Politics of Elemental and Eliminative Representation of Women in the Indian Cinema

Modernization in India came with its own set of issues which raised more questions than answers. It has been observed since ages that no matter how much progressive and modern we claim to be; we are still very much a part of the society where a variety of atrocities and violence against women like killing and aborting the girl child, honour killing, acid attacks, rape, etc. have almost become part of the everyday life. This brutally enigmatic reality of life has always managed to find means of representation and misrepresentation across different mediums. The Indian Hindi Cinema or Bollywood has produced a number of very significant movies where the atrocities and violence against women are depicted. Movies like ? Mother India, Mirch Masala, Mrityudanda, Shakti: The Power, Provoked, etc. are some of the very important and impressively directed movies which in some way or the other reveal the darker side of society where women are subjected to torture and subjugation. Women in Bollywood are no longer ?decorative objects? but through their realistic and powerful characterization aim to provide a ?worldwide awareness of female experience??. Movies like Bazaar, Provoked, Water and Fire have raised the issues of proper (ideal?) representation of women. This paper attempts to trace the instances of rebellion by such oppressed and abused women. This rebellion was not just at the level of raising their voice against injustice of society but it also penetrated the deep layers of systemic sectarian violence. It then becomes mandatory to look into the acts of violence and counter violence inside and outside the institution of marriage too as the institution of marriage holds the center in discourse of the Indian society. It attempts to look into the acts of articulation, dialogue, sexual aggressiveness and physical torture through a ?culture ? specific? and ?situation specific? mode of analysis. It tries to find the intersections between the ?real? and ?reel? (mis) representations of women who are trying to make a conscious effort to address the anxieties and angsts of sexuality, gender, caste, class and ethnicity. The paper also tries to read the very phenomenon of modernization as a cultural discourse in the mainstream commercial Bollywood movies as well as in the critically acclaimed art movies.