Mira Nair and Deepa Mehta are female filmmakers from the Indian diaspora, whose films portray Indian women – compared to their popular cinematic construction – in unconventional and controversial ways. The tension created by their existence in the diaspora is revealed through the unconventional portrayal of the Indian woman in comparison to the portrayal of Indian women in the popular cinema of their native country, India.
Indian Popular Cinema
History
Films that openly dealt with the country's political situation and the growing nationalist sentiment in India were heavily censored. Bollywood cinema, with an increasingly international status, conveys specific images of India and Indian lifestyle, values and beliefs to the rest of the world.
Women in Indian Popular Cinema
There is another female role that stands opposite to the role of the wife in these films. The electrifying effect of the exposed skin is emphasized by the choreography of the dance sequences.
An Accented Cinema
- Exilic Filmmakers
- Diasporic Filmmakers
- Postcolonial Ethnic and Identity Filmmakers
- The Accented Style
- Journeying, Border Crossing, and Identity Crossing
Naficy says that "highlighted" cinema is interstitial17 as a result of films that are produced in the transition between cultures and societies. It can be argued that the fetishization of their homeland, India, occurs through the characterization of Indian women in their films.
Postcolonial Feminisms
Chandra Talpade Mohanty
Subsequently, the writings produced by Third World women have, until now, been largely concerned with. This, she says, helps to "create a discursive space where knowledge (itself) is produced by and for Third World women" (Mohanty, Russo & Torres, 1991: 34).
Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak
They begin to question the practices of the homeland because they are no longer established in it. Although standing between the spaces causes a disturbance in the lives of the "emphasized" filmmakers, they are placed in a very privileged position.
Conclusion
Using the theoretical framework established in the first chapter, this chapter serves to analyze the construction of female characters in Mira Nair's Mississippi Masala (1991) and Monsoon Wedding (2002). We will read each of the female protagonists in the selected films according to their characteristics. These characteristics are related to the plurality of characters in the films with an emphasis on the journey of identity and the border crossing experience they experience.
Each section will provide a synopsis of the films and an "accented" reading of each of the main female characters in these films.
Mira Nair
This will be followed by separate sections on Mississippi Masala (1991) and Monsoon Wedding (2002) under the title "Articulating Space in. Articulating Postcolonial Feminisms" engages in a postcolonial feminist discussion of the characters in relation to each other, in order to to elucidate the way in which Nairi manipulates their construction so that popular narratives are redefined as spaces from which women's stories emerge. told her to be heard. You can find yourself on the other side of the world and yet find a memory or home connection.
And, although these structures of feeling are not defined or may not necessarily play out in the way Naficy describes, they filter into the construction of Indian women in her films.
Articulating Space in the ‘Accented’ Style .1 Mississippi Masala (1991) - A Synopsis
Mina
She is secure in herself and in her beliefs, but insecure in her negotiated identity. Ultimately, Mina comes to terms with who she is and discards notions of who or what she is not. He acknowledges his Indian origins, but also acknowledges that this is not all he is.
She is also American and thus integrates aspects of the Western experience with her physical existence as an Indian woman.
Kinnu
Consequently, she is more vocal about her thoughts and feelings, both positive and negative, about her husband's and daughter's behavior. It does not require a complete reversal of roles, but a division of parental responsibility. She is judged based on her family's class, economic status, looks and behavior.
She has her business in America and she has to make sure she is available in case Mina needs her.
Monsoon Wedding (2002) - A Synopsis
- Aditi
- Pimmi
- Alice
She is traditional in terms of her expectations of marriage and the roles she has to play. She silences him (as he silenced her when he rejected her sexual advances) because she is not happy with his approach to her child. Most of the time he is in the background and can be counted on to be available when needed.
Everyone knows she is around, but she is never heard and almost never seen.
Speaking Out: The Articulation of Postcolonial Feminisms
42See the Postcolonial Feminisms section of Chapter One (p. 35) for alternative considerations of the idea of the subaltern. Mohanty (1988) also argues that one of the assumptions in Western feminist scholarship is that women in the Third World are victims of their gender, sexual difference and patriarchy, and that they experience these conditions/aspects in the same way. Nair's 'accentuated' construction of Indian women in her films addresses a concern – raised in the writings of Third World women – about the significance of narrative in creating oppositional power.
The narrative of the film is structured according to the Hollywood interracial love story genre.
Conclusion
In this chapter, as in Chapter Two, the theoretical framework of analysis established in Chapter 1 will be appropriated in a reading of Deepa Mehta's female characters in the films Fire (1995) and Earth (1999). Mehta's films are openly critical - she sharply challenges hegemonic practices in India to express (preferably) untold and unheard stories about Indians, and especially Indian women43. In Mehta's case, living outside India, as will be discussed further in this chapter, has allowed her to interrogate the values inscribed in India's history and religious myths and the way this contributes to the constructed notion of Indian womanhood.
Naficy's (2001) notions of the plurality of identity, travel, border-crossing, tactile optics and structures of feeling discussed in the first chapter (pp. 17-29) that characterize the experience of home and body in films and the protagonists of the film by "accented" filmmakers will applied to reading Mehta's female characters.
Deepa Mehta
Some of Mehta's awards and accolades include48: Cannes Critics' Honorable Mention for Sam and Me; guest directed George Lucas' Young Indiana Jones' Chronicles (1992 and 1994); Fire was immediately nominated for the Air Canada People's Choice Award at the 1996 Toronto International Film Festival, where it opened the Perspective Canada Programs section; and Earth was awarded the Prix Premiére du Publique at the Festival du Film Asiatique de Deauville (France) in 1999 and the Critics' Award at the Schermi d'Amore International Film Festival. Mehta states that the choice of natural elements as themes for her trilogy was influenced by the fact that these elements, with the potential to nourish and destroy, exhibit passion at different levels (Prakash, 2000 & Ramchandani, 1998). Earth (1999), on the other hand, grew out of her personal interest in the division between India and Pakistan.
Bapsi Sidhwa's novel, Cracking India (1991), provided the perfect impetus for telling these people's stories through film.
Telling ‘Her’-stories in the Accented Style .1 Fire (1995) - A Synopsis
Sita
The first aspect of Sita's plurality, at the beginning of the film, is the fact that she is a newly married woman. For example, on the morning of the Karva Chauth fast, Radha and Sita discuss what to do for the day. As a daughter-in-law, she is expected to dedicate herself to serving the family.
Man is sovereign in the external activities of the married couple, and therefore it is the fitness of things.
Radha
Unlike Sita, who crosses her boundary at the moment of the kiss, Radha's boundary crossing is catalyzed by the kiss. In a superbly constructed scene that captures the essence of the film, Radha is engulfed in a pillar of flame similar to the one that Seeta, Lord Rama's wife, had to endure to prove her loyalty to him. 57 See the following section on the character of Biji for a discussion of the significance of her role during this scene.
Her survival of the fire illustrates that her unconditional devotion to him is no longer necessary.
Biji 59
Radha appears to understand that she has to express her identity in her husband's house. But even as she understands that her identity as a wife must be performed, she clings to the memory of her parents in the field with her and the lesson shared that day. She is displaced in her husband's home, but in her thoughts and dreams she believes she will find her way.
She then proceeds to gently cup Radha's face in her hands and, after a long pause, spits into it.
Earth (1999) - A Synopsis
- Shanta 62
- Lenny
- Bunty
As India endures the ravages of conflict between these groups, Shanta experiences the division of her being in the tension between these men. She is quite observant, intuitive and sharp, being very attuned to the essence of anxiety that overwhelms the adults around her. She is confused by the political climate because she is not aware of the full course of the situation.
Bunty witnesses the problems of the conflict experienced by her friends and domestic workers.
Resisting Time: The Articulation of Postcolonial Feminisms
The character of Radha, on the other hand, brings sexual desire and pleasure into the realm of the Indian woman by entering into a lesbian relationship. Mehta, in the construction of her narratives and characters, shows evidence of the concerns common in the writings of Third World women. Even though the majority of Indian women occupied the private sphere in 1947, it must be recognized that they were active members of the struggle.
The final third-world feminist concern that Mehta addresses in both films is the importance of writing and memory in the creation of oppositional agency.
Conclusion
Both Spivak and Mohanty promote the use of text and stories in the representation of the Third World woman of color. Therefore, to conceptualize the analytical possibilities of Nair and Mehta's character constructs, Chapter One of this thesis proposed and illustrated that merging the theories of 'accented' cinema and postcolonial feminisms would create an appropriate theoretical framework for reading these theories. of their films (and possibly others as well). Chapters two and three thus explore the feasibility of the theoretical framework of 'accentuated' cinema/postcolonial feminism through a detailed reading of Nair and Mehta's female protagonists.
The application of the frame indeed confirmed the predicted similarity of Nair and Mehta's films based on and in their experiences of diaspora and displacement.
Secondary Sources
The angel of progress: The pitfalls of the term "post-colonialism". Colonial discourses and post-colonial theory. Under the Eyes of the West: Feminist Scholarship and Colonial Discourses‟ In P. Colonial Discourses and Post-Colonial Theory. 1995).„Where women are worshipped, there the gods rejoice‟ - The mirage of Hindu woman‟s ancestors‟.
FILMOGRAPHY OF MIRA NAIR 71 Completed Films
FILMOGRAPHY OF DEEPA MEHTA 72 Completed Films
