventeen .................................................................................. 203 “Radha saji, Sita saji, saji Parvati. Tobu keno jay na go moder durgati”: Aparna’s Quest and the Resultant Discovery of the ‘Heart of Darkness’ in Kaler Rakhal (2009) Nabanita Paul and Abhishek Chowdhury Chapter Eighteen .................................................................................... 214 The Making of the Goddess: A Critical Appraisal of the Depiction of the Goddess Bhadrakali in Malayalam Cinema Monisha Mohan and Gigy J. Alex Chapter Nineteen .................................................................................... 233 Devat(cid:407) and Her Creator in Vaishnavee: The Devotional and Theistic-Artistic Interrelationship Between Osanda and Vaishnavee Sreenu Gopan Chapter Twenty ...................................................................................... 245 In Pursuit of Bhakti: A Study of Three Goddess Films Shouvik Narayan Hore List of Contributors ................................................................................ 255 INTRODUCTION ANWAY MUKHOPADHYAY AND SHOUVIK NARAYAN HORE The figure of the Goddess has often assumed a central position in the thematic spectrum of various genres of South Asian cinema. From genre to genre, and from one geo-cultural zone to another, her cinematic representations manifest different socio-political concerns, aesthetic styles and thematic treatments. While the mythological genre represents her mythic exploits, including narratives grounded in both Sanskritic and local/sthalapuranic traditions, “art films” often seek to thematize the Goddess in terms of the complex relations between gender and religion in South Asia. Thematically speaking, her functions, whether tropological or narrative, often overlap across film genres in the region. Hence, there is convergence as well as divergence between the thematizations of the Goddess in art films and those in popular mythological or devotional films. We need to remember that even the audience of the art films on the Goddess theme may often be grounded in devotional traditions, and may well be her devotees. Hence, even in terms of the reception of such films by the audience, we often see critical points of convergence as well as divergence, as far as the different film genres are concerned. The Goddess, whether pan-South-Asian or local, Sanskritic or syncretic, remains a powerful presence in South Asian culture. However, while scholars keep dealing with South Asian goddess traditions from the perspective of religious studies, seldom do we pay sufficient attention to the presence – whether solid or spectral – of these living goddess traditions in the domain of cultural production in South Asia. Mandakranta Bose has reminded us of the necessity to “widen the view of goddesses in Hinduism beyond theology and ritual practice to situate them in the human world of their times” (14). This volume, we hope, will facilitate such a project. The Goddess in South Asia remains a conundrum for many – she has co-optable as well as subversive potential, as far as her location within the South Asian patriarchies is concerned. She may sometimes facilitate and sometimes baffle feminist projects. However, the complex imaginaries of the
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