Women Filmmakers in Contemporary Hindi Cinema : Looking Through Their Gaze

This book is a comprehensive anthology comprising essays on women film directors, producers and screenwriters from Bollywood, or the popular Hindi film industry. It derives from the major theories of modernity, postmodern feminism, semiotics, cultural production, and gender performativity in globalized times. The collection transcends the traditional approaches of looking at films made by women filmmakers as ‘feminist’ cinema, and focuses on an extraordinary group of women filmmakers like Ashwini Iyer Tiwari, Bhavani Iyer, Farah Khan, Mira Nair Vijaya Mehta, and Zoya Akthar. The volume will be of interest to academics and theorists of gender and Hindi cinema, as well as anybody interested in contemporary Hindi films in their various manifestations. Acknowledgements Contents Notes on Contributors Chapter 1: Introduction: Wonder Women, Iron Ladies References Part I: Auteurial Voices, Bollywood Glamor, Multiple Genres Chapter 2: ‘Love You Zindagi’: Gauri Shinde’s Celebration of Women and Life on Screen Conclusion References Chapter 3: Zoya Akhtar: Global Genres and Gendered Signatures Dil Dhadakne Do Gully Boy Streaming Content Ghost Stories Bombay Talkies Conclusion References Chapter 4: Revisioning Family Drama: The Global Spaces of Romance and Science Fiction in Honey Irani’s Stories The Yash Chopra Phase: Romance, Realism, and Globalization Directing Armaan (Desire, 2003) Krrish and the Indianization of the Superhero Genre Conclusion References Chapter 5: Women (Not) Telling Women’s Stories: Tanuja Chandra’s Directorial Journey from Action-Thriller to Romance and Beyond Situating Chandra in the 1990s Bollywood Milieu Chandra’s “Heroes”: Re-enacting and Reconfiguring the Hero A Case of Genre Agnosticism: Analyzing Chandra’s Later Films Conclusion References Chapter 6: Reema Kagti and the Ethics of Surprise The Ethics of Surprise Hatke Beginnings Ghosts and Hauntings A Return to the Mainstream? Conclusion References Chapter 7: Farah Khan: Cinephilia, Nostalgia and Melancholia Cinephilia of an Industry Insider, the Cinephile as Director Many Nostalgias, Citations and Refusals Melancholia, Grief and Non-mourning Conclusion References Chapter 8: Guneet Monga: Gender, Labour and the “Disrupter” Indie Film Producer Shifting Dynamics in Hindi Film Production Disrupt to Construct The Art of the Hustle(r) Labour Challenges Monga’s Woman’s Lens Engendering the “Woman’s Film” in Commercial Hindi Cinema Case Study of a Woman’s Film References Part II: The Transnational and Postcolonial Turns Chapter 9: Roots and Routes: Home and the World in Sooni Taraporevala’s Transnational Storytelling The Immigrant Experience and the Figuration of the Other Transnational Screenwriting from the Margins of the Media Industries Decoding Universalism: A Child’s Play Finding Home in the World: Tracing the Exilic Eye Diaspora and Displacement The Insurmountable Weight of Representation in Adaptations Unpacking the Transnational Idiom Conclusion References Chapter 10: Mira Nair and the Cinema of Postcolonial Spectacle The Spectacle of Excess in Postcolonial Cinema Aesthetic and Affective Coordinates of the Pre/Postcolonial Space Conclusion References Part III: Gender, Sexuality, Subversions Chapter 11: Figurations of Fallible Women: The Art and Act of Writing by Juhi Chaturvedi The Home and the World The Exterior and Interior(Ity) Arriving at in-Between Spaces References Chapter 12: Queer Counter-narratives, Feminist Authorship, and the Inclusive Storytelling of Gazal Dhaliwal Gazal Dhaliwal and the Significance of Counter-storytelling Feminist Authorship in Qarib and Ek Ladki Boxes and Closets: The Constraints of Heteropatriarchy “Mere Liye Toh Yehi Normal Hai”: Ek Ladki as Queer Cinema Love in the Time of Queerphobia References Chapter 13: “Rosy Ki Khwaheeshein”: Scripted Romance and Acquaintance Rape in Alankrita Shrivastava’s Oeuvre of Female Desire Expressing Desire: The Power of Female Sexual Agency Prohibitions of Desire, Impossibility of Love, and the Reality of Rape References Chapter 14: Women at a Distance: Gender Politics and the Past in Bhavani Iyer’s Writings I II III Conclusion References Part IV: Spatio-Temporal Specificities Chapter 15: Marginalizations and Repressions in Vijaya Mehta’s Pestonjee and Hamidabai ki Kothi The Indian New Wave, Feminist Politics, and Auteurism Pestonjee and Hamidabai ki Kothi Narrating Marginalization and Repressions: Women, Marriages, and the Home Agentive Marginalization: Recalcitrant Women Conclusion References Chapter 16: Reconstructing Motherhood in Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari’s Nil Battey Sannata References Glossary Index