Women Filmmakers in Contemporary Hindi Cinema: Looking through their Gaze

by Aysha Iqbal Viswamohan (Editor)

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783031102325
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan
Publication date:	01/28/2023
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	564 KB

About the Author

Aysha Iqbal Viswamohan is Professor, Dept of HSS, IIT Madras, India. Her edited anthologies comprise Stardom in Contemporary Hindi Cinema: Celebrity and Fame in Globalized Times (2020), Behind the Scenes: Contemporary Bollywood Directors (2017) and Post-liberalization Indian Novels in English: Global Reception&Politics of Award (2013).

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Introduction: Wonder Women, Iron Ladies.- Part 1 Auteurial Voices, Bollywood Glamor, Multiple Genres.- Chapter 2: ‘Love You Zindagi’: Gauri Shinde’s Celebration of Women and Life on Screen.- Chapter 3: Zoya Akhtar: Global Genres and Gendered Signatures.- Chapter 4: Revisioning Family Drama: The Global Spaces of Romance and Science Fiction in Honey Irani’s Stories.- Chapter 5: Women (Not) Telling Women’s Stories: Tanuja Chandra’s Directorial Journey from Action-Thriller to Romance and Beyond.- Chapter 6: Reema Kagti and the Ethics of Surprise.- Chapter 7: Farah Khan: Cinephilia, Nostalgia and Melancholy.- Chapter 8: Guneet Monga: Gender, Labour and the ‘Disrupter’ Indie Film Producer.- Part 2 The Transnational and Postcolonial Turns.- Chapter 9: Roots and Routes: Home and the World in Sooni Taraporevala’s Transnational storytelling.- Chapter 10: Mira Nair and the Cinema of Postcolonial Spectacle.- Part 3 Gender, Sexuality, Subversions.- Chapter 11: Figurations of FallibleWomen: The art and act of writing by Juhi Chaturvedi.- Chapter 12: Queer Counter-narratives, Feminist Authorship, and the Inclusive Storytelling of Gazal Dhaliwal.- Chapter 13: “Rosy Ki Khwaheeshein”: Scripted Romance and Acquaintance Rape  in Alankrita Shrivastava’s Oeuvre of Female Desire.- Chapter 14: Women at a Distance: Gender Politics and the Past in Bhavani Iyer’s Writings.- Part 4 Spatio-temporal specificities.- Chapter 15: Marginalizations and Repressions in Vijaya Mehta’s Pestonjee and Hamidabai ki Kothi.- Chapter 16: Reconstructing Motherhood in Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari’s Nil Battey Sannata.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“Despite being central to any Bollywood potboiler worth its salt, women rarely feature in critical thinking about Hindi films. Addressing women as directors, scriptwriters, and producers, Women Filmmakers in Contemporary Hindi Cinema opens up many doors for us to walk through. On women. By women. But not only for women.” (Madhavi Menon, Professor of English Director, Centre for Studies in Gender and Sexuality, Ashoka University, India​)

“Over the last three decades, the Bombay film industry has witnessed a significant rise in the numbers of women who, in different professional capacities, have contributed to the creation of films for theatrical release and streaming platforms. This anthology invites a range of scholars to reflect on this moment. The outcome is rich with ideas that promise to inspire a new set of conversations.” (Shohini Ghosh, Sajjad Zaheer Professor, AJK Mass Communication Research Centre, Jamia Millia Islamia)