Blurring the Binaries, Blending the Gender: A Transition from Male Masculinity to .emale Androgyny in Hindi Cinema

The notion of gender identity as immutable has prompted a renewed focus on the rethinking of issues pertaining to the representation of women in Hindi cinema. The most pronounced effect of reconfiguring gender can be seen through the transformation of women identity in the recent decades because of the restructuring of gender relations that it has arguably initiated. Renewed forms of autonomy and reflexivity as critical awareness of oneself have emerged which no longer take into consideration the dichotomy between male domination and female subordination. Drawing upon the insights of Halberstam and Butler, the paper is an attempt to analyze the deconstruction of gender binaries and re-visioning of female masculinity in the portrayal of celluloid females in the action movies Gunday and Mardaani. Emerging with all the outstanding traits, the contemporary portrayal of androgynous females is no doubt nuanced and distinctive but the analysis is based on as to whether such exceptional platform provides better representation, and moreover, whether such representations offer inherent multiplicity within the homogeneous classification of femininity with respect to Indian cinema.