RE-PRESENTATION OF IDENTITIES OF WOMEN IN INDIAN CINEMA (Pages 46-57) by in THE INTERNATIONAL RESEARCH SPECIALIST / ISSN: 2350-1499 (Online); 2350-0751 (Print)

Cinema as a cultural production has always affected the lives of people and it has immense influence on the construction of the reality. Indian popular cinema offers a potential platform to either build new spaces for women characters or see them as a mere glamourize body. The paper seeks to analyse how the women characters are fabricated from the strands of time in a way to amuse male gaze. It tries to present how clearly the portrayal of heroines in Indian cinema is nothing more than a shadow to their counterparts. The ideology common throughout Indian cinema that women are best served when they are under the rule of the male family member, is a constant occurrence to emphasize the Patriarchal outlook presented by male directors, where the assumed viewer is a male. Moreover the threat to nation is always linked with a woman’s purity, making their body a canvas for sacrifice. However, it is no wrong to say that the danger faced by women, portrayed in the films under discussion, is not external or from public sphere, it is within the internal hierarchy enforced by the male dominance. They were abused, violated and abandoned by their own male counterparts in the films taken to study the characterization. Be it Nargis (Mother India) been abandoned by her own husband, the sole bread winner of the house or Tabu (Chandni Bar) been forced into flesh trade by her uncle, her only guardian. With the changing social and cultural climate in India, the concept of Devi, dasi and daayin, in films has evolved, to an extent. Still the portrayal has always been put forth in one of these titles e.g., pure virgin, submissive, devoted and loyal or as a fighter to win back the right to live as an individual- Madhuri Dixit and Shabana Azmi (Mrityudand), Are they the New women or just the daayins of cinema? The paper tries to present the brief study of characterization of protagonists to understand their marginalization reducing them to a body to be used for pleasure for male gaze.abandoned by her own husband, the sole bread winner of the house or Tabu (Chandni Bar) been forced into flesh trade by her uncle, her only guardian. With the changing social and cultural climate in India, the concept of Devi, dasi and daayin, in films has evolved, to an extent. Still the portrayal has always been put forth in one of these titles e.g., pure virgin, submissive, devoted and loyal or as a fighter to win back the right to live as an individual- Madhuri Dixit and Shabana Azmi (Mrityudand), Are they the New women or just the daayins of cinema? The paper tries to present the brief study of characterization of protagonists to understand their marginalization reducing them to a body to be used for pleasure for male gaze.Keywords: cultural production, potential platform, women characters, portrayal of heroines, Patriarchal outlook, changing social and cultural climate, characterization of protagonists, male gaze etc.