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 OXFORD
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,.# P • '" 'p-

Preface

ndian film studies began to acquire an identity as a separate

I discipline in the eighties. While academic interest in Indian

cinema has a slightly longer history, the publication of the works
of Ashish Rajadhyaksha, Ravi Vasudevan and others, marked the
beginning of a focus on cinema, not merely as a site for occasional
forays by anthropologists, sociologists, psychologists and Indologists,
but as a field with an institutional specificity that could only be
ignored at the risk of a serious misreading of its cultural significance.
The question is not simply one of establishing a new discipline,
a new enclosure within the humanities for the production of expertise.
For film studies, as it participates in the re-definition of culture as an
object of study, the primary conceptual shift has to be towards a
radical contemporaneity, 'a receptivity to the present' as a way of
breaking out of 'a paralyzing historicism' (Dhareshwar 1995:.318).
This present is marked by the fact that the distinctions between an
indigenous past and an inauthentic alienating interregnum (the staple
of post-colonialism) can no longer be taken for granted. The field of
culture, uprooted and reconstructed by the democratic revolution,
can no longer be located in an eternal, unchanging India. Nor, on
the other hand, can any ready reckoner of free-market democracy
provide the concepts for grasping the reality of the present or the
future in store for us. For film studies, as for cultural studies in
general, the challenge is to define its object without recourse to
either of these established procedures. In that spirit, the present
work examines Indian cinema as a modern cultural institution whose
unique features can be related directly or indirectly to the specificity
of the socio-political formation of the Indian nation-state.
I take this opportunity to thank the teachers, friends, institutions
and strangers who have helped with criticism, materials and support,
over the last few years to bring this work to completion.
 viii • Ideology of the Hindi Film Preface • ix
I am indebted to Marcia Landy, who, as supervisor of my doctoral in 1995. It was subsequently published in the Journal of Arls and
project, gave me in my moments of uncertainty, her fullest attention Ideas in January 1996.
and encouragement. A tme friend, philosopher and gUide, she made A part of Chapter 4 was published in the Journal of Arls and
it possible for a group of students at the University of Pittsburgh- Ideas (December 1993) with the title 'Cinema and the Desire for
Amy Villarejo, Mathew Tinkcom, Barbara White, Sally Meckling, Modernity' .
Joy Fuqua and myself-to discuss and critically engage with a wide Thanks are also due to the director and staff of the National Film
range ofdebates in aesthetic and political theory. All of them will Archives of India, Pune and to the Screen Documentation Centre,
no doubt agree with me that those couple of years were vital to our Bombay for use of the library and help with locating materials. And
intellectual formation. to Anita Roy and Shalini Sinha of Oxford University Press for the
I thank Paul Bove and Colin MacCabe for the interest they showed special interest they took in the book both as editors and enthusiastic
and for their cmcial interventions at important stages of the project; readers.
and Keya Ganguly whose engagement with the project was brief My debt to Janaki Nair, who has been my companion right through
but constmctive. T.G. Vaidyanathan and Donald Morton, practitioners this long period, is too great to be acknowledged. She has been the
of a critical pedagogy, were responsible for introducing me to film first and most reliable critic of all that I have written and without her
and for sharpening my critical skills. Thanks are a'lso due to support and encouragement, this book would never have been
Lisa Armstrong, Abhijit Banerjee, Tuli Banerjee, Moinak Biswas, completed.
Satish Deshpande, Lucy Fischer, Mary John, Biju Mathew, Vijay
Prashad, Gautam Premnath, Asok Sen, Ravi Vasudevan, Paul
Willemen and the Oxford University Press's anonymous reader, who
not only commented on the whole text or individual chapters, but
also helped to locate films and other materials and discussed the
project with me at various stages. A special acknowledgement in
this regard is due to Vivek Dhareshwar, Tejaswini Niranjana and
Ashish Rajadhyaksha whose encouragement, criticism and extended
discussions over the years have been of immeasurable value. For
the warm welcome and for making. me feel at home during my
initial lonely days in Calcutta, and not least for the feast of music, I
thank all my friends, in particular Nandinee Bandyopadhyay, Vivek
Dhareshwar, Moinak Biswas, Indira Chowdhury, Sibaji
Bandyopadhyay, Rahul Bose, Kirstie Millward, Tuklu, Sushil Khana
and Rajashri Dasgupta. The opportunity to teach and to discuss
some new ideas at the Film Studies department ofJadavpur University
helped in revising and expanding the text.
Chapter 2 was read at the Cultural Studies Seminar of the Centre
for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta in February 1996. I thank my
colleagues and other members of the audience for their valuable
comments. A slightly different version was presented at the Seminar
organized by the National Film Archives of India, Pune on the
occasion of the centenary of cinema in 1995.
Chapter 9 was first presented at the Workshop on 'Making
Meaning in Indian Cinema' at the Institute for Advanced Study, Shimla

.. ,,!
 Contents

i
, i
1. Introduction: The Ideology of Formal Subsumptlon

PART I
2, The Economics of Ideology: Popular Film 29
Form and Mode of Production
3, The Absolutist Gaze: Political Structure 52
and Cultural Form
4. Guardians of the View: The prohibition 88
of the Private

PART II
5. The Moment of Disaggregation 117

6. The Aesthetic of Mobilization 138

7. Middle-Class Cinema 160

8. The Developmental Aesthetic 188

9. Towards Real Subsumption?: Signs of 217

Ideological Reform in Two Recent Films

Bibliography 238

Index 249

,"r'" ; , . - . . ,..
, ,
 ill
I 1

Int'foduction: The Ideology of

Formal Subsumption

[AJ certain kind of cinema exists only

because a certain kind of state exists.
Ii
-Saeed Mirza

The Specificity of Indian Cinema

ntH recently film theory functioned with the presupposition

U that there was some profound, ineluctable kinship between

cinema and modern Euro-American culture. It had seemed
to investigators of the cinematic institution that film technology had
been invented to meet an already existing <:ultural need, that its
advent in Europe at the end of the nineteenth century was, so to
speak, no accident. The 'emblematic quality of cinema' was attested
to by a series of such 'no-accident' propositions as Judith Mayne
0993: 22) has described them. These situated cinema in a cultural
context already inclined towards realist representation, in an era
that saw the expansion of consumption supported by modern
advertising. This was also the time of emergence of psychoanalysis,
which would later proVide the tools for analysing the cinematic
institution but which in its turn, would appear to have been the
manifestation of a historical necessity (Mayne 22).
Classical Hollywood cinema seemed to exemplify this imimate
cultural kinship. Accordingly, film theory occupied itself with the
Hollywood film text, considering either particular films or an abstract,
general form that stood in for all possible texts in the dominant
mode.

I
I I
..". - ..... ---
. ..

il Introduction • 3
I 2 • Ideology o/the Hindi Film
can be traced to the western provenance of the technology, where
II It is true that some of the lasting achievements of film theory
were made possible by this set of assumptions. But students of
the 'emblematic' features acquire prominence and in keeping with
the logic of technical transfers in a colonial or postcolonial situation,
mainstream Indian cinema confront here a pre-emptive force that assert themselves as the goal of film practice. One could define
defines it in advance as a rlOt-yet-cinema, a bastard institution in these as effects deriving, respectively, from film technology on the
which the mere ghost of a technology is employed for purposes one hand and from the (western) cinematic apparatus on the other.
inimical to its historic essence. To separate the technology in this fashion from the apparatus
This hegemonic alliance between advanced capitalism and the which it seemed to inhabit so naturally, is to reopen the old question
cinematic instit1:Jtion was approached by western film theory as a about the neutrality of technology. Today, few people would contest
challenge to its efforts at building an alternative cinema committed the proposition that technology is never neutral. Nevertheless, when
to progressive social goals. The goal of the theoretical project was we are talking about transfers of technology across cultures, we
to disengage the spectator from his/her habitual, pre-deSignated have to face the possibility that the established structures of the host
location in the dominant cinematic apparatus through a process of culture will determine the way in which it functions there. Thus it
critical unravelling of the apparatus, and thereby to produce a has been shown by Rajadhyaksha (Framework 1987: 20-67) that
politically conscious audience for another cinema. For Indian film still photography, when first introduced into Indian representational
studies, the implications of the assumption underlying this have a practices, did not automatically enforce a realist imperative on these
special significance: if the technology of cinema could be disengaged practices. Instead, photographic reproductions were submitted to
from the naturalized hegemonic formation within which it served already existing principles and protocols and subsumed into an art
the dominant advanced capitalist ideology, by the same token it practice governed by non-realist representational aims. t Film
could be regarded as in itself empty of any cultural content and technology, similarly, enters into a combination of elements within
capable of entering into other combinations in which its potential which its reality-effects are employed in ways that conflict with
could be realized in a completely different form. established perceptions of its historic essence. It is equally clear that
Film technology, developed in the capitalist centre, arrived in the introduction of this new element into the Indian context has far-
India during colonial rule and captivated audiences here as it had reaching transformative effects. The (western) cinematic apparatus,
done elsewhere. It was as part of a movement to promote indigenous on the other hand, is a globally effective ideological apparatus which
enterprise that the idea of an 'Indian cinema' was conceived. If presents a particular combination of elements (where the realism-
Phalke is considered the pioneer of Indian cinema, it is not only cinema connection is asserted strongly) as the only realization of
because he made the 'first' Indian film, but because he conceived of the specific genius of cinema. This apparatus also has its determining
film-making as a nationalist, specifically 'swadeshi' enterprise, and effects on film-making in a (post)colonial context, serving as a model
produced Indian images to occupy the screens (Rajadhyaksha, fA! for a modern aesthetic that every modern nation must aspire to
1987: 47-8). Film technology thus did not arrive in a vacuum. There (re)produce, according to the developmentalist logic that governs
was a cultural, political, social field from within which some people,
the rise and co-existence of nation-states.
encountering a new technology of representation, devised ways of Indian cinema has evolved under such atypical conditions. As a
putting it to uses that accorded with the field. The technology did
not bring with it, readymade, a set of cultural possibilities which IScc Hajadhyaksha, 'Nco-traditionalism: Film as popular Art in India':
would be automatically realized through the mere act of employing -Portrait painters hegan using the [photographic) print only to get a good facial
it. At the same time, the technology is not neutral, simply sliding likeness. ;!fter which they would paint upon the photograph and reintroduee earlier
deeorative conventions. likc planar surfaees, flattened walls and floors. What is more
into the role assigned to it by the cultural-political field it enters. It
interesting ... are the more "documentary" pictures taken by Indians. These inevitably
has its own unsettling, re-organizing effects on the field. use flat planes, emphasising surface. seldom using perspective to suggest a point of
These effects could be of two kinds: (1) effects specific to the entry into the composition or a pathway for the look, jettisoning many of the standard
technology, deriving from the unprecedentedness of the naturalistic principles of "halanee" or symmctry that the Europeans ohserved (Rajadhyaksha,
Framework 19R7, p. 33), See also Geda Kapur. 'Mythic Material in Indian Cinema'
reproduction of the world, the use of a camera to capture reality in
movement and replay it at a different site, etc., and (2) effects that (JAlI4/15: 79-1<)7)·
4 • Ideology ofthe Hindi Film Introduction • 5
national cinema 2 it is unlike those of the European countries which The cinemas of India, in spite of significant differences,s share a
are (or were) sustained by state support, as part of an attempt to common ground, a set of aesthetic concerns, certain dominant
retain a sphere of national activity within a field dominated by tendencies, which show that far from simply remaining in a prolonged
Hollywood. When an effort to produce a cinema that would similarly state of not-yet-ness, Indian cinema had evolved a particular, distinct
represent the nation was launched in India, the adversary was not combination of elements, putting the technology to a use that,
Hollywood but the indigenous popular cinema produced in Bombay whether consistent with the camera's ontology or not, was consistent
and Madras. A vast cultural gap and government restrictions prevented enough over time to suggest ideological effectiVity.
Hollywood from expanding very far beyond a small urban elite Even as we recognize the mainstream western cinematic institution
market. 3 On the other hand, in post-independence India, the policy as the manifestation of a particular, combination of technological,
of independent growth adopted by the state also played a role in economic, political, cultural and historical elements, and thereby
creating the conditions for the expansion and consolidation of a open up a space for the investigation of other such combinations
national audience, which was, in most parts of the country, either specific to other social formations, it is necessary to acknowledge
solely captive to the Bombay industry or divided in its loyalties the dialectical negation of this thesis which consists in recognizing
between a regional product, and the Bombay or Hollywood films 4 that this particular combination is, indeed, the dominant one among
2See (989) for a discussion of the idea of national cinema, with particular all possible combinations, and that it is precisely this that accounts
reference to Europe. In a European context, the so-called national cinemas are often for the primacy it has been accorded in film theory. This dominance
weak. state-sponsored efforts to counter the Hollywood as the popular is evident not only in the global circulation of Hollywood cinema,
cinema for the majority of Europeans is Hollywood. In India, until now, Hollywood
cinema has only enjoyed a restricted audience. Thus. there is a stronger case for but also in the way that realist cinema has proved to be indispensable,
Indian cinema as a national cinema. The problem here is one of internal in the Indian case at any rate, as the site that enables discourse
segmentation: raising Hindi cinema to the status of national cinema can only be at about Indian cinema, proViding the tools for critical intervention,
the cost of major regional film industries such as those of Bengal, Maharashtra,
Tamil Nadu, etc. determining at an unconscious level, the reading practices we bring
needs to he qualified. There has heen a popular audience for 'foreign I1Ims' to bear on Indian film texts, as well as serving as an ideal for film-
from the early days of Indian fUm history. In the colonial era, the making to aspire to. In other words, over the decades, the effects of
favoured measures to discourage Indian audiences from to the American films
which sh9wed the rdCe in an unfavourable light. In this context British policy on
the apparatus have become more and more prominent, making it
cinema, inspired by fears of social disorder, was not unhappy with the trend towards difficult to conceive of a culturally distinctive use of technology.
(Sec Baskaran nd). the may have served their Further, the develop mentalist trajectory of the modern Indian
purpose, this did not destroy audience interest in the foreign product. (One wonders if
the Nadia ftlms were not designed with an eye on such divided aesthetic loyalties of
state has itself led to the advocacy of an evolutionist aesthetic
audiences.) At present, in most cities, there are, apart from the front rows of the programme for the cinema, not only by state functionaries but by
exclusively film theatres', one or two halls which specialize in reruns of popular film-makers (including many who make the song-and-dance films)
Hollywood films (mainly action films) as well as, increasingly, soft porn probably
produced exclusively for Third World urban markets. There has also always been a
and intellectuals as well. The industry has been constantly bombarded
popular audience for Hollywood and non-Hollywood action films, with stars like by journalists, politicians, bureaucrats and self-conscious film-makers
Jean-Paul Bclmondo. Terence Hill and Bud Spencer, Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, and with prescriptions for achieving an international-style realist cinema.
Schwarzenegger acquiring own fan Hindi films sometimes
try to assimilate the content of these films, not always successfully.
The not-yet-ness of the Indian popular cinema is thus not just a
4Strictly speaking, we should be speaking of Indian cinemas, rather than one
cinema. There is some amount of film production in every major Indian 5Satyajit Ray, among others, has noted the 'artificiality' and inauthenticity of
and there are at least six important non-Hindi film industries, not all of Bombay cinema, attributing this to its lack of a specific cultural base, as it has to cater
them are at the moment: Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Tamil and to a multitude of culturally distinct audiences. From the viewpoint of a realist aesthetic,
Tclugu. Nevertheless, Hindi cinema has functioned as a site of production and of which Ray was an champion, this is no doubt true. But since we are
exploration of national identity and ideology, and depends on the talents and finances of an aesthetic that (as will become clear later) is distinctly and consistently
drawn into it from the other language cinemas. Hindi cinema has also assisted state non-realist, such an accusation is premature. Authenticity is a distinctly modern
policy by spreading knowledge of Hindi, the projected across the problem. Even in the cinemas, a substantial number of films are made in the
country. As an industry with a national market, it also attracted talent from all parts of 'Bombay' style. Thus it seems that what is acutely manifested in Hindi cinema is not
the country, especially from non-Hindi like Calcutta and MadraS, exclusive to it, and that we must take into consideration not only the lack of linguistic
Bombay cinema an undeniable national character. specificity but also the problems of a transitional social formation.
 6 • Ideology of the Hindi Film Introduction • 7
biased opinion coming from western or westernized critics, but also susceptibility 'to both a conceptual description and a narrative
a thesis at work within the industry as the instrument of a drive manifestation all at once' (ibid.).
towards change. It is thus inadequate to simply explain away the The binary modernity/tradition, whether it is employed to indicate
mainstream western cinema as the result of a particular combination conflict or complementarity, amounts to an explanation, 'a conceptual
of elements, without accounting for the way in which it has produced or belief system' which regulates thinking about the modern Indian
a common ground for practice and reflection in other areas of the social formation. This binary also figures centrally, both thematically
world as well. and as an organizing device, in popular film narratives. 6 In a social
This is not only inadequate but also problematic, in so far as this formation characterized by an uneven combination of modes of
would reduce the specificity of Indian or any other distinct national production only formally subordinated to capital, where political
cinema to a matter of pure cultural difference. Proclaiming the power is shared by a coalition of bourgeoisie, rural rich and the
difference of Indian cinema as an obvious and absolute fact in itself bureaucratic elite, the explanatory scheme in question functions as
would lead us into a specular enclosure within which this difference a disavowal of modernity, an assurance of the permanence of the
will be forever defined only by reference to the global dominant,
requiring no attempt to investigate the specific structures and logics 6A .K. Ramanujan, the late poet and scholar, is reported to have remarked once:
'I do not believe in god; I believe in people who believe in god' (Karnad, RUjuvatbu
of the institution as it has evolved in India. This trap can only be
1994: 40). Ramanujan was more sensitive than most people to the forms in which
avoided by locating the Indian cinematic institution simultaneously ideologies were effective in the national discourse. It is not surprising therefore that
on two overlapping grounds: (1) the socio-political formation of the he should have formulated so well, in a proto-narrative form, a key ideologeme of
modern Indian state, with its internal structure as a determining modern India whose effectivity can be traced in a range of discursive' sites where it
may not always be so explicitly formulated.
factor in cultural production, and '(2) the global capitalist structure
This formulation has the distinct advantage of providing, in its very syntax, a
within which this modern state and the cinema we are dealing with glimpse in miniature of the articulating, structuring effect of this act of suspension of
necessarily enter into relations of heteronomy, dependency, disbelief. The caesura that separates the two segments of the formulation is also the
antagonism, etc. link that reveals the structured, hierarchical relationship between them. We notice
here a syntactical relay across the gulf of the caesura, of a subjectivity that first posits
and then suspends itself in order to make place for the concluding phrase, 'those
who believe in god'.
The Ideology of Formal Subsumption Belief and unbelief alone are not in question here; they also stand in for a range
of meanings associated with the two proposed segments, including the binary of
tradition and modernity. The speaking subject here is clearly located in modernity
This book is partly an attempt to analyse Hindi cinema as an instance and through the double-barrelled proposition, establishes a relation with the other
II!
ofwhat I propose to call the ideology of formal subsumption. At the term, a relation of compromise, a relation in and through which a certain crisis is
centre of this ideology is an ideologeme whose conceptual expression sought to be resolved. In short, it proposes that the eroding power of modernity, of
most frequently takes the form of the co-existence of modernity and which the speaker's disbelief is a sign, shall be reined in, suspended, as a gesture of
goodwill towards the community of believers, as a declaration of truce, a precondition
tradition. Fredric Jameson, who introduced the term ideologeme to
for the constitution of a nation out of these two segments.
critical discourse, defines it as the 'minimal unit' of organization of This strategic suspension or disavowal of modernity proposes a fictive contract
class discourse: that either or takes the place of that other fictive social contract (Balibar
1992) which, since the French Revolution, has served as the blueprint of political
The ideologeme is an amphibiOUS formation, whose essential structural modernity. What is proposed here is a contractual relationship between two segments
characteristic may be dcscribed as its possibility to manifest itself of the population, rather tl,an between all individuals, separately defined as Citizens,
either as pseudoidea-a conceptual or belief system, an abstract value, equal in 'all' respects. The indiVidual, defined in modern political theory as a
an opinion or prejudicc--{)r as a protonarrative, a kind of ultimate combination of a political function (citizen) and a pathological, feeling, suffering,
class fantasy about the 'collective characters' which are the classes in experiencing subject is here replaced by two segments of the population, which
opposition Oameson 1981: 87). separately embody these two elements, requiring the act of belief as the bond that
will realize the nation. Thus, it is only as a corporate entity composed of these two
An adequate description of an ideologeme must demonstrate its segments, only in its totality, and not in respect to each individual, that the modern
political entity is here realizable.
 r

Introduction • 9
8 • Ideology of the Hindi Film
foundation;9 while on the other hand the process of globalization
state of formal subsumption. Such an assurance can only be
seems to be eroding the function of the state as a political constraint
ideological in nature, operating on an unconscious plane as a
guarantee of national identity. It runs counter to the drive, on another on a re-vitalized, rampaging capitalism.
It is against this background that the question of the state as a
level, towards modernization and the establishment of bourgeois
factor in cultural processes is examined here. I study cinema as an
hegemony.7
Thus the disavowal of modernity on the ideological plane has institution that is part of the continuing struggles within India over
co-existed with the contrary drive to modernization, the project of the form of the state. IJnlike the situation in advanced capitalist
passive revolution that the state adopted at its birth. Barring moments countries, where an achieved hegemony manifests itself through
the subordination of all internal conflicts to the overall dominance
in recent history when the state attempted to break the stalemate
of the state formation, it is my argument that in a peripheral,
engendered by this co-existence (the most significant being the era
moderniZing state like India, the struggle continues to take the form
of authoritarian populism culminating in the internal emergency of
of contestations over the state form. Cultural production too registers
1975), the synchronic dimension of modern Indian history has until
recently been centrally defined by the state of uneasy equilibrium this reality through the recurring allegorical dimension of the
between these two dynamics H dominant textual form in the popular cinema. The kernel of truth in
If some of these processes are becoming visible now it is perhaps Fredric Jameson's controversial assertion that Third World texts are
because we are nearing the end of that prolonged stalemate and 'necessarily allegorical' Oameson 1987: 141) is revealed when we
read it in this spirit. What the allegorical dimension of texts represents
entering headlong into a full-scale transformation which has already
is the continuing necessity to conceive the state form which will
rendered obsolete many of the discourses and institutions of the
serve as the ground for cultural signification. Through the allegorical
earlier era. The political spectrum has expanded outwards, with
Hindu nationalism at one end appropriating the fragile national scaffolding, texts register the instability of their ground of practice
and signification, as well as the continuing possibility of struggles
project in an attempt to re-establish political unity on a communal
over the state, or struggles to reconstitute the state. Through such a
re-foregrounding of the state as a political rather than a purely
7See Dhareshwar's reading of Ananthamurthy's story, 'Suryana Kudure', in administrative entity this study asserts its continued relevance as a
'Postcolonial in the Postmodern' (EPW 1995). ground of transformative struggles.
HIn a note of 195H, entitled 'The Basic Approach', Nehru attempts to rethink This study is a critical reading of Indian cinema as a site of
some of his fundamental views on modern SOCiety. Written at a time when' he was
ideological produstion, understood in the spirit of the above remarks,
grappling with the crisis in Kerala following the setting up of the first ele<:ted Communist
government there, this text has been described by his biographer S. Gopal as signifying as the (re)production of the state form. It attempts to identify the
'a reversion to the earlier Nehru of the 1920s, the conventional Hindu untouched as social bases of the coherence of cinematic ideology or, where
yet by rationalist ideas and the unquestioning worshipper of Gandhi. . He was relevant, the lack of such a coherence.
now a socialist but was seeking to mix his left-wing ideas with a sophisticated form
The concept of ideology is central to the practice of cultural
of religious commitment' (Gopal 191M: 62). Present-day neo-Gandhians, who pit
Gandhi against Nehru, fail to see this complementarity, and the fact that Nehru critique. Marx and Engels themselves defined ideology in at least
himself was the original neo-Gandhian. Rejecting communism because it sacrificed two different ways. The famous metaphor of the camera ohscura
the interests of the individual in the name of society, Nehru proposed a paradoxical was employed in The German Ideology (Marx 1987) to define
model in which 'opportunity is given to the individual to develop, proVided the
ideology as the inverted representation of real social relations. A
individual is not a selected group, but comprises the whole community" 'In such a
society,' moreover, 'the emphasis will be on duties, not on rights' (Nehru 1983: 285). later definition of ideology described it as the universalization of the
The confusion and lack of conviction are rounded off at the end when, having particular interests of a class.
introduced a Vedantic notion that supports the idea of society as an organic whole,
the author concludes: 'But obviously it does not solve any of [life's] problems and, in 9See in this connection rellections (in Balibar and Wallerstein 1991) on how when
a sense, we remain where we are' (ibid: 2H6). We will see how the ideology of formal national unity cannot be founded on linguistic homogeneity, racist or other foundations
subsumption served, in the context of passive revolution, to produce the reassurance will he sought. See also Deshpande's essay, 'Imagined Economies' (fA/1993: 5-36) for
that 'we remain where we are' an argument about the erosion of the idea of the nation as a 'community of producers'.
 r

10 • Ideology ofthe Hindi Film Introduction • 11

The second definition provides the link with Gramsci's concept class struggle: from their conditions of existence, their practices,
of hegemony, which refers to the process of establishment and their experience of the struggle, etc' (Athusser 1971: 186). The ISAs
maintenance of an order that is acceptable to all classes while being are thus not monolithic, inescapable prisons in which all individuals
under the control and serving the interests of the ruling classes. The
!i'I 'deputies' of the dominant group exercise the function of 'social
are ensnared. It is not a relation between an institution and an
individual but an individualized recruitment whose initiation is
hegemony' which consists of traceable to the classes in struggle in the social. The ISAs are 'the
The 'spontaneous' consent given by the great masses of the population form in which the ideology of the ruling class must necessarily be
to the general direction imposed on social life by the dominant realized, and the form in which the ideology of the ruled class must
fundamental group; this consent is 'historically' caused by the prestige necessarily be measured and confr<;mted' (ibid, 1971: 185-6). This
(and consequent confidence) which the dominant group enjoys is to say that the institutions or apparatuses which serve an ideological
because of its position and function in the world of production function are the means of production of a consensus about the
(Gramsci 1971: 12). naturalness of the existing order. These institutions are state
The complement to social hegemony is the 'direct domination' apparatuses in the sense that the state itself is (apart from its repressive
effected by the use of state power. and administrative apparatuses) nothing but the embodiment of the
Louis Althusser translated Gramsci's terms hegemony and prevailing consensus, and as such has to include the apparatuses
domination as ideological and repressive functions, and borrowing through which ideologies are put into circulation. It may be asked
from psychoanalysis, elaborated a systematic theory of ideology as how it is that schools and families, which are or can be 'private', are
a process of interpellation of individuals as subjects. 10 The constitution defined as state apparatuses. This objection would be justified if
of the subject is effected by a process of socialization undertaken by these institutions are understood to be agencies created by the state
the principal ideological apparatuses of the state: under capitalism in pursuit of its goals, thereby implying that the state is separate
these are the school and the family. The reproduction of social from and pre-exists the ideological apparatuses. However, their role
relations (the relations of production and power) hinges on this must be understood as consisting in producing and maintaining a
I
I process of subjectification, without which there would only be a representation of the 'resolvedness' of class conflict, the consensual
state of pure dominance enforced by the repressive apparatus. By world picture which is the materialization in ideology of the state.
responding to the call of the state to identify him/herself, the subject Thus the ideology of (social) forms offers the most productive
is interpellated or 'recruited' by the Symbolic. The definition of site of inquiry for cultural critique. The critique of 'ideological forms
ideology as 'a representation of the imaginary relationship of subjects in which men become conscious of [social) conflict and fight it out'
to their real conditions of existence' (Althusser 1971: 162) suggests follows from the 'notion of the ideological apparatus as a site of
that ideology involves a process of self-recognition by which the (displaced) class conflict. These forms have a location, a space of
subject comes to acknowledge the truth or naturalness of its elaboration and reproduction, without which they would be robbed
conditions of existence. Ideological processes are unconscious and of their consistency and durability Qohnson, 1986/87: 45).
inescapable: there is no position outside ideology. It is through the combined effectivity of ideological forms that
Nevertheless, there is a distinction in Althusser between ideology subjects are constituted and reproduced. In the practice of cultural
in general as against particular ideologies which opens the way for critique in a Third World context we are made aware of the fact that
a consideration of the ideological state apparatuses (ISAs) as sites of these forms are neither of a fixed type and number, nor is their
struggle. Ideologies are not 'born' in the ISAs, they are not generated combined effectivity predictable according to some fixed model.
by institutions. They arise 'from the social classes at grips in the The crux of the problem lies in the articulated and internally
differentiated nature of the hegemonic formation that results from
lOIn this context it is interesting to note Foucault's contention (Foucault 1982:
the combination of different modes of production. This is in sharp
208-26) that the specificity of the modern state lies in the combination of two forms
of power, which he calls the totalitarian and the pastoral (derived from the Church), contrast to the tendency to homogenization that characterizes the
one directed at the population as a whole, the other focused on the individual. hegemonic process in advanced capitalist countries. In other words,

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12 • Ideology ofthe Hindi Film Introduction • 13
certain stateforms may be defined by the co-existence of bourgeois conditions offormal subsumption,11 a necessity imposed by the
and pre-capitalist ideologies, that neither hegemonic in the coalitional nature of state power. Here the notion of formal
advanced capitalist sense, nor constltutmg purely a case of what subsumption is to be understood in a broad sense as encompassing
Ranajit Guha (989) has called 'dominance without hegemony', a more than just the economic arrangements. Marx employed the term
condition characteristic of the colonial state. to distinguish two phases of capitalism. Under conditions of formal
The problematic can be stated in terms of two concepts of the subsumption, capital takes control of the production process without
theory of capitalist social processes: one is Marx's distinction between transforming it. Real subsumption begins when capital revolutionizes
formal and rear subsumption, and the other is Gramsci's concept of the pruduction process and inaugurates the extraction of relative
the passive revolution. Gramsci used the term passive revolution to surplus value. But as Balibar has suggested, the distinction has a
describe a situation in which a bourgeois state is established first, much hro;,-der siglllficance:
and then undertakes to create the conditions for its hegemony-the
If onc thinks about it carefully, the idea of this 'rcal' subsump-
creation of civil society, the expansion of the market, etc. This concept
tion ... gocs a long wa y bcyond thc integration of thc workers into
has proved useful to political theory in thinking about the mode of thc world of the contract, of moncy incomes, of law and official
functioning of the postcolonial state. Partha Chatterjee has argued, politics: it implies a transformation of human individuality, which
for instance, that' "passive revolution" is the general form of the cxtends from the education of thc lahour force to thc constitution of
transition from colonial to post-colonial nation-states in the 20th a 'dominant ideology' capable of heing adopted hy thc dominated
Ii I century' 0986: 50), and that this mode of transition consists in the thcmselvcs (Balibar and Wallcrstein, 1991: 4).
establishment of a national state which will undertake reform from It is absence (until recently) of such a thorough-going process
above to gradually modernize the nation (ibid: 48). of all-round transformation that calls for recourse to 'reproduction
Within the framework of this general thesis, the specific case of of conditions of formal subsumption' as a general term for the
the Indian state requires further elaboration. Social theorists have synchronic structure consisting of ideological and political
argued that the Indian state form is bourgeois in so far as it is based arrangements within which the project of passive revolution was
on the parliamentary democratic form of government identified with put into operation.
bourgeois dominance and because it 'impos[es] on the economy a It is my contention that the specific form taken by the political
deliberate order of capitalist planning' (Kaviraj, EPW 1988: 2430-0. structure is of primary importance to the study of ideologies. In the
However, this is still not a bourgeois state in the classic sense because of such a specification, cultural critique is condemned to
the capitalist class does not occupy a hegemonic position. The Indian vacillate between the two poles of tradition and modernity. On the
state's control is not based on pure repression, but it is not based on other hand, there is a constant temptation to simply regard Indian
the bourgeoisie's 'moral-cultural hegemony' either. Power is exercised culture as the 'other' of western culture, to contrast the homo-
by a ruling coalition in which the bourgeoisie is one of the partners, genization of the one with the anarchic exuberance of the other.
along with the landlords and the professional classes. This mode of analysis is predicated on an erasure of the political
The coalitional nature of political power has certain important difference and an overemphasis on cultural difference abstracted
consequences. The coalition functions through protocols which reflect from the social formation as a whole. The attempt here, on the
the pressures that each element of the coalition brings to bear on other hand, has been to place cultural production firmly within the
the other elements in the pursuit of its own interests. Thus, it could
lIThe term formal subsumption is usually employeu to refer only to capitalist
be said that two conflicting tendencies co-exist and give rise to a
relations of production. In that area, jairus I3anaji (l')')0) was one of the few to
central contradiction of the Indian state: the trajectory of the passive employ 111<' ,h,'iillction hetween formal anu rcal suhsumption in an essay on agrarian
revolution, which is an expression of the bourgeoisie's hegemonic relations in c< ,!,,,,i,d Inuia that formeu part of the famous 'moue of production' ,khate,
aspirations, conflicts with and is complemented by, what can be see also Alavi (1')')0). r use the term in a far more general sense, to refer to a relation
between capitalist amI pre-capitalist uomains not only in itself but as Ills represented
termed the politico-ideological process of reproduction of the and reproduced In Ide%l{y.

, I

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14 • Ideology of the Hindi Film Introduction • 15
political and economic framework of the Indian nation-state. It is in Indian cinema was for a long time restricted to a consideration of
the light of such a conceptualization of modern Indian ideology that the works of masters like Ray, Ghatak, and others. The prestige of
this study proposes to analyse the cultural work of the Hindi cinema Indian cinema at home and abroad, was enhanced by such writings,
as the exemplification of an aesthetic of formal subsumption. Such especially by the influential western admirers of Ray, but these writers
a broad characterization clearly cannot be expected to account for did not feel the need to situate this cinema in the Indian film historical
all of the products of the Bombay film industry, nor is it meant to context, a tendency that was encouraged by the perception that that
provide an exhaustive explanation for all the elements even in films context served, if at all, only as a backdrop of mediocrity against
that might correspond to this label. The effort at theorization will which the auteurs shone even brighter.
have served its purpose if by means of it we are able to make sense On the other hand, popular Iodian cinema has attracted a
of some of the dominant trends within this institution over the last considerable amount of attention as the site of an authentically folk
fifty years. culture, from anthropologists and Indologists or others employing
This study proceeds in two directions: (1) it examines, at the the tools of these disciplines. 13 In this type of study the tendency is
most general level, the political, economic, historical and cultural to read popular cinema as evidence of the unbroken continuity of
determinants of popular Hindi cinema as a step towards the Indian culture and its tenacity in the face of the assault of modernity.
elaboration of a theoretical framework for Indian film studies; (2) it Other studies, employing the tools of ethnography, study film culture
undertakes a historical construction of a conjuncture in recent Indian as a field of reception consisting of popular audiences conceived as
history when, in the midst of a major political crisis, the Bombay a self-sufficient, closed group, ill-at-ease in the modern spaces they
film industry underwent a significant transformation, affecting its inhabit, but whose cultural needs are fully satisfied by the films they
overall structure as well as the foi-mal properties of individual film see. 14
texts. The first body of texts, while recovering some Indian films as
works of art for a national or international high culture, at least do
not lose sight of the political dimension, the context of Indian
Indian Film Studies modernity which is a constant concern of the films and film-makers
they concentrate on. The second approach, reserved for the popular
In histories of world cinema produced in the west, Indian cinema cinema, however, tends to be largely indifferent to the political
usually makes its appearance in 1956, the year in which Satyajit Ray dimension, preferring to situate the cinematic institution in a
burst on the international film scene with Pather Panchali. 12 Some continuous tradition of Indian myth-making and autonomous folk
narratives may attempt a brief recap of the decades preceding this
(Cook: 1990), but in general the evolutionary thrust of film l3For instances of this approach, see Kakar OY80), O'Flaherty (IY80) and Misra
(I Y85, lY88/8Y).
historiography does not allow for a consideration of early Indian
l4 How firmly this approach is rooted in western practices of 'othering' is
cinema as one of the national cinemas of the silent era. Moreover, demonstrated by the difference between the goals of ethnographic popular culture
having begun in 1956, these narratives do not attempt to tell the studies in the west and in a country like India. In the west such studies (of reception)
whole story, however briefly, concentrating instead on those realist/ are engaged in re-affirming the freedom of the 'free individual' by demonstrating the
automaticity and inevitability of audience resistance to ideological interpellation. The
artistic products which correspond to a certain conception of true
individual subject is free because she is so constructed as to never completely fit the
cinema. We have already encountered the spontaneous philosophy position that the text offers her. On the contrary, non-western are distingUished
behind this approach, in the form of the developmentalist ideology by being completely at home in their ideological environment, the films they see
which regards non-realist cinema as not-yet-cinema, as well as the corresponding exactly to their needs. The very notion of culturdl 'need', which figures
prominently in this context, is an indication of the closed system of demand and
emblematism that has dominated theoretical reflections on the field.
supply (the perfect market) that is being assumed. Among those who have employed
The prevalence of this ideology has meant that serious writing on the idea of cultural need are S. Bahadur OY82, lY85), A. Nandy OY87-8), R. Thomas
(I Y85, lY87). Reception studies/ ethnographies include S. Dickey (I YY3), Pfleiderer
l2See for ego David Cook OYYO) and Eric Rhode OY78).
and Lutze, and a 'quickie' hy Dissanayake and Sahai (Iyn).
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16 • Ideology of the Hindi Film Introduction • 17
culture. Thus, an effective division of labour is posited between
comprehensive understanding of Indian popular cinema. Das Gupta
these two kinds of cinema: one is modern, informed by the concerns
describes his book as an exploration by a critic committed to art
and cares of the modern nation-state; while the other is the domain
cinema of 'the mind behind the Indian popular film' (ix). The
of 'tradition' or oral/folk culture (depending on whether the
justification for such a compromising venture is the rise to power of
interest in cinema is of Indological or ethnographic provenance).
the Telugu film star NT. Rama Rao, which reveals, once"again, the
Some even attribute to the latter a conscious purpose: of asserting
power of cinema over the masses, For the most part, Das Gupta
its autonomy, difference and even hostility to the 'modern' sector
conforms to the safe model of cinema-as-myth, and while recovering
(Nandy 1987--8:' 1.1-1.3).
a few exceptions from the general mass, regards Hindi cinema as
Such an approach, which reproduces the ideology of formal
trash that is worth wor'Ying about. While employing Sudhir Kakar's
subsumption in critical discourse, does not take into account the
and Ashish Nandy's ideas about the Indian psyche, mythology, etc.,
fact that the relation between popular cinema and the cultural
he is more brazen than them in identifying popular Hindi cinema
'community' that converges around it as its privileged collective
with a 'primitive' mass at the core of Indian society (1991: 26), while
addressee is mediated by the market. It disregards the fact that the
redeeming another segment that is capable of analytical thinking
functioning of the capitalist industry which produces and markets
and appreciates realism. The masses' inability to distinguish myth
these films is determined by a variety of factors, including the political
from fact is Das Gupta's central thesis, and at the end of the long
structure and the hegemonic project of the modern state; that there
journey through popular cinema, he is relieved to be able to return
can be no simple and unmediated reproduction of 'tradition', 'myth'
to his realist haven.
or any other residual substance by a cultural institution that is based
Sumita S. Chakravarty deploys some of the metaphors and discourses
on modern technology and relies on the desires and interests of
used by Das Gupta while rejecting his simplistic judgement. Most
dispersed, anonymous audiences, some of them created by the
importantly, Chakravarty relocates discussions of Indian cinema
industry itself. Nor does it take into account the unconscious processes
within the context of the modern nation-state emphasiZing its
that inform cultural production and reception, except in a
I , 'eminently contemporary mode of expression' (1993: 8). Such a shift
transhistorical, Jungian form, where myths and archetypes propagate
away from 'traditional accounts of this cinema' is of vital importance
II themselves through the unconscious agency of human beings.
in a situation where the 'myth' and 'Indian psyche'-based interpretations
In recent yeals, however, there has emerged a small but growing
dominate, with their eternalist proclamations, and while claiming to
body of critical writing which situates the popular cinematic institution
reveal the truth about Indian cinema, actually contribute to the
in a modern political-economic context, national as well as global. 15
maintenance of an Indological myth: the myth of the mythically
Chidanand Das Gupta's The Painted Face (991) and Sumita
minded Indian. maintain, as Chakravarty does following Stephen
S. Chakravarthy's National Identity in Indian Popular Cinema (1993)
Heath, that 'no film is not a document of itself and of its actual
are two book-length studies of recent origin which attempt a
situation in respect of the cinematic institution' (ibid: 164) is not
15[n what follows only a few texts from which this study derives a problematic simply to opt for a better approach to Indian cinema; it is also to
are discussed. Apan from the texts discussed below, mention may be made of writings assert the radical contemporaneity of the time we live in, the
by P Bandhu (992), V. Dhareshwar and T. Niranjana (1996), A. Nandy (1987--8), determining effect of the synchronic structure of modern India on
M.S.S. Pandian (1992), S.V. Srinivas (1996), R. Thomas (987), and P. Willemen (1993), all our memories of the past.
which evince a shared concern for theoretical advances in the study of Indian cinema
even as they differ vastly in their approaches. The writings of film-makers like Ritwik Chakravarty's met<lphor of 'imperso-nation' (although she calls it
Ghatak, Dadasaheb Phalke, Satyajit Ray, Mrinal Sen, Kumar Shahani are also of a concept, it is closer to the 'puncepts' of American deconstruction),
theoretical interest. however, echoing Das Gupta's metaphor of the 'painted face' and
More compilations of texts from the early decades of cinema history, such as justified by the centrality of performance (as opposed to realist acting),
Bandyopadhyay (1993) and Basu and Dasgupta (1992) are an urgent neceSSity. So is
the project to make available to the national public the writings on cinema that exist
seems an inadequate signifier for the diversity of the content she
in the regional languages, especially Bengali, Hindustani, Marathi, Telugu and Tamil. presents, It seems to indicate her desire to locate Indian cinema in
an indeterminate, postmodern global culture. Of course, the world-

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18 • Ideology of the Hindi Film Introduction • 19
wide circulation of Hindi cinema, among Indian migrants as well as idealist, purely specular(rontal aspect of the image' (fAI 1987: 67).
other Third World audiences, may seem to justify such a move. But The frame's ability to 'directly' apprehend the real was thus
by doing so, the specificity of Non Resident Indian (NRI) nostalgia, constrained by an idealization, offering the image as an anchor, a
the question of why Hindi cinema appeals to certain Third World resting point for the gaze. It was thus a case of a technologically
audiences, and the entirely different question of the national context aided reproduction of a visual economy that is related to the institution
of production and distribution are lost sight of. The metaphor of darsana (see Chapter 3). These critics also develop the points of
functions, most of the time, as a non-interfering linking device, contrast between this mode and the realist mode, with its different
making its appearance at the beginning of every analysis, only to be set of spectatorial protocols. Anuradha Kapur, writing on theatre,
forgotten as the film text begins to reveal its complexities. It thus outlines the cultural implications of the two divergent types of image-
ends up functioning rather as a signifier of the absence of a theoretical spectator relations thus:
framework. A dependence on thematic unities results in a blindness Frontality of the performer vis-a-vis the spectator ... enables among
to generic differences, to the questions of form and address, and the other things this relationship of erotic complicity. Now 'frontality' has
history of audience segmentation, a weakness reflected, for instance, several meanings in the open theatres of earlier times. But perhaps a
in the odd suggestion that new cinema was addressed to 'rural and/ set of altogether different meanings come about with the construction
or urban working class' audiences (1993: 246). of proscenium theatres, which is where Parsi companies performed.
One of the early attempts at theorizing Indian aesthetic modernity In open theatres 'frontality' of the performer indicated a specific
and within that framework, exploring the specific modern character relationship between viewer and actor. Turning the body towards
I of cinema, was undertaken by a group associated with thefournal the spectator is a sign that there is in this relationship no dissembling
of Arts and Ideas. Under a broadly defined programme of between the two: the actor looks at the audience and the audience
looks at the actor; both exist-,Is actor and of
investigation into Indian modernity, Geeta Kapur (1987), Anuradha
this candid contact. A reciprocally regarding theatre transaction of
Kapur (1993) and Ashish Rajadhyaksha (1987, 1993) have produced
this kind is substantially different from one made in a theatre that
studies of the evolution of a modern aesthetic from the beginnings takes an imaginary fourth wall, standing where the stage ends and
in colonial nineteenth-century India to the present, focussing on the seating begins, as its governing convention. Parsi theatre companies
theatre, art and cinema. These studies have demonstrated the perform in the proscenium but take as their governing convention an
importance of the question as a mode of representation eye and body contact that comes from earlier open stages (A. Kapur
in popular culture: 1993: 92)
.. frontality of the word, the image, the design, the formative act. This combination of codes, old and new, also signifies a combination
This yields forms of direct address; flat, diag"'dmmatic and simply of narrative movement, and spectacle as that which arrests the gaze.
profited figures; a figure-ground pattern with only notational In the Parsi theatre, the narrative, confined to the frame of the stage,
perspective; of motifs in terms of 'ritual play'; and a proceeds in linear fashion but the actors 'display themselves', thereby
decorative mise-en-scene' (G. Kapur 19H7: HO). continually arresting the narrative flow. This is not however a serial
In the context of indigenous attempts to master a new technology, alternating process but one in which both 'presentation' and linear
the still camera, the 'aesthetic relation' (Rajadhyaksha, Framework progression occur simultaneously.
1987: 32) implied by is plunged into 'a crisis regarding In the cinema, however, this unified 'spectacular narration' is over
questions such as just how the frame may be entered, or the ethics time broken up into its component parts and a serial recombination
of "directly" apprehending the "real'" (ibid: 33). This description of the two codes is effected. This has been cogently argued by Ravi
tends to somewhat overemphasize the role of technology in Vasudevan, who demonstrates, through an analysis of a segment
producing the crisis and only hints at the political constraints which from Andaz (1949), how this combination of codes takes place and
are more explicitly stated in a reading of early Indian cinema through how and what it signifies (Vasudevan, fAI 1993: 60-6). The serial
this thesis: 'Pulling towards the static, the gaze pulled towards [the] combination includes three kinds of elements: segments of linear
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20 • Ideology of the Hindi Film Introduction • 21

narrative, brief moments of iconic stasis, and the tableau, in which a authority brooks no challenge from within the frame of representa-
static visual arrangement is infused with narrative value. Vasudevan tion. This reqUires some elaboration. t6
relates this combination to the exigencies of Indian culture, defining The question is: what is the of the fictive contractual relation
it as 'a rhetorical strategy which makes the cinema both attractive as that sustains the film text as performance? The answer suggested by
something new in the field of the visual, and culturally intelligible the above formula is that in performances governed by the frontal
because it incorporates a familiar visual address' (ibid: 65). Here, aesthetic relation, a message/meaning that derives from a transcend-
Vasudevan seems to be interpreting the combination of codes in ent source is transmitted to the spectator by the performance, whereas
in the realist instance, no such transcendent source of a meaning/
purely textual terms by suggesting that the icon and the tableaux
message can be posited. Instead, the text is figured as raw material
simply facilitate access to the pleasures of the modern. He offers a
for the production of meaning, the latter task being the spectator's
stronger and more suggestive reading later, observing that 'there is
by right. Thus, in the first case, the perforrriance a whole (i.e.,
a strong tendency to subordinate movement and vision toward a
including the activity on stage and in the seats) is an apparatus for
stable organization of meaning, in an iconic articulation. This has a the devolution a message/meaning that pre-existsany performative
parallel in the way in which the narrative reorganizes the family so instance; whereas in the latter, the performance as a whole is an
as to secure a stable position for the middle class hero' (ibid: 72). apparatus for the production meaning through the combined
This reading links the textual strategies to 'a certain normaliZing activity of the artist/producer and the spectator on the text as raw
discourse and hegemonic closure' (ibid: 72). It points in the direction material.
of an active mobilization of the 'familiar' in the service of a hegemonic Consequently, in the first case textual integrity is provisional,
cultural project. Vasudevan rightly rejects any sociologically inspired and derives not from any internal articulation of its elements but
allocation of the pleasures deriving from the use of these different solely from the control exerted by the transcendent point of
codes to different segments of the audience and emphaSizes the emanation of the message;17 whereas in the latter instance, such a
difficulty of separating traditional and modern modes of address transcendent point of devolution of meaning being absent, the text
(ibid: 72). must achieve an internal articulation that guarantees its identity asa
One of the aims of this book is to carty this project forward by separate individual product.
foregrounding the political dimension of the problem of textualform. The realist aesthetic is governed by the latter fiction. In it the
The aesthetics of frontality and its interface with realist conventions spectator has the opportunity, the rip,ht, to repeat the production
of narration have to be seen in the light of the individual subject's process-the processing of raw material to generate meaning-that
position within different political orders and the corresponding has already been accomplished by the producer/artist. Even if all
constraints and protocols of spectatorship. The realist barrier that the spectators arrive at the same meaning, they must be assumed to
the proscenium arch represents as well as the degree of integration have done so indiVidually, through their own labour of interpretation. III
and linearization of the narrative are both determined by a social This is the philosophy that is expounded in Bazin's theory of
competence related to the generalized figure of the citizen and the realism, for instance. In Bazin's rendering of the problem, the threat
constraints and compulsions of cultural production and of a direct, interpreted, communication comes from a political source:
commodification in capitalist societies. the politically committed director. Like God, whose messages are
The difference between the aesthetics of frontality and the
aesthetics of realism may be formulaically represented as folJ.ows: l('There is third, intermedbte possihility. in the
of (Urecht, Eisenstein).
In the frontal spectacle! the performer is the bearer of a message 17[Elvery continUity is effected via the gaze [of the
from the Symbolic, and the performance a vehicle for its transmission 'The Phalke Era,jAIIYH7: 70).
to the spectator through the direct contractual link established in IHRecent film theory thus makes a virtue out of necessity when it chlims as its
the theatre. In the realist narrative, the Symbolic, in its contractual own discovery the producers of rather than
recipients of it. This productive bhour of the is hy the
aspect, is represented by the citizen-spectator, whose interpretive
text does not constitute either sign or of resiswnce.

. ''Z t t -: I ..• __
 Introduction • 23
22 • Ideology ofthe Hindi Film
of perception. To admit that the eye's choice of objects from a field
communicated directly through the mediation of the performer, the of perception could be arbitrary and unpredictable would be to
director too can present action in the form of an unambiguous jeopardize reality itself and would lead to anarchy.
message: Bazin's theory foregrounds the relationship between a political
While analytical montage only calls for him [the spectatorl to follow system and an ideology. In the case of the Indian popular cinema,
his guide, to let his attention follow along smoothly with that of the we encounter a situation that seems to correspond to the non-realist
director who will choose what he should see, here [in the cinema of model that Bazin criticizes. It is tempting at this point to take the
'depth'l he is called upon to exercise at least a minimum of personal sort of line that Noel Burch (1979) has elaborated in relation to
choice. It is fr(lm his attention and his will that the meaning of the Japanese cinema, and conclude that the distinction represented by
image in part derives (Bazin 1')<17: 3(1). frontality could be made the basis of a theory of the Indianness of
Bazin associates the freedom of choice provided by depth of focus Indian cinema. Such a conclusion would, however, pre-empt the
to the 'liberal and democratic . . . consciousness of the American exploration of the political dimension of cultural production. By
spectator' (Williams 1980: 44). But he is also clear that it is a question ignoring the political dimension, we ignore the immense range of
of a purely formal freedom of choice. What analytical montage cultural possibilities that exist between the poles of 'western' realist
presents, far from being false, is 'consistent with the laws of attention'. or modernist practice and 'traditional' or non-western 'survivals'.
But in being pre-selected, 'it deprives us of the privilege, no less We would thus end up reducing politics itself to a western cultural
grounded in psychology, which we abandon without realising it, predilection.
and which is, at least virtually, the freedom to modify our method
of selection at every moment' (ibid: 42, emphasis added). The The book is divided into two parts. Part I, consisting of Chapters 2,3
director's freedom to choose is thus in conflict with the spectator's and 4 is an investigation of the conditions of possibility of the
and such a choice amounts to 'a clear standpoint on reality as such'. dominant textual form of popular cinema, commonly referred to as
What is the danger that this represents? It is the danger of a realized the 'social'. Chapter 2 is devoted to the economic conditions-the
individuality, as opposed to which a virtual one formally reiterates prevailing mode of production, the mode of manufacture adopted-
the availability of choice, and in order to be able to do so, must and their role in the reproduction of the dominant textual form.
forever desist from actually making a choice. Individuality must Chapter 3 is a reading of this form as a symptom of the ideological
always be proVided for but never realized. resolution of conflicts within the social formation, of producing and
The freedom in question is thus not an 'objective' freedom, representing the :consensus-effect' that sustains that formation.
verifiable by reference to the diversity of choices made by subjects. Drawing on the theories of realism and melodrama, I propose that
It is a potential, given through and testifying to the priVilege of the dominant form is a compromise formation reflecting the
citizenship. The director, in order to respect the individual's freedom coalitional nature of political power. The definition of the spectator's
must curb her/his own freedom, must in other words, merge his/ position within the cinematic apparatus is discussed here with
her own identity into the invisible frame of the state, clearing the reference to the notion of citizen and the continued and broadened
ground for the full unfolding of the reality of nation/civil society. effectivity of the temple-centred institution of darsana. In a discussion
At the same time, Bazin argues that this freedom given to the of women's melodrama, it is argued that the social, in its all-inclusive
individual spectator to make his/her own choice from a field of character, can also function as an instrument of active resistance to
objects does not result in a diversity of choices, because there are generic differentiation.
'laws of attention' which assert themselves, and in practice, ensure Chapter 4 reinforces the argument about the non-contingency of
that more or less the same choice is made by all. Thus, not only the the emergence and effectivity of the dominant form by taking up a
director but the citizen too is duty-bound to restrict his/her freedom peculiar feature of Indian censorship, the prohibition of kissing.
to a virtual plane. While reality is 'by definition' diverse, the perception This is shown to be a displaced prohibition of representations of
of this diversity, as an act of citizenship, must not lead to a diversification the 'private' in the bourgeois sense, which facilitates the perpetuation

._ '+ ,.,*,
 24 • Ideology oftbe Hindi Film
of an ideological community-effect. The minimal unit of the private Introduction • 25
domain is the nuclear family, whose rise to pre-eminence coincides
with the dissolution of pre-capitalist patriarchal enclaves and the statist realism, the realism of identification, and the melodrama of
emergence of the modern state as the sole supervizing authority mobilization and counter-identification respectively.
over the family as the site of biological reproduction and Chapter 6 traces the process of construction of the star-figure of
socialization. 19 From the point of view of the pre-capitalist elements Amitabh Bachchan and the manner in which it was deployed in the
of the coalition, such a re-organization of the social represents a evolution of an aesthetic of mobilization. Chapter 7 takes up the
curtailment of its scopic privileges. Thus, while the resolution of the middle-class cinema of identification, whose generic specificity
popular film narrative involves the constitution of the nuclear couple, derives from the effects of ordinariness, familiarity, and realism. This
the couple is reinserted into the space of the clan or the family in its cinema addresses the middle-class subject as a beleaguered entity,
political form. facing a threat to her/his identity from the encroachments of the rest
This general theoretical framework serves in Part II, as a point of of society, in particular the glamorous world of popular culture, and
departure for a conjunctural analysis, of the developments in the the politically awakened masses. These films also deal with the
film industry during a brief period of political crisis from the late problem of private space and the related problem of the possibility
sixties to the mid-seventies. The project is to develop a historical of middle-class spectatorship. Chapter 8 concludes the study with
construction shOWing the broad lines of transformation of the field an analysis of the first three films of Shyam Benegal as instances of
of film culture. In Chapter 5, I characterize the crisis as a an evolving developmental aesthetic employing a statist realism.
disaggregation of the social or a breakdown of the consensus Although the developmental narrative comes into its own only with
established and maintained by the ruling coalition. The dominant Manthan (I 976), both Ankur (I974) and Nishant (I975) contribute
textual form also came into crisis in this period under the twin to its construction by employing strategies of distancing which
pressures of state intervention in cultural production and social produce the peasant/rural poor as an object of study and sympathy.
changes brought about by political upheavals. The industry These three segments or genres arose in a moment of disaggregation
responded to this crisis through a process of internal segmentation, which rendered the old integrated modular text of the feudal romance
which created two proto-genres, the new cinema and the middle- obsolete. However, this was by no means an irreversible process,
class cinema, while also leading to a transformation of the dominant nor were the three segments established on a permanent basis. The
textual form in the direction of a populist aesthetic of mobilization. aim of my project is to demonstrate the manner in which segmentation
The Film Finance Corporation, a state agency, entered feature film functioned as a mode of resolution of the crisis at the level of the
production as part of a strategy of cultural forcing the industry, and to identify the aesthetic possibilities it generated as
industry to respond in the manner described. This period thus marked well as the new strategies of containment that emerged as a result.
the emergence of a developmentalist realism which produced a As an analysis of developments in a conjuncture, it is not intended
spectatorial point of view coinciding with the gaze of the state. It as an assertion of the absolute novelty of each of these 'aesthetic'
also led to the consolidation of a middle-class cinema, in which the practices. On the contrary, the argument foregrounds the way in
private, as the space of middle-class identity, was elaborated. The which all three segments drew from previously existing practices of
popular cinema, on the other hand, went through a phase of signification and narrative codes in their attempt to meet a demand
uncertainty before regrouping around a figure of mobilization, a for new narratives that was Widely perceived to have arisen among
charismatic political-ideological entity embodied in the star-persona the audiences.
of Amitabh Bachchan. Aesthetically, these three segments represent Finally, as suggested above, this mapping of the field of popular
cinema has become possible now in part because the social
conditions described in the book are fast disappearing as global
19The nuclear family's dominance must be understood as ideological. As Michele
Barret and Mary Macintosh (1990) point out, in reality, this form is not statistically capitalism has been unleashed on the subcontinent with
predominant even in the advanced capitalist countries. unprecedented haste. Having constructed a theoretical edifice for
the study of popular cinema, we are thus also faced with the task of
dismantling it, of witnessing its certitudes dissolve in the flux of

1
26 • Ideology o/the Hindi Film
contemporary events. In the final essay that forms the epilogue to
the main text, a symptomatic reading of two recent films, Damirzi
and Raja, is undertaken, to bring to light, in their formal structure,
an allegory of real subsumption that points to the possible direction
in which certain new players, functioning by new rules and
employing new strategies, are attempting to move the film industry.

PART I
 2

The Economics of Ideology:

Popular Film Form and Mode of
Production

lill

T
here is a good deal of writing on the economics of the film
industry, some of it by professional economists. 1 This
II
constitutes a valuable body of information on the sources of
II, . finance, the roles of various agents (producers, distributors,
exhibitors) in the industry, the relations of power and dependency
that develop between these agents as a reflection of their relative
financial position, the revenues accruing to the government from
the industry, the avenues for legitimate and reliable finance, etc.
When we place these details alongside the actual cultural content of
the films, the ideologies they circulate, there are, however, some
questions that arise that have so far remained unaddressed. These
questions are neither strictly economic, like the ones just described,
nor purely cultural, but belong to a border area between them,
overlapping with both. This is the area with 'which this chapter is
concerned: the point at which political, economic and ideological
instances intersect.
The film-maker Kumar Shahani has remarked: 'The biggest
problem seems to be that we are working within a capitalist frame-
work and we do not have a capitalist infrastructure. It is all run on
highly speculative lines, on some systems of trading and circulation
of money' (Rizvi and Amlad 1980: 13). Shahani's remark points to
an extremely vital link between the mode of organization of the

1panna Shah (981), ItO. Jain (J900), M.A. Oommen and K.V Joseph (991),
Manjunath Pendakur (990), Someswar Bhowmik (1986); reports of the inquiry
commissions appointed hy government are also a good source of such information
and analysis.

t ' eM t
 30 • Ideology ofthe Hindi Film
The Economics ofIdeology • 31
industry and the opportunities for experimentation afforded by that
of the 1970s, when new elements were introduced, without, however,
industry. Thus to focus on economic questions relating to the industry
completely discarding the old form.
is not simply to 'flesh out' the background to cultural production
At its most stable, this form included a version of the romance
but to uncover the nature of the nexus between economic, ideological
narrative, a comedy track, an average of six songs per film, as well
and political forces that shape the conditions of possibility of cultural
as a range of familiar character types. Narrative closu're usually
production in India.
consisted in the restoration of a threatened moral/social order by
In exploring this area, our point of departure will be the dominant
the hero. This form was flexible enough to include a wide range of
textual form of the popular Hindi cinema, the form that has enjoyed
contingent elements, including references to topical issues, and
pre-eminence in the Bombay film industry for nearly four decades.
propaganda for the government's social welfare measures (to please
It is a form that would be familiar to anyone who has watched even
the censors). Thus, it should not be thought of as being necessarily
a small number of the Bombay films. Even in other languages,
and completely a bearer of feudal values, even though the overall
especially in films from the south, the same textual form serves to
narrative form derived from romances of the feudal era.
organize the cinematic spectacle to a large extent. In the last few
However, Bombay, as well as other centres of film-making have
years, the industry has been undergoing changes which may lead to
also witnessed campaigns against this form even dUring the period
I mutations of this form, or the introduction of new ones, but as yet
of its dominance, in favour of 'realism', a term which was defined in
the form associated with what I will call the feudal family romance
a variety of ways. For people in the industry who were dissatisfied
has by no means exhausted itself.
" I with the dominant form, the model to emulate was Hollywood: in
Let us try to define this form. A definition of form, as opposed to
periodicals like Screen and Filmfare, film-makers would confess to
a description of content, should be such as to account for, among
a preference for films that were realistic and justify their own inability
other things, the narrative structure, the organization of elements
to make such films by blaming the poor taste of the audience.
within the structure, the means employed to carry the narrative
Whenever big-budget films failed, leading to a crisis, the press would
forward from one stage to the next and those by which narrative
repeat its advice: the audience has rejected ,the old masala film, it
closure is achieved.
wants realistic, authentic stories, not songs and dances. Film-makers
The feudal family romance employs a narrative structure that
were urged to work with a ready script and adhere to short, tight
goes back to the 'romances' that preceded the advent of modern
schedules. Producers would try, every few years, to unite and impose
realist fiction in the capitalist west. 2 The romance was typically a
order on the industry's functioning, to regulate the work schedules
tale of love and adventure, in which a high-born figure, usually a
of stars, to co-operate in reducing the duplication of themes, etc.
prince, underwent trials that tested his courage and at the end of
In spite of this recurring effort, the so-called 'formula film' held
which he would return to inherit the father's position and to marry.
on to its position of pre-eminence. The question that arises therefore
This narrative structure occurs, not in its original form, but in the
is how and why this form was able to dominate the scene for so
form that it acquired in popular theatre, where the entertainment
long. In this chapter, we will investigate this question primarily from
programme would include the narrative interspersed with other
the economic angle.
elements like the comic routine, music and dance, etc. It was the
Before proceeding with the analysis, I will set down for conven-
Parsi theatre that first popularized this form in India. Indian cinema,
ience, the general conclusions the study arrives at:
however, did not adopt this form straightaway. It could not possibly
(i) As regards the production sector, I will argue that the mode
do so in the silent era, but even after the introduction of sound, the
of production in the Hindi film industry is characterized by
adoption of this form was a gradual process. It stabilized roughly
fragmentation of the production apparatus, subordination of
during the 1950s, and was to remain unchallenged until the beginning
the production process to a moment of the self-valorization
of merchant capital, the consequent externality of capital to
2See McKeon (I9H7l for discussion of the form precursor
of the novel
the production process, the resistance of the rentier class of
exhibitors to the expansionist drive of the logic of the market,
 The Economics ofIdeology • 33
32 • Ideology of tbe Hindi Film publication of the report); and lastly, a 'Central Film Academy and
and the functional centrality of the distributor-financier to the Research Institute' was proposed to 'combat ... anti-Indian propaganda
entire process of film-making. vehemently carried on abroad especially in the United States before
(iO The Hindi film industry has adopted what Marx calls the and during the last war' (Mission: 59--60).
'heterogeneous form of manufacture' in which the whole is The report projected the industry as a partner in the about-to-be
assembled from parts produced separately by specialists, rather independent country's campaign to modernize and project a good
than being centralized around the processing of a given image abroad. This was in conformity with the model of socio-
material, as in serial or organic manufacture. This is of economic progress that was emerging as the chosen path for India,
significance to the status of the 'story' in the Hindi film. and was embodied in Nehruvian socialism. Among others this
(iii) There is evidence of an ongoing struggle between two broadly consisted of a combination of measures to develop indigenous capital,
defined tendencies within the industry, one committed to an to enable it by protection and other state-initiated economic measures
ideological mission in keeping with the goals of the to consolidate itself, while launching a social programme of
postcolonial state's controlled capitalist development and progressive education, the gradual emancipation of the population
aspiring to the achievement of a homogenized national culture, into an awareness of the rights and responsibilities of social
the other moored in a pre-capitalist culture, employing a democracy. But the Nehruvian state did not do for the film industry
patchwork of consumerist and pre-capitalist ideologies and what it was committed to doing for other industries. Nehru himself
determined to maintain its hold over the production process had remarked that the film industry was not a priority for the new
from the outside. In this context the role of the state as the nation,3 causing considerable anxiety in industry circles. Despite
primary agent of capitalist development becomes crucial. The attempts to portray the industry as sharing the government's (and
unfolding of the struggle between these two contending forces in particular Nehru's) views about the role of cinema, and the
has involved appeals for particular forms of state intervention, assertion that it was the state's duty, in a capitalist society, to develop
a campaign for realism and melodrama, and concerted efforts entertainment facilities, nothing concrete materialized.
to establish the production sector on an independent basis. It The need to establish film-making as an industry was emphasized
is a struggle, in other words, to effect an adequation of the by Phalke 4 earlier in the century and continues to be a recurrent
political, economic and ideological instances. motif in debates on the future of Indian cinema. To gain 'industry
In the run-up to independence, a section of the industry expected status' is to acquire legitimacy in the eyes of the state, to be accorded
that the government of free India would recognize the potential that the privileges of a successful native industrial venture. In practical
cinema held as a medium of mass education and would give it the terms such a recognition would translate into availability of
same encouragement that was enVisaged for other industries. It was institutional finance and a collaborative approach on the government's
felt that a modernizing nation would need a modern cultural part.
institution to undertake the requisite ideological tasks. In 1945, five It is not as if the state was unaware of the uses of cinema as a
producers from Bombay, Calcutta, Lahore and Madras undertook tool of mass education. Building on the existing infrastructure for
an expedition to Europe and America to study the conditions of the colonial propaganda film production, the Films Division expanded
film industries there. Their report (Report o/the Indian Film Industry's into a gigantic machine producing newsreels and documentaries for
Mission to Europe and A merica, nd) was full of admiration for western screening in commercial theatres and other places. This was also a
efficiency, and concluded with suggestions that would be repeated
by industry spokespersons for decades to come. Government support 3Fi/mjare, 28 November 1952, p. 5
was sought for establishing the industry on a 'stable and progressive 4See the translations of Phalke's writings published by the National Film Archives
of which a selection has been reprinted in Continuum 2.1 (988/89) 51-73. Especially
foundation'. The state was urged to supply finance, to launch the
significant is the fact that Phalke conceived of Indian cinema as part of the Swadeshi
indigenous manufacture of raw film and equipment, to start a film campaign to develop indigenous industry. For a further discussion of Phalke and
council and a film institute (which had been proposed before but swadeshi, see A. Rajadhyaksha, 'lbe Phalke Era',jAI (987).
had been squashed in the Legislative assembly just before the
 34 • Ideology ofthe Hindi Film The Economics ofIdeology • 35
source of revenue, since a small fee was charged for each screening. State governments in regard to various matters connected with
Thus the state policy conformed with the imperative of reproduction the production, distribution and exhibition of films. Such a Council,
of conditions of formal subsumption. The industry's demand was we envisage, will give the industry the necessary stimulus and
for initiatives that would enable a transformation of the prevailing inspiration to regulate its affairs on healthy and constructive lines,
film aesthetic. The state's response was to impose a parasitical ensure that organizationally it functions in an efficient and business-
propaganda element on every screening, which was meant to take like manner, ensure professional conduct and discipline in its various
care of education in modernity, leaving the form of the feature itself branches and enforce standards of quality which would make the
untouched. film a cultural agent and an instrument of healthy entertainment (FEC
I I Following the Film Enquiry Commission report, however, a Film Report 1951: 187-8).
Finance Corporation (FFC) was set up in 1960. With a budget that The Council had to regulate the industry without controlling it. It
was too small to earn it a major role in the industry, the FFC gave was to have statutory powers and the authority to institute research
out insufficient loans to producers who consequently ended up with projects, training institutions, a 'story bureau', a casting bureau, a
incomplete films and unrepayable loans. Later, a revised policy of production code administration on the lines of the one in America,
financing low-budget, non-commercial films was implemented, etc. (ibid: 189-94).
inaugurating the era of the 'new cinema,' which will be discussed This measure came up for consideration frequently and was
later on. As far as the mainstream cinema was concerned, the FFC blocked each time by the resistance of a large section who claimed
brought about no change in the existing state-industry relations. that control rather than benign regulation was the government's
The institution that was expected to change this state of affairs was real motive. Throughout the fifties, sixties and the early seventies,
the Film Council, also recommended by the Film Enquiry Committee the idea of a Council was discussed in the film press, with a mounting
(FEC) report. Without the 'political' alliance between the state and sense of urgency as the Indira Gandhi regime unfolded its 'socialist'
the industry that the Film Council would have represented, the agenda. Support for the idea came from established film-makers
economic intervention via the FFC was ineffectual. However, though like V. Shantaram, Raj Kapoor, Satyajit Ray, Mohan Segal, etc. and
the industry as a whole clamoured for the economic assistance from the technicians' and cineworkers' unions which stood to gain
promised by the FFC, only a few producers were willing to enter from a well-organized industry. It is possible that some of those
into an institutional alliance with the state that would impose who openly supported the idea were motivated by a fear of
obligations on both parties. displeasing the government. Opponents of the plan were people
Similar ideas for government-industry co-operation had been with a more traditional business approach like Sunderlal Nahata,
floated even before independence. Fazalbhoy's review reports, for Chandulal Shah and lastly, ]. Om Prakash, who as elected head of
instance, that the Indian Motion Picture Congress of 1939 was the Film Federation of India, warned his membership that they would
envisaged as a permanent body that would function as a 'central have to achieve internal unity in order to ward off the threat of a
organisation' of the industry as recommended previously by the Film Council S
1927 ICC report (Fazalbhoy nd: 84-5). This central body was, in the Clearly, the long-term benefits that might accrue from a stable
eyes of it proponents, a symbol of the will to lead the film sector infrastructure were not very attractive to those whose interests were
into the industrial era, of the industry's self-image as a national best served by preserving the anarchic backward capitalism that
institution with developmental responsibilities (ibid: 96-7). The 1951
5Screerl, 12July 196H, p. 1; 19July 1968, p.13; 14 February 1969, p.l; 16 May
Report of the Film Enquiry Committee (FEC Report), reviving the
1969, p. 1; 23 May 1969, p. H; 14 November 19<19, p. 1; 14 August 19711, p. 1;
idea, observed: 23 October 1970, p. 1.
On the organizational side we would recommend that early steps Also Fflmjare, 4 April 1952, p. 4; 27 May 1955; 6 January 1956, p. 5; 3 February
should be taken to set up a statutory Film Council of India as the 1956, p. 3; 17 February 1956, p. 3; 25 May 1956, p.19; 16 October 1964; 30 October
1964, p. 5; 17 January 1969, p. 7; 11 April 1969, p. 5; 4 July 19<19, pp. 27, 29, 31;
central authority to superintend and -regulate the film industry, to act 1 August 1969, p. 23; 5 December 19<19, p. 7; 16 January 1970, p. 7; 28 August 1970,
as its guide, friend and philosopher, and to advise the Central and p. 5; 11 September 1970, p. 5; 17 December 1971, p. 7; 2 May 1975, p. 9.

...........
_ _. . . . . . iIIII. .lIIt.'. ........... _. .... ..... _....._...J
 The Economics ofIdeology • 37
36 • Ideology of the Hindi Film
Ii reigned in the industry. Behind the stated fear of government control Staiger argues that we cannot simply assume that the 'group
was a real apprehension of having to forego the benefits of a style' that dominated Hollywood film-making was made possible by
substantial inflow of black money. It became clear in the course of historical conditions extraneous to it. It is equally possible that certain
this conflict between the supporters and opponents of the proposal, production practices were adopted because they were the best for
that the industry was not ready for a transformation of the prevailing the particular style of film-making that the industry desired (ibid:
relations of production and power. That the proposal came to nothing 88). Staiger is right in rejecting the economic determinism implied
is not surprising: even its supporters were not ready to make a by the argument that the style is just a reflection of the adopted
crusade of it. Their reluctance was reinforced by fears that the Indira mode of production. However, she does not take up the same
Gandhi regime was contemplating radical measures like question in a larger context: that is to say, 'do the socio-economic
nationalization and licensing of producers. In 1980, the Report o/the conditions prevailing in the society as a whole have anything to do
Working Group on National Film Policy (NFP Report) dismissed the with the choice of style and form?
Council idea as ill-advised and instead recommended 'indirect' Staiger identifies a series of 'systems of production', i.e. the modes
measures to improve quality (Report 1980: 20)6 Nevertheless, while of combination of the 'factors of production' in the Hollywood film
it lasted, the idea of a Film Council served as a measure of the industlY. She traces the ways in which the labour force, the means
changing relations between government and industry. It became of production, and financing combine in different ways to constitute
the focus of a discourse of industrial advancement tied to the project in different periods of film history, specific 'systems of production'
to develop a new, bourgeois aesthetic, a developmental vision of organized around the central function of a particular skilled member
cultural production and state-backed capitalist growth. of the firm: the 'cameraman' system of production, the director system,
the 'director-unit' system and so on (ibid: 85-153, 309-64).
In order to determine what systems of production may be in
operation in Bombay, it is necessary to first understand the relations
The Organization of Production between the different sectors of the film industry and the way
production is organized within the network formed by these sectors.
The film texts that reach us as finished products are made possible, The FEC report of 1951 notes that unlike the concentration of
not only by 'cultural' factors, but also by the mode of production production in the hands of a few concerns in Hollywood, 'India is
that prevails in the industry, and in the society in which that industry distinguished by a plethora of producers' (FEC Report: 64) The figures
operates. Janet Staiger (985), who has done an exhaustive study of cited show the extent of fragmentation:
the Hollywood mode of production, begins by asserting that the
socio-economic 'base' does not enjoy any privileged role as determinant Table 1
in the emergence of technology and ideological forms, as Jean- A Plethora of Producers
Louis Comolli (993) had argued. Instead, following John Ellis (992)
and Geoffrey Nowell-Smith, she regards the conditions of film Year Films Producers Maximum films by a single producer
practice-ideological, economic, political and technological-as 'a
series of histories' constituting 'the terrain of possibilities' (Staiger 1939 167 94 9
1985: 87-8). 1940 171 102 7
1946 200 151
6B.K. Karanjia, as editor of Filmfare and the FFC chair, had championed the
1947 283 214 7
proposal, revived the idea in a 1987 article and harked back to the regulation vs.
control debate. However, the advent of television, the liberalization measures of the 1948 264 211 6
Congress regimes, a new culture of vigorous middle-class consumerism and the
industry's scramhle to survive in a competitive environment had meanwhile so . Source: Report o(the Film Enquiry Committee, 1951: 64, 323--4
trdnsformed the scene that the idea of state-supported capitalist growth seemed
distinctly odd.

_ t
 38 • Ideology of the Hindi Film The Economics ofIdeology • 39
The average number of films made per producer was highest in thus could not attract the support of the government and the public.
1939 at less than two. By 1948 the average had dropped to just over
If the extremely small units of the present day succeed in expanding
one film per producer. Not only were there a large number of
sufficiently to ensure economic working or if they merge into larger
producers turning out one or two films a year, but a significant
units, they can not only get sufficient financial support, but also secure
number of them were 'newcomer independents' afflicted by a high such an important voice in commercial matters that governmental
rate of 'inf;;mt mortality'. authorities will scarcely be able to ignore them (ibid: 7).
The production sector of the industry can thus be divided into
two broad segments consisting of a tiny group of 'established' Related to these symptoms of economic disorder and fragmentation
producers and a large number of independents. This has been the is the question of how the individual film itself is put together:
general trend at least since 1939, that is to say, before India was Studio facilities being limited, the lack of pre-planning adds to delays
drawn into the war effort. YA. Fazalbhoy's Review (nd) published and necessitates last minute improvisations (Fazalbhoy Review:
soon after the 1939 Indian Motion Picture Congress that was held in Dialogue, role development and even the story's line of progression
Bombay, shows that under-capitalization was very much the norm were being decided during the production. The NFP report, published
even in the 'studio era', thus reducing the importance of the break in 1980, did not see any change in this regard (NFP Report: 17).
that was attributed (by Barnouw and Krishnaswamy (980), for Thus, while a large number of films are produced every year, there
instance) to an influx of black money that lured stars away from the is no 'mass production' in the strict sense of the term. The importance
studios during the Second World War years. of this detail will make itself felt as we proceed.
To begin with, Fazalbhoy traces the entry of independent The studios, an important cornerstone of the film industry, were
producers to the early thirties when the arrival of sound suddenly in a position of unquestioned dominance in the 1930s, when the
freed the Indian language film from competition with imported films film world was 'beginning to have the look of an organized industry'
and led to its undisputed leadership and a vast expansion of its (Barnouw and Krishnaswamy 1980: 117). Why were they then unable
market. Thus, to hold on to their position of strength when it was challenged by
the independent newcomers' As it is usually understood, the strategy
every qualified and unqualified man rushed into film production
of the newcomers was based on a shrewd calculation of the role of
and over f()ur hundred pictures were made in some of the earlier
I the star in the success of a film. The stars, whose incomes in the
years. Very soon came a glut in the markd and a number of studios
and producing companies closed down because their products could studios were moderate, were lured away with the offer of huge
not be sold profitably. The industry has not yet recovered from sums, thus drawing the studios into a competition from which they
the depreSSion that came in the train of these successive disasters never recovered: The elevation of the stars to the status of
(Rel'iew, nd). independent values, capable of a sort of self-valorization, upset the
control over the production process which had enabled the studios
He concludes with the now familiar prescription that organization
to maintain their methods and (non)disciplines of work. This was
'on more scientific principles' and 'better facilities for finance' could
also the occasion for the entry of 'black money' into the industry.
alone prevent the high rate of failure of the production companies.
The newcomers, backed by the tainted surpluses of blackmarketeers
The Indian producer, according to Fazalbhoy,
(later they would be joined by smugglers), offered a part of the high
is usually satisfied if he can take one picture in hand at a time and payment to the stars in the form of unaccounted money, which
follow it up to its end through many months of hard labor. The would be 'tax-free'. During the last years of British rule, this practice
economies in overhead expenditure that come from prodUcing a was even regarded as a patriotic act (ibid: 127).
number of pictures at a time have necessarily to be sacrificed (ibid). But there is another reason for the loss of dominance: although
Establishing the industry on a firm capitalist basis, with high capital the studios were large well-organized production centres, they
investment and mass production were seen to be crucial but the functioned on what Barnouw and Krishnaswamy call the 'one-big-
industry'S 'internal organization' was too weak to achieve this and family' principle. 'The big companies of the 1930s, like the Phalke
40 • Ideology of the Hindi Film The Economics ofIdeology • 41
company before them, seemed to be extensions of the joint family The chief characteristic of distribution in India is that to a great extent
system. Many of the companies had, in fact, clusters of relatives' the firms handling the work arc merely departments of financing
(ibid: 117). Thus, these companies were functioning in a market houses. . Since the returns from a picture will be recovered only
economy, producing commodities for mass distribution, but the after it is in the market for some time the studio must have sufficient
production relations were based on kinship loyalties. funds to carryon its activities. The financiers who stepped· in with
From the trends noted above it would be reasonable to conclude this help took as security the returns from the picture and in the
that the transformation wrought by the influx of independent majority of cases retained the distribution with themselves
CFazalbhoy Review: 28-9).
producers intensified rather than caused the dispersed mode of
functioning of the industry. The independent producer was at best The 'minimum guarantee system', which is supposed to assure the
a small-scale capitalist entrepreneur who could depend on the producer a minimum return on each film, is also not as favourable
availability of low-wage casual labour and freelance acting talent to producers as it appears. The amount that is fixed as the minimum
with enormous wage differences between the stars, the 'character guarantee in this transaction is usually the amount loaned by the
actors' and the 'extras' and could rent all the requisite technical distributor to the producer during the making of the film. As a result
services and equipment. The star, who was previously only one of the producer often gets no revenue from a film after production
the more important units of congealed value (or 'symbolic capital') because the minimum return has already been given in the form of
to go into the product, now became the primary source of value. loans. It was also in the distributors' interest 'to see that returns from
A separate distribution sector for the Indian film industry was a pictures are not so excessive as to enable the producer to pay them
late development. In the silent era, when Indian films formed only off' (ibid: 48).
a small segment of the total films exhibited in the country, only The exhibition sector's role in this scenario largely complements
imports were put on the market by distributors. A distribution sector that of the distributor. In the first place, distributors, to secure their
for Indian films only emerged with the birth of the talkies and an long-term interests, establish control over theatres. A syndicate of
increase in Indian language film production. Distribution and distributors has been in operation in Bombay, monopolizing the
exhibition are the two sectors of the entire process that are Widely theatres. The rise of the multi-starrer, and the saturation release
acknowledged to be the most profitable. The proliferation of small strategy led to rental increases which reinforced the monopoly of a
and short-lived production companies with no fixed capital and few distribution houses (NFP Report: 24). Theatres were scarce in
limited working capital has meant that the distributors' profits have any case because of unfriendly construction rules. Even when new
emerged as one of the main sources of finance for film production 7 ones were constructed all over India during the seventies after the
The separate existence and the relation of dependence between the rules were relaxed, demand continued to exceed supply in densely-
distribution and production sectors ensures that capital remains populated cities.
permanently dissociated from the production sector which it There also emerged an intermediary class of 'theatre contractors'
subordinated to its own self-valorization. Capitalist enterprise is still who booked theatres and sold time to distributors at higher prices.
in its emergent form here and for all practical purposes remains a The logic of the industry also gave rise to the staging of 'fake jubilees'
system akin to the 'putting out system' of early capitalism, where in some centres to create a good impression on audiences in late-
production is subservient to distributors' capital which is advanced release centres. In 1957, Fil11?fare decided to focus on the 'exhibition
to producers, the product then belonging to the financier. racket'. The sharp rise in rentals-between 1955 and 1957 according
Film distribution was not the main occupation of those who to the magazine, the average rental went up by Rs 700 in the case of
entered the business. Most of them were moneylenders who turned small and second-run theatres and by Rs 2000 in the case of first-run
distributors in order to recover their money: houses-was the most tangible index of what was seen as a racket
7Nott: th;Jt financing of production hy distrihutors is hy no means a peculiar
involving various forms of deceit. R In 1972, echoing the Indira Gandhi
k;J[urt: of tht: Indian scene This W;JS commonly the practice in Hollywood and
t:lst:wht:I't:. What is important is the industry's sWtus in relation to that sector. 8Fil mjare, 24 May 1957, p. 3
 42 • Ideology of the Hindi Film
The Economics of Ideology • 43
government's slogan of 'Garibi Hatao', a Filmfare editorial entitled
A broad equation can be established between each of the two
'Zamindari Hatao' returned to the question of the black money hoards
film industries under consideration and a 'fundamental form of
of the exhibitors and the exorbitant rentals. It pointed out that even
manufacture'. If Hollywood is dominated by serial or organic
foreign film theatres demanded black money payments when they
manufacture, Bombay is dominated by the heterogeneous form.
screened Hindi films. It wondered how long the 'socialist government'
Marx's example for the heterogeneous form is watch-making. The
would tolerate such 'antisocial' activities. The title pointed to the
components of the watch are produced by different and separately
links between theatre owners and a more traditional, British-created
functioning skilled workers, and assembled into the final product. If
form of landlordism. The government, which had recently proclaimed
we consider that the Hindi film is conceived in this way, as an
its commitment to ending feudal practices was called upon to smash
II assemblage of pre-fabricated parts, we get a more accurate sense of
the power of theatre owners and bring them into the modern capitalist
1,1
the place of various elements, like the story, the dance, the song,
economy as rationally-functioning entrepreneurs.
the comedy scene, the fight, etc. in the film text as a whole. On the
This brief account of the economic structure of the Bombay film
other hand, what makes this method of functioning unsuitable for
industry demonstrates the dominance of merchant capital and the
Hollywood is the fact that a material substratum-the story-is the
fragmentation and heteronomy of the production sector. Against
point of departure of the production process and its transformation
this background we can now turn to a consideration of the form of
into a narrative film is the final goal of that process. The needle,
manufacture widely adopted by the industry and its significance for
Marx's example for serial manufacture, is distinguished by the fact
the understanding of Indian film ideology.
that the base material of the product is present from the beginning
to the end of the process. In the watch the whole's relation to its
material components is that of an ideal signifying process (the
The Heterogeneous Form of Manufacture measurement and indication of time) to its material. means of
realization.
Marx makes a distinction between the heterogeneous and the organic It is striking that the typical film produced by the Bombay film
or serial forms of manufacture. The first, heterogeneous mode is industry should bear so close a resemblance, in terms of its relation
characterized by the separate production of the component parts of to 'raw material', to the example of watch-making. Here we encounter
a product and their final assembly into one unit, while in the second the limits of the analysis we have been pursuing so far, which is
a given raw material passes through various stages of production focused on the internal economic organization of the industry. The
assigned to various workers or units within an integrated serial fragmented, episodic structure of the Hindi film text reminds us that
process (Marx, Capital I: 461-3). In Hollywood, as Staiger points beyond the combination of the mode of production and form of
I out, the organization of production 'most closely approximates serial manufacture, there arises a problem of narrative that can only be
manufacture', and features mass production (although far removed resolved at the level of the social totality.
from the 'assembly-line rigidity' of large industry) and a detailed To summarize the argument, it is my contention that while the
division of labour, that is to say a division of labour developed in HOllywood production process is structured around the primary
the factory production process and either intensifying or deviating operation of transforming a given raw material, the story/scenario,
from the more generally prevailing social division of labour. In into a film, in the production process most familiar in Bombay, the
Hollywood, the 'detailed division of labour mode became dominant separate development of the components of the film text render
when commercial film-making started emphasizing the production this process relatively unimportant. Indeed it could be said that the
of narrative fiction films after 1906' (Staiger 1985: 93). The comparison story here occupies a place on par with that of the rest of the
with Hollywood is crucial because it establishes the centrality of the components, rather than the pre-eminent position it enjoys'in the
question of narrative to the 'economic' questions being considered Hollywood mode. The written script, which enabled 'disjunctive
here. shooting schedules' and other measures aimed at economy and
efficiency and necessitating the division of the task of writing into
44 • Ideology of the Hindi Film I
The Economics ofIdeology • 45
several stages is one factor of extreme importance to the Hollywood a literal)' style which has a predilection for certain recurrent motifs:
production process, whereas evel)'one who writes on Bombay the mehfil, shama/parwana, chaman, bahar, nazaaren, and so on.
cinema notes, that this is conspicuous by its absence there. The This repertoire of images is drawn from the frozen diction of romantic
script 'became more than just the mechanism to pre-check quality: Urdu poetl)'.13 It is the task of poets, who figure here as traditional
it became the blueprint from which all other work was organized' artisans with control over their own means of production, to supply
(Staiger 1985: 94). these songs.
Contrast this with the numerous and constant complaints in Dialogue, similarly, employs its own register of terms and idioms.
Bombay about (he lack of a fully-developed script and the equally Here we may observe one of the reasons why discussions of the
frequent and shortlived euphoria about signs of change. In the early need for a script also combine an exhortation to find realistic stories.
1950s, in the wake of one of the recurring production crises, the For although it is rarely done, it is not impossible to prepare a fully
'stereotyped films' were condemned universally along with the detailed script for the kind of film described so far. But the problem
absence of 'co-ordination' and 'powerful or realistic theme(s)'.'J A lies elsewhere: the kind of narrative contexts that the given dialogue,
'silent revolution' was discovered, demonstrating audience lyrics, dances and stock characters make possible do not require a
dissatisfaction with the existing formula films and the search for prepared script, simply because the variations in them are caused
new formulas based on realistic stories lO was launched. Stol)' writers by innovations internal to the traditions of dialogue-writing, Urdu
were said to be coming into their own with producers launching a lyric-writing and dance hist0l)' rather than the external pressure of
search for 'original stol)' material'. II The actor and left-wing cultural
the particularities of a narrative. The encounter between the good
activist Balraj Sahni argued in an article that the screenplay and not
and bad elements in the fight scene is also a stylized enactment that
the stol)' was the vital element in' film-making. 'I cannot imagine',
follows its own logic of elaboration. Within the virtual space of the
he wrote, referring to one of the conventions of Bombay film-making,
fight, what is enacted is a choreographed ballet, credited to 'fight
'how the dialogue writing can be separated from the screenplay
composers' who have their own star value.
writing.' Sahni linked his idea of the pre-eminence of a holistically
We are now in a position to state more precisely the manner in
conceived screenplay with a 'revolution in men's minds' that had
which a 'heterogeneous form of manufacture' operates in the Hindi
placed 'man' at the centre of the world. He urged film-makers to
film industl)'. It does so to the extent that the cinematic instance is
study the realist drama of the west, which 'will teach our screen
writer the 'method' of realism' and help to emancipate him from 'his not the dominant one in the production of the film text; to the
feudal outlook'.12 extent that the component elements of the text arise in traditions
Each of the component elements of the Hindi film is capable of that have a separate existence or in traditions that, arising in the
much internal variation but their consistency from film to film is context of film itself (like the star system), acquire an independence
ensured by the fact that these variations are not demanded by the that retroactively determines the form of the text. The different
narrative. Thus, there are an infinite variety of songs, many extremely component elements have not been subsumed under the dominance
talented musicians with a tremendous capacity for blending different of a cinema committed to narrative coherence. The heteronomous
traditions of music and creating a seemingly endless supply of catchy conditions under which the production sector operates are paralleled
tunes. But the lyrics are written in a language which has its own set by a textual heteronomy whose primal)' symptom is the absence of
repertoire of images and tropes for themes like romantic love, an integral narrative structure.
separation, rejection, maternal love, marriage, etc. The songs adopt

9Filmjare, 7 March 1952, p. 6

13Film Iyricisls produce versions of gbazal, qawwali, tbumri and other musical
IOFilmfare, 2 May 1952, p. 38. forms with a distinctly 'filmy' flavour. Other traditions d'J.wn from are those associated
11 Filmjare, 16 May 1952, p. 37-R with Hindu weddings and other rituals and various folk forms. See Dale (996) for a
12Fi/mjare, 30 May 1952, p. 39. brief account of the almost lOOO-year history of the gbazal.
46 • Ideology of the Hindi Film The Economics of Ideology • 47
to generic differentiation, which was supported by the competing
Genre and Industrial Organization studios' desire to give a distinct identity to their products, was reversed
and a super-genre swallowed up all the rest. Comparing the studio
In this context let us consider an interesting paradox. Most writers
era with the situation at the start of the sixties, B.R. Chopra, one of
on the Indian cinema agree that during the studio era, while there
the established producers in the industry, commented:
was a weak but noticeable tendency to generic differentiation, post-
independence history shows a tendency for generic distinctions to In the past, producers were financed by progressive men who were
gradually weaken as a dominant form, most commonly known as interested in keeping up a banner like that of New Theatres, Prabhat,
the 'social', comes to reign supreme. Ranjit, Sagar Movietone and Bombay Talkies. today the financier
advances money only to one single picture which has become a Unit
Rosie Thomas has described the emergence of the social succintly:
by itself regardless of the banner under which it is made14.
By the 1930s a number of distinctly Indian genres were well
established. These included socials, mythologicals, devotionals,
We can ignore the suggestion that the financiers of the past were all
historicals, and stunt, costume, and fantasy films. As song and dance progressive. What is interesting in this passage is the idea that the
are a central and integral part of films of all genres, the term musical new mode of film production had led to the conception of each film
is seldom used. Although genre distinctions began to break down in as a single Unit. The use of the capital letter suggests that what is
the 1960s, they are still relevant, not only to an understanding of the being referred to here is a conception of each film in its comprehensive
range of films made today and in the past, but because the form of singularity, its status as a product specific to the particular combination
the now dominant socials has in fact integrated aspects of all earlier of financier-producer-director-stars and undetermined by the need
genres 0987: 304). to distinguish it from products of a multitude of other similar
Thomas's definition of the social indicates that the term is convenient combinations that together made up the Bombay film industry. Thus
rather than appropriate: arises the ideology of the all-inclusive film, whose vision of the
world tends to be multi-faceted, episodic and loosely structured.
The social has always been the broadest and, since the 1940s, the The post-independence Bombay film's aesthetic has often been traced
largest category and loosely refers to any film in a contemporary
by critics to Sanskrit dramaturgy but here we glimpse the historically
setting not otherwise classified. It traditionally embraces a wide
spectrum, from heavy melodrama to light-hearted comedy, from films
more significant material determinations of the dominant film form.
with social purpose to love stories, from tales of family and domestic The structuring of a film text around a single linear strand of
conflict to urban crime thrillers (ibid). narrative with one dominant affect-pathos, comedy, action, mystery,
music, romance, horror-indicates the logic of a production process
This form not only subordinated tlte other generic tendencies to based on product differentiation and the development of 'special
itself externally (i.e. by restricting the number of films with a distinctly needs'. Where such a process has not advanced beyond the
different generic identity and/or by relegating them to the more elementary stages, where an industry is composed of a large number
provincial or sub-cultural exhibition outlets), but also by an internal of individual capitals 'not bound together by any objective social
subordination, whereby films in the dominant form included within interconnection' (Banaji 1990: 237), the conditions for the planned
themselves, fragments of genres like the thriller, the detective film, differentiation of products do not exist. These two modes of capitalist
the gangster film, the costume drama and the devotional. The production (by a firm and by individuals functioning in temporary
transition from studio production to the dominance of independent alliances) thus result in two different modes of commodification.
producers is one of the factors cited for the rise to pre-eminence of In the Hollywood mode, the commodity unit is the individual
the ·social'. film. Each film is marked by a high degree of internal unity and the
Thus, on the one hand, the dominance of a few studios yielded values and skills that enter into its production are organized into a
to the new, extraneously backed power of a multitude of independent stable hierarchy, whose primary effect is that of a tightly-organized
one-film producers, resulting in a fragmentation of the industry. On
the other hand, in a parallel and contrary development, a tendency 14 Filmjare, 29 Decemher 1961, p. 19.
48 • Ideology of the Hindi Film The Economics ofIdeology • 49
coherent narrative. By contrast, the independently-produced Bombay The evidence points to two conflicting answers: on the one hand,
film is marked by the relative autonomy retained by the various there is the perceived failure of the attempt to gain mastery over the
elements that flow into the production process. IS The system of film production process, to make it serve a determinate ideological project;
songs has an autonomous existence, as we have seen, and so do on the other hand, the very impediments placed in the way of such
the dialogue and the star image. consolidation by the powerful financiers may be said to have
This means that the process of commodification operates along contributed (with whatever degree of 'intention') to the perpetuation
lines that are determined by an unevenly-developed market of a backward capitalism in production and pre-capitalist ideologies
capitalism, fragmenting the film text into its component parts. Thus in which relationships based on loyalty, servitude, the honour of
the individual film tends to function more as a space for the exhibition the khandaan (clan) and institutionalized Hindu religious practices
of a combination of autonomous talents or values. 16 This space is form the core cultural content. Thus, a state of affairs that appears
organized by means of a minimal narrative framework. to be the result of a series of 'failures'tH may well be the one that the
Returning to the relation between the production practices and particular state form obtaining in India makes possible. Given this,
ideology, it is necessary to ask whether the haphazard and it is difficult to agree with the oft-repeated assertion that the popular
individualized mode of production that has survived in Bombay for Indian film is 'precisely tailored to the tastes of the local
such a long time is necessitated by the kind of ideology that the Having examined the economic structure of the film industry,
industry is committed to disseminating. So far, it has seemed as if we have seen that beyond the distinctly economic constraints on
the economic conditions of the film industry constitute a series of this cultural institution, there remains the problem of narrative whose
drawb'acks, failures and constraints, an image produced by the explanation has to be found outside the narrow framework of the
industry's own perceptions. The analysis rests on a presupposition industry'S mode of production. We have seen that the prevailing
that the economic realities were acting as a constraint on the type of mode of organization of the industry perpetuates itself because the
film that could be produced by the industry. But it is possible to dominant aesthetic form does not require the kind of integrated
pose a different question: if it is said that Hollywood, when assigned production process, which becomes imperative where the narratives
(or assigning itselO a certain ideological task,17 developed a mode are particularistic, focused on chunks of the real. Why does the
of production that would facilitate its achievement, can a similar standard Hindi film take the form it does? Why has it proved so
statement be made about the relationship between the ideology of difficult, and yet to some so necessary, to integrate the film text
the Indian film and its mode of production? The question, in other around a central, particularistic narrative?
words, concerns the instrumentality of the production process to an The advocates of realism, narrative integrity, linearity and other
ideological goal: can we assume that this is true of all situations? virtues function in the history we have recounted as the would-be
agents of a bourgeois revolution. Their repeated campaigns, all ending
in failure, are symptomatic of the return, at every step, of a logic of
IS But see Alexander Doty's (Wide Angle 102), 'Music Sells Movies' which points
to a minor trend in Hollywood that seems to parallel ours.
form that is beyond their control, beyond the reach of the solutions
l('This explains the otherwise peculiar function of film litles in the Hindi cinema. they propose, a logic that could not be grasped in its totality because
Titles are often abstract, symbolic words and phrases: Kismat(Fate), Pyar ka Ma usa m it is itself located at the level of the social totality, and determines
(Season of Love), etc. They bear a relation to the text that is metaphoric and disjunctive, the discursive possibilities available to cultural producers. Now,
rarely metonymic. They are witness to the non-specificity of narratives. As such
perhaps, as the basic conditions are changing, we may be able to
within a few years of the release of a film, the title becomes available for re-use. On
the other hand, the point about a title like]unglee (The Wild One) is that it refers to catch a glimpse of this logic.
a chardcter trait of the hero which is quickly shown to be superficial. It is a sort of
brand-name which a star persona is identifiable.
180n the problems arising from the use of 'failure' as a concept in historiography,
17The details of which need not concern us here. There is a vast amount of
see G. Spivak (988).
on Hollywood Apart from J. Staiger (985), who makes the specific
point mentioned here, see G. Mast and Cohen (992), B. Nichols (993), and 19Nick Roddick, 'Sticky Wicket for Indian Films', Screen International, No 634
P. Rosen (986) for a wide selection of representative writings. (January 9-16,1988), p. 15.
 The Economics a/Ideology • 51
50 • Ideology 0/ the Hindi Film
What we observe in Hollywood, during the era of 'classical Fictive contractual relations in the (film)
Hollywood cinema', is a historic turn in the logic of production
performance apparatus: Two types
whereby stories were situated at the beginning of the production
process, in the position which, in other industries, is occupied by
'raw material'. This positioning of the narrative as the pre-eminent Performance as:
factor in the process, was what made it possible for Hollywood to 2. Production of meaning
1. Relay of Meaning
establish, for about thirty years, a system of efficient mass production (Heterogeneous (Serial manufacture)
that has been the envy of the rest of the world. Such a shift, however, manufacture)
was facilitated by the fact that the aesthetics of realism itself was
capable of being re-imagined in these terms. Realism's political Message from (No message from
the Symbolic the Symbolic)
significance becomes clear in this light: Andre Bazin, perhaps the
(God, King, star)
most influential theorist of the cinema, associates realism with the
maintenance of the values of liberal democracy. In his way of Transmission of Reality as raw
representing the true nature of realism, we glimpse the traces of a message through material for meaning
conception of realist performance as the occasion for production of performance production
meaning by audiences. Bazin manages to at once acknowledge the (producers, actors) (author/producer)
productive, creative role of the author, and negate it, by investing
the right to interpret and produce meaning in the spectator as Reception of the Reception as meaning
message production by
sovereign citizen. Such a conception of the aesthetic process is
(audience) audience as bearers of
inconceivable without the historical process of capitalist expansion Symbolic function
which gradually renamed every bit of the world as 'raw material'.
The genius of Hollywood was to have discovered a way to combine
the real process of transformation of raw material with the replication
of that relation within the spfiere of ideology.
How could the Indian industry reproduce that kind of unique
historical event? Contrary to the fictive performance contract that
prevailed in the west, what prevailed here can be represented as
shown in the chart below. In this structure, there is no scope for the
raw material relation: the representation of 'chunks of the real' which
are made available for interpretation. The devolution of meaning
requires no large-scale production system. There is a political problem
here which outweighs all the efforts focussed on finding economic
or purely cultural solutions to the industry's problems. Only if and
when that transcendental point of emanation of meaning ceases to
regulate the discourse of cultural texts will the occasion arise for
searching for other ways of organizing the text. And when that
happens, it may no longer be necessary or desirable to repeat the
history of Hollywood: other possibilities may have emerged by then .

.
 The Absolutist Gaze • 53
or a nation-state has to be established as the first step, to be followed
by a process of reform from above which will gradually modernize
the nation and expand the domain of capitalism.
In adopting the second approach, the national state banks on
3 the colonial state machinery, which it inherits through the 'transfer
of power' that marks the transition from a heteronomous state
formation to a (relatively) autonomous one. An alliance of dominant
The Absolutist Gaze: c1asses l mobilizes the masses in support of its programme of develop-
ment. However, this mobilization, and the transformation that it
Political Structure and Cultural Form envisages, are limited in two 'fundamental ways':
On the one hand, it does not attempt to break up or transform in any
radical way the institutional structures of 'rational' authority set up in
the period of colonial rull:, whether in the domain of administration

T
he question of nationalism (or more precisely, the formation and law or in the realm of economic institutions or in the structure of
and the chances of consolidation of nation-states) in education, scientific research and cultural organization. On the other
post-colonial countries has been the object of reflection in hand, it also does not undertake a full-scale assault on all pre-capitalist
much recent work. In the 'Notes on Italian History' Gramsci developed dominant classes; rather it seeks to limit their former power, neutralize
the concept of 'passive revolution' as a 'criterion of interpretation' them where necessary, attack them only selectively, and in general to
(Gramsci 1971: 114). In these notes, Gramsci was grappling with a bring them round to a position of subSidiary allies within a reformed
central problem in the critique of political economy related to the state structure (Chatterjee 1986: 49).
development of capitalism beyond the borders of the primary An interventionist state apparatus becomes the principal instrument
capitalist states and involving a 'transmission' of 'ideological currents' of capitalist transformation in the absence of bourgeois hegemony
from the 'more advanced countries' to the 'periphery' (ibid: 116-17). over civil society (which is to say, in the absence of civil society).
These reflections on 'passive revolution' and the related concept of Capitalist control of the state apparatus is curtailed by the coalition
'war of position' have proved to be a very important point of within which the bourgeoisie has to function, and in which it can
departure for current thinking on the subject. only pursue 'reformist and "molecular" changes' (ibid: 49).
In one of the most ambitious applications of these concepts to Neil'Larsen has also turned to the 'Notes on Italian History' in
the question of the postcolonial nation-state, Partha Chatterjee has talking about the Latin American nation-states. Both Chatterjee and
argued, in Nationalist Thought and the Colonial World 'that passive Larsen identify colonization as the crucial factor in the 'state first'
revolution' is the general form of the transition from colonial to model of capitalist development. The state in post-colonial societies
post-colonial nation-states in the 20th century' (Chatterjee, 1986: 50). 'finds itself enmeshed in an acute crisis originating in its own abstract
In elaborating this thesis, Chatterjee notes how, according to Gramsci, negativity as an autonomous power'. Its principal tasks are the
there are 'organic tendencies of the modern state' which seem to 'conquest of civil society' and the concomitant constitution of the
favour the forces which carry out a protracted ... 'war of position' 'unitary bourgeois subject' (Larsen 1990: 73).
rather than those which think only of an instantaneous 'war of The thesis that 'passive revolution' is the characteristic mode of
movement' (ibid: 47). The open confrontation associated with the transition to (and further development 00 post-colonial nation-states
'war of movement' does not suit the interests of emergent bourgeoisies
in the underdeveloped peripheral regions. Under such conditions lSee Pranab Hardhan (1984) and Achin Vanaik (1990) for a discussion of the
dominant classes that constitute the ruling coalition in India. The bourgeoisie, the
there are two possible options: either the pre-capitalist sites of
rich farmers and the professional classes have been identified by Bardhan 0984: 40-
resistance have to be modernized as a pre-condition of the 53) as the three principal constituents of the ruling coalition. See also Francine Frankel
establishment of a modern nation-state conducive to capitalist growth; (1978) and Sukhamoy Chakravarty (1987).
 54 • Ideology ofthe Hindi Film The Absolutist Gaze • 55
enables us to retain a dialectical approach to the question of national
observed that the concept of 'citizen' remains an ideal attached to a
autonomy/dependency. One of the problems faced by contemporary
unique individual, rather than an attribute that is automatically
cultural theory is how to balance the perception of the cultural
assumed to belong to all who inhabit the nation-state. Of course, in
autonomy of post-colonial states with the reality of their dependent
the political sphere, every citizen votes and thereby realizes his/her
status in global capitalism. Even as we witness the steady erosion of
'citizenness'. However, this sphere of symbolic equality is qualified
the economic and political autonomy of these nations with the
not only by the real differences in wealth that undermine the equality
expansion of multinational capital and the military-political power
(and indeed necessitate the discourse of equality as a disguise), but
of the NATO bloc, cultural theory takes on the responsibility of a
also by the uneven combination of ideologies which reproduces
compensatory assertion of absolute cultural autonomy for these
other political subject positions.
beleaguered entities z The paradox here is that the sources of this
Post-independence Hindi narrative cinema has been dominated,
autonomy are seen to reside in the irreducible cultural differences
as stated earlier, especially in the 1950s and 1960s, by a form that
between previously independently developing civilizations and
'. , can be described as the feudal family romance. The dominant status
communities, that is, in whatever already existed before the advent
of this form in popular cinema is a symptom of the nature of power
of a homogenizing capitalism. On the other hand, within the limits
in a ruling alliance in which the bourgeoisie is only one of several
of a capitalist order the possibility of a difference and autonomy in
constituents. It is a compromise formation specific to the mutually
a modern sense is predipted on the construction of a new national
beneficial co-existence, in independent India, of a colonial elite
culture, itself dependent on political and economic autonomy.
with a pre-capitalist social base and a bourgeoisie aspiring to the
Contrary to such axiomatic of cultural autonomy
status of the dominant (if not the sale) partner in the coalition. The
therefore, this study will assume that there is a complex dialectic of
dominance of this form is evidence of the suspension of the process
autonomizing and heteronomizing tendencies within the field of
of re-constitution of the social around the figure of the citizen.
mass culture where cinema is situated, and that the cultural forms
The feudal family romance, however, survives alongside
arising from what Gramsci calls the 'transmission' of 'ideological
tendencies towards the consolidation of realist and melodramatic
currents' are a symptom of this dialectic. In particular, in a discussion
aesthetic modes. While the feudal family romance is itself a
of cultural forms, we must pay attention to the question of the
'melodramatic' form (corresponding to the stage melodrama of early
production (and reproduction) of new subjectivities compatible with
capitalism), its romance form, hierarchical mode of address and its
generalized capitalist development. The 'Citizen Subject', as Balibar
I configuration of social space are in conflict with the aesthetic project
has argued, is the elementary unit of the abstract State, an ideal unit
!
represented by the new melodrama and realism. However, this
whose actual realization is never complete, even in the most advanced
conflict does not coincide with the idealist notion of a conflict
of the capitalist countries. Nevertheless, this 'utopic figure' is,
between tradition and modernity. Rather, it represents a conflict
according to Balibar, 'the actor of a permanent revolution', a figure
between two ideologies of modernity, one corresponding to the
whose very positing, by the bourgeois revolution, inaugurates an
conditions of capitalist development in the periphery, and the other
unceasing struggle for the equality which was the unrealized premise
aspiring to reproduce the 'ideal' features of the primary capitalist
of that revolution's philosophy (Balibar 1992: 54).
states. The folloWing section will situate the feudal family romance
Although the Citizen-Subject remains an incompletely realized
in relation to the competing modes of film melodrama and realism
utopic figure in all instances, it is also the case that this non-realization
in an attempt to chart the ideological forces at work in the project of
itself takes specific forms in different nation-state formations. I will
Indian film culture. My attempt is to understand these cultural forms
try to elaborate this by reference to Indian culture, where it can be
in relation to the processes of modernity, namely the formation of
the modern state, the transformation of the social space into a value-
2Such, for instance, is the spirit behind the opening argument of Thomas (985). generating order, and the project of expanding the field of operation
Ashish Nandy's theory of popular Indian culture is also based on a similar assertion
of the figure of the citizen.
of an incommensurability of trdditional and modern (:ulturdl sectors.
 56 • Ideology oj the Hindi Film
The Absolutist Gaze • 57
Realism and Melodrama romances. 3 In the to identify a 'melodramatic imagination' it
is possible to miss the fact that this 'form' does not derive its
Both realism and melodrama have been acclaimed as aesthetic forms distinguishing properties from its thematic content, but from features
bearing an intimate relation to the democratic revolution. For a long that attest to its origins in a transitional social formation. It is the
time, it seemed as if realism alone was worthy of this distinction but undifferentiated mass audience on the one hand, and the thematic
in recent years, since the publication of Peter Brooks' The eclecticism and episodic narration on the other that give melodrama
Melodramatic Imagination (976) and a series of essays on film, its specificity (ef. Elsaesser on the many points of origin of the
beginning with Thomas Elsaesser's 'Tales of Sound and Fury', (see melodrama). It i.s futile to look for any 'essential' qualities of
Landy 1991) the tide has turned in favour of melodrama. However, melodrama, any identifiable melodramatic imagination. As Mary Ann
this shift has not been accompanied by any explanation of how and Doane (987) has observed, the term melodrama has occasioned so
why these two forms can both claim to be the representative aesthetic many divergent explanations and applications that its usefulness as
form of a democratic society. The 'feminization' of mass culture has a critical term may well be doubted (Doane 1987: 71). While feminist
been shown to be a feature of cultural theory in the Modern West film criticism has employed the term to designate the '50s family
(Huyssen 1986). Thus, the gendered polarization of culture into a melodrama' of Hollywood, it has had a longer history in drama
I criticism as theatre has been the 'natural' habitat of the genre. In
masculine sphere of autonomous modernist works of art, and a
feminine sphere of heteronomous and formally diffuse mass culture, film criticism, while initially, as Pam Cook (Melodrama and the
has led to an affirmation of melodrama as a feminine form and its Women's Picture 1991) observes, melodrama was studied within
pleasures as the denigrated but real and valued pleasures of female the auteurist critical tradition, feminist intervention led to more
audiences. generalized theoretical projects attempting 'a historical appraisal of
However, melodrama, which in its early manifestations was too the genre in cinema as a whole' (Cook 1991: 249; Gledhi111987: 5).
diffuse and fragmentary to be called a form in its own right, achieved Beyond this, the very clear-cut genre differentiation that is
its highest level of formal consistency precisely at the moment characteristic of Hollywood cinema was itself seen to be overridden
when it came to be specifically addressed to women, in the by the melodramatic worldview that all these genres shared (Landy
Hollywood women's melodrama (Gledhill 1987: 6) and in similar 1991: 15). Thus, it could be said that all popular cinema is tendentiaUy
" III'
capable of being described as melodramatic. 4
films made by the Bombay industry. On the other hand, a study
of Indian film melodrama shows that in its most fragmented, 3A typical example is 'A Tale of Mystery' written by Thomas Holcroft in 1802 and
patchwork texture, its most 'feminized' appearance going by based on a French original. Some of the most common plot devices of popular Hindi
Huyssen's argument, it was addressed to a wide, undifferentiated cinema are to be found in this play, in which an alliance between good aristocrats is
threatened by the machinations of an evil aristocrat. ].B. Buckstone's 'Luke the Labourer'
audience. Thus women's melodrama appears to be a specific (826) also has a familiar plot involVing the downfall and restoration of a virtuous
branching off from a popular form; its achievement of a certain pre- landowning family. Both the plays are included in Michael Kilgarriff's The Golden
eminence for a period in the history of Hollywood cinema may Age ofMelodrama (974), 34-52; 94-127.
serve as an index to the prevailing social relations in American society, 4Today, the subgenre of the domestic melodrama is emphasized exclusively in
attempts to deftne the mmic genre. Historical epics, gangster mms, and horror mms
but the question of the conditions of possibility of melodrama remains
are seen as different genres, distinct from melodrama. This is at least partially a result
unresolved. of the tendency ... of certain theorists to consider late nineteenth-century British
The relation between melodrama and realism can be best and American melodramas as the precedent for filmic melodrama. Once the earlier
understood by reference to the fiction of the social contract and the history of melodrama is considered, we see the immense importance of the historical,
supernatural, colonial, criminal, and mystery melodramas. They provide the
field in which the contract is held to be effective. Many of the early antecedents for the historical epic, the gangster mm, and the horror mm. It certainly
European and American stage melodramas were aristocratic is necessary to consider the wide range of expression and subgenres that constitute
the nineteenth-century melodrama' (Turim: 156). The Hindi cinema, compressing as
it does the entire history of melodrama into a few decades of ftlm production, is a
uniquely appropriate site for the exploration of this cultural form.
i
1
I

I
,I
58 • Ideology of the Hindi Film The Absolutist Gaze • 59
The current accumulation of research seems to suggest in the neither singular not collective.) The citizen-subject is a combination
case of Hollywood that no 'pure' melodrama exists in a separate of the abstract unit of the bourgeois polity with the material,
state. was at best a fragmented generic category and as 'pathological' subject.
a pervasive aesthetic mode broke genre boundaries' (Gledhill 1987: 6). A difficulty arises when this definition of the classic realist text is
Melodramatic and realist codes seem to occur in combination. sought to be applied to cinema. Here there is no manifest eqUivalent
Nevertheless, there remains the question of the different values of the written discourse that aspires to 'unwrite' itself, the meta-
associated with these two aesthetic modes. The realist aesthetic language that, aspiring to a condition of absolute transparency, is
occupies a privileged place in the western imagination. In particular, nevertheless obliged to go through the materiality of writing.
the post-World War II emergence of Italian neo-realism on the However, the camera's work of narration, 'which 'shows us what
international scene led to the equation of realism with democratic, happens', functions as a metalanguage, providing 'the truth against
anti-fascist ideologies while popular forms were described as escapist which we can measure the discourses' (MacCabe 1985: 37). 'The
and corrupting (Landy, British Genres 1991: 19). To attribute such narrative of events-the knowledge which the film provides of how
political functions exclusively to any aesthetic form is essentialist things really are-is the metalanguage in which we can talk of the
and anti-materialist; no aesthetic mode can be inherently democratic various characters in the film' (ibid: 38). What is significant here is
or reactionary. But the very existence of this hierarchy as well as the the implication that in cinema the metalanguage moves closer to
evolving compromise between the two aesthetic modes is indicative the condition of invisibility, while remaining identifiable in the traces
of the determination of the formal possibilities in capitalist culture of the work of narration.
by the hierarchies entailed by modern social structures. But it is not only in cinema that such a potential disappearance
Every representation of reality is not a realist representation. of the metalanguage is observable. In his investigations of 'peripheral
Realism is thus not so much a matter of the object of representation modernity', Neil Larsen has demonstrated how, in its further
but a mode of textual organization of knowledge, a hierarchical adventures within the literary domain, the metalanguage proves that
layering of discourses. Colin MacCabe (985), whose essay on realism it can indeed conserve all its ideological effects even as it completely
elaborates this thesis, notes that the hierarchy of discourses in the disappears from the space of the text itself. Larsen's analysis of a
story by Juan Rulfo, 'La Cuesta de las Comadres', while tracking the
'classic realist text' is 'defined in terms of an empirical notion of
changing disguises of the metalanguage of realism, also introduces
truth'. In this type of text 'the narrative prose [here it is the literary
the element that is crucial to its broadened understanding: the
realist text that is in question] functions as a metalanguage that can
question of the state.
state all the truths in the object language ... and can also explain
the relation of this object language to the real' (MacCabe 1985: 34-5). 5'The citizen properly speaking is neither the individual nor the collective, just
The object language belongs to a world of indirection and opacity as he is neither an exclusively public being nor a private being' (Balibar 1992: 51).
that is compensated by the transparent metalanguage. This Here mention must he made of Elizabeth Deeds Ermarth's Realism and Consensus
in the English Novel which argues that 'fictional realism is an aesthetic form of
metalanguage MacCabe describes as 'unwritten', not because it is consensus' maintained by 'the agreement between the various viewpoints made
not present in the novel but precisely because of its ambition to available by a text' (Ermarth 1983: ix-x), such agreement witnessing the existence of
become a transparent medium for making visible the meanings a cohesive community. Ermarth does not regard this consensus as a 'consensus-
immanent in the object language-world. In thus 'denying its own effect', nor does she relate its emergence to the figure of the Citizen and the fiction
of the contrdCt, although in linking realism to the emergence of the Subject/Object
status as writing' (ibid: 36), the metalanguage of realist representation, duality (ibid: 77), she could he said to indirectly acknowledge the connection. Because
I suggest, exactly corresponds to the in-betweenness of the figure her notion of 'consensus' is tied to the idea of 'community', Ermarth's use of the term
of the citizen, who, as Balibar has observed can, by definition, be remains ideological and does not connect the production of the consensus-effect
with the destruction and dispersal of 'communities' at the beginning of the history of
capitalism, a connection which enables us to see that the consensus-dfect is an
ideological evocation of community in the service of the dispersed mode bf cohesion
specific to contractual bourgeois society.
 60 • Ideology of the Hindi Film The A bsolutist Gaze • 61
6
The story is narrated by an old farmer in a regional dialect bourgeois episteme, perhaps tells us something we are loath to
(corresponding to the 'object languages' whose reception the metal- hear-that this same "cognitive structure" has now learned to
anguage of realism tries to mediate). It recounts 'what at first appear represent itself exlusively in the cultural/aesthetic signs of its Other'
to be two unrelated series of events: the sudden and unexplained (ibid: 62).
depopulation of the small community of ranchos named in the title, Larsen relates the 'aesthetics of vertical writing' to 'the politiCS of
and the equally suspicious activities of Remigio and alidon Torrico, the state as nonstate' (ibid: 63). When the rationalizing discourse of
the two local caciques who have remained behind' (Larsen 1990: realism does not appear, it is because 'the state, the veJY center of extra-
57). This story, with its surprise ending, in which the narrator comes literaJY authority, has itself become a horizon of representation' (ibid: 67). In
round to confessing to a murder, catches the reader unawares. 'For the transition from the classic realist text of European literature to
a reader attuned to the narrative signposts and motivations of a this realism of peripheral modernity marked by a strategic suspension
conventional prose realism, the initial effect produced by 'La Cuesta of rational mediation, the missing link is the figure of the citizen
de las Comadres' is one of perplexity and shock' (ibid: 58). The which, in its in-betweenness, performed the double function of the
reader is left without the reassuring mediation that a metalanguage state-collective, and voice of narration, the present discursive agent
provides. The source of the shock, thus, is the 'uncodedness' of of a self-absenting authority. The citizen as the mediating figure
violence 'within the cultural whole' (ibid: 59). A second reading that between state and individual is an elusive mechanism of social
is aware of the ntse, Larsen observes, may suggest 'that this sense of organization in conditions of underdevelopment. The 'regional and
an interior plenitude of spoken cultural substance is not self-sustaining "barbaric" circuitries' that resist the formation of 'civil society'
but rather the effect of the absence of any obvious rationalizing necessitate a different hegemonic strategy: 'the consensual stability
authority on the level of the narrative discourse as a whole' (ibid: of civil society must be sought through the direct control of these
59), in other words precisely that hierarchizing discourse of the non-state circuitries themselves rather than through the traditional
metalanguage that is at once there and not there. But if it is not atomizing approach of the liberal metropolitan states (constitution
there in the text, where has it gone, and how does it produce its of the modern 'citizen')' (ibid: 63).
effects in absentia? Larsen's argument is that while it has disappeared From here we can proceed along two diverging routes to the
from the horizontal axis of the narrative, its effects are produced on further critique of realism. The first would remain within the
a vertical axis, from a place outside and above the text. framework of the discursive hierarchies of the realist text,
The erasure of 'direct authorial word' from the horizontal axis of the
encompassing both the classic realist text of the western tradition
narrative ... appears ... to he the result of its transfer or displacement, and the vertically controlled realist representations of peripheral
to a paradigmatic position from which it is ahle to govern the flow of modernity. The various 'nationalist realisms' like Italian neo-realism,
narrative as if through filtration. The semic material upon which and the realist experiments in Indian 'new cinema' as well as the
this vertical writing operate.s is not composed of words or meanings manifestoes of realism like Bazin's which emphasize its political
in the standard morphological sense but of whole narrative liberalism, fall within this problematic 7 Most extensively elaborated
utterances, macroscopic blocks of a store of oral narrative, which the in the writings by and about the Italian neo-realist film-makers, this
invisible authorial writing selects and arranges in a predetermined aesthetic movement finds itself functioning as one of the mechanisms
syntax (ibid: (j 1-2). of the modern state's hegemonic project, giving substance to the
Thus the appearance of popular language independently of a state's claim to represent the 'nation' that it encompasses. The nation,
dominating metalanguage does not constitute a freeing of the former which Robert Fossaert described as 'the discourse of the state,His
from the latter. 'The transparency of writing to its regional object, produced by various means: aesthetic realism is one of them. The
understood transculturally as a failure or at least a deferral of the
7Harry Levin's cryptic ohservation, that realism has some connection with 'real
6An English translation (without the 'uialect', of course), entitled 'The Hill of the estate' (Levin 1963: 6H) hegins to make sense in this context.
Comaures' is availahle in Juan Hulfo 09(7): 17-2R HCited in Larsen (990): 70.

......
 62 • Ideology of the Hindi Film The Absolutist Gaze • 63
land and the people, represented in their objective there-ness, standard Hindi film, bestows an immanent unity (as opposed to a
constitute this substance. unity that derives from a transcendental plane) on its content. Coming
The second route open to the critique of realism is the one isolated into its own with the consolidation of the modern state, it is
by MacCabe in his second essay on the subject. In a discussion of distinguished by a transformation of the field of perception such
Hollywood cinema, MacCabe reminds us that by the Bazinian that the spectator's gaze is attracted by the unfolding of a sequence
definition, these films are not realistic. However, the case for of events focussed around a central character, and whose meaning
Hollywood realism is made, as already mentioned, by considering is constructed through the diegesis, under the aegis of legality.
that the goal of realism, 'a transparency of form'-is achieved by In such 'rational fictions', the motivation of episodes in their
Hollywood through cinematic practices of signification, whereas sequencing ensures that a legally justifiable spectacle ensues as a
'Bazin's criteria for distinguishing between films can only be based result. Principles of credibility, necessity and relevance hold sway.
on non-filmic concerns' (MacCabe 1985: 60), i.e considerations of a Such a form does not tolerate 'extraneous' interpolations. The
qualitative kind centred on 'any narrative procedure which tends to effectivity of the social contract is symptomatically manifested in the
make more reality appear on the screen' (Bazin). agreement to subordinate spectacle to the rules of credible, causal
Although by making visible the productive role of the camera progression of narrative. The narrative contract is a clause of the
and the suppression of contradiction in the realism of the Italian social contract. Through its operation, the rationality of the bourgeois
school, MacCabe makes a case for the fundamental unity of neo- world is demonstrated and ratified. Narrative restraint--eredibility-
realism and Hollywood realism, there is a secondary axis of difference is a chastisement of non-rational ambitions. To flout the norms of
between these two modes which the essay comes close to denying narrative credibility is to flout the law.
but eventually leaves open. If, then, we assume that there is I shall employ the term mise-en-valeur to designate this work of
significant difference between these two modes of realism, how can textual organization that produces the real as rationalY When Bombay
this be defined? I have suggested above that the distinguishing mark film-makers talk about realism, they have in mind precisely this
of the first mode, which for convenience can be called nationalist project of a mise-en-valeur which would streamline the standard
realism (or realism arising at the level of the political instance), is its film text with its episodic and fragmentary form deriving from stage
engagement in the project of producing the nation for the state. The melodrama, eliminate features that interfere with a unified linear
Indian new cinema of the early seventies, especially the first three narration, achieve a system of generic differentiation which would
films of Shyam Benegal, employs this mode (see Chapter 8).
The second mode, identified with Hollywood, and more pertinent 9\ have chosen this term because it resonates with the other term-mise-etl-
scene-:-that has become the standard term in English for the organization of profilmic
to our immediate concern, which serves as an ideal that the popular space. The association helps to understand the meaning of the second term, which
Hindi film sometimes strives to emulate, arises in the context of a pertains to the text as a whole and the way in which the elements within that whole
desacralized social order where the free individual is the elementary are organized. However, the term is not my own: it was used by the French colonial
administrator Gallieni to describe a stage in the process of colonization that followed
unit. Here the determining factors include the organization of society after the first stage of 'paCification' which involves the military. In the second stage,
into a self-reproducing value-generating order, a mode of regulation the administrators take charge, in order to dissolve the traditional communities, to
of the free circulation of individuals by means of a symbolic equality establish a new pattern of rclatfons between the colonizer, the colonized and the
natural resources of the pacified region which would be conducive to a modern
and citizenship. The realist imperative in this context consists in system of value-generation (see Gallicni 1949: 242-7). While my use of the term is
according primacy to the features of a rationally-ordered society- somewhat different, there remains an area of overlap with Gallieni in so far as the
relations of causality, progression along a linear continuum marked ongoing project of modernization in peripheral countries like India continues to be
centred on precisely such a reorganization of human and natural 'resources' into a
by motivation, credibility, and action submitted, in the ultimate
capitalist production system. Indeed, the term can be applied to the general process
instance, to the narrative possibilities arising from the operation of of capitalist expanSion around the globe, which proceeds with a similar mix of
the rule of law; the realist text in this sense is a sign of bourgeois coercion and administrative initiative and is directed towards the elimination of
hegemony. blockages in the circuit of value-generation, like tmditional communities' resistance
to the development of new needs. A link is thus suggested here between political
••
I
1
This form of realism, contrasted with the melodrama of the economic processes and the registered in the cultuml sphere.
1
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I'

WI t' .- ....,__ &'• .,

 The Absolutist Gaze • 65
64 • Ideology of the Hindi Film
the stage melodrama of early nineteenth-century Europe and America.
break up the heterogeneous components of the 'social' super-genre
David Grimsted's study of American melodrama in the first half of
and enable their separate development and exploitation,10
the nineteenth century is helpful in tracing the formal and thematic
subordinate the quasi-autonomous factors of the production process
to the overall supremacy of the main narrative trajectory and so on. similarities between this tradition and Indian cinema.
Thus Grimsted observes that early American melodrama's 'class
Mise-en-valeur operates at the level of the economic and legal
structure remained generally feudal and predominantly populated
instances of modern social formations. It has two sides, deriving
with kings and peasants, lords and ladies'. Within this broad
from these two instances. On the one hand, the legal instance imposes
framework, variations were pOSSible, 'slaves, peasants, and mechanics
the requirements of credible, rational progression of narrative and
were all allowed at times its most elevated' roles' CGrimsted 1968:
subordination of the 'moral' world to the functioning of the legal
208). Characteristic situations included babies being switched in their
system. On the other hand, the economic instance calls for
cradles, children thrown into rivers and rescued by gypsies, servants
streamlining and product differentiation, a rational distribution and
or monks who were sworn 'to 20 years of secrecy', secret marriages,
ordering, across the text, of affective values, a textual economy that
princes in disgUise, etc. (ibid: 175). While 'it was a belligerently
favours internal unity. In combination, these two logics make possible
egalitarian feudalism', the twists and turns of the plot would succeed
a realism that differs from the politically inspired national realism.
in cancelling this egalitarian displacement, most commonly through
However, these two modes of realism are not always to be found in
last minute disclosure of the lowly character's noble birth (ibid: 208).
a pure form. Instead, it would be accurate to say that individual
The dislocations of social rank which enable narrative movement in
texts lean more strongly towards one or the other. At one extreme,
these melodramas are also found in fairy tales and aristocratic
the spectator's gaze coincides with the frame itself and operates a
romances; the incipient egalitarianism of these plays could also be
vertical control over the space o(the narrative, and in the process
read as a mechanism of aristocratic self-legitimation, a way of figuring
approximates the relation of state to nation. At the other extreme,
the prince's or noble's organic relationship with his subjects.
the random configurations of the narrative are focussed by anchoring
A similar feudal structure proVides the basic framework for a
the spectator's gaze in a relation of identification with a central
majority of Indian film melodramas. From the immensely popular
character, and thus the citizen as the individual embodiment of the
Kismet (943) made by Bombay Talkies to the early post-independence
legal order is called into being.
Andaz(l949) and Awara (951) and further, to the dominant feudal
family romances of the 1950s and 1960s, this basic structure reasserts
The Feudal Family Romance itself. In most films this structure appears in an attenuated form but
occasionally one encounters it in all its splendour.
Indian film melodrama, and its most important precursor, the Parsi Khandan (Bhim Singh 1965) is a good example. The narrative
theatre, 11 together compress the almost 200-year history of European! centres round the threat posed to the unity of a feudal landowning
American melodrama into less than 100 years of discontinuous family by the intrusion of alien values embodied in the figures of
evolution. Indian film melodrama has affinities not only with the the villain and his sister played by Pran and Mumtaz, the Singapore-
film melodrama of the west, but also, and more significantly, with returned relativt;,il: of the landlord's selfish wife. Their arrival signals
the introduction of greed, western social norms and dress, the
10See an article by Dadasaheb in Filmfare, 8 January 1954, p. 11 which conversion of traditional wealth into cash, speculative business
recommends that shorter films with no songs be shown along with shorts on the ventures CPran takes cash from his aunt and invests it in a circus)
music and dances of India; Chetan Anand (Filmfare, 25 May 1956) said each film
should be in two versions, of which one would be 'short, dramatic, intense and and a voyeuristic sexuality. In contrast to the folk rhythm of the
thematic' and suitable for export to the West; during a period of raw stock shortage songs sung by the villagers, the Mumtaz character and her lover,
film-makers were urged fo make use of the situation to produce 'shorter, more wear tight shiny clothes and sing a fast dance number full of English
integrated film."· Firm/are, 24 August 1962, p. 3. words in a setting that looks more like a city park than a rural
11 Balwant Gargi 1962: 154-61. Also relevant is Gargi' s discussion of the regional
landscape. Their coming is preceded by the arrival of a poor orphaned
theatres, particularly that of Bengal. See also Anumdha Kapur (993).
 66 • Ideology of the Hindi Film The Absolutist Gaze • 67
woman (Nutan) who, while working as a servant, nurtures the This basic narrative structure, where the unity and jouissance of
handicapped hero and shows herself worthy of admission into the the feudal family, its control over its accumulated wealth, is threatened
family. The conflict of values results in a partitioning of the joint by usurpers and modern values, is repeated in numerous films of
family's property between the two brothers, who had till then lived this period. The stability of this structure in the period preceding
together in harmony. the early 1970s is proved by films like An Evening in Paris (1967)
The villain's attributes are significant: his name, Navrangilal, and Love in Tokyo (1966), where, even though the action unfolds
signifies a changeable, unstable nature, while his parentage (born against an international setting, the essential features of the feudal
!
of an Indian father and a mother who is seen as non-Indian because family structure remain firmly in place. From the organic space of
Goa, her place of birth, was still a Portuguese colony) indicates a the north Indian village to the high-tech tourist spots of the world,
new national type that is antithetical to the organic and longstanding the feudal structure displays a mobility that demonstrates how
heritage that the landowning elite claimed for itself. On arriving in powerful its ideological hold was and to an extent still is. This
India, he declares it his 'fatherland' and is reminded of the preferred structure could incorporate consumerism and other 'modern' features
description, 'motherland'-the latter signifying a way of relating to without damage as long as it did not slide into a position of affirmation
the land that is characteristic of the countryside. of new sexual and social relations based on individualism. The
Preceding the villain's arrival, the landowning class's preferred 'foreign' values that came in for vicious criticism occasionally were
relation to modernity is articulated in the course of a family chat. a code word for democracy and a capitalism based on the
While the older members of the family talk ironically about the generalization of free labour.
'darkness' that electricity has brought to the community, the hero The powerful hold that this structure has had on the narrative
(who was paralysed when he climbed up an electric pole to retrieve possibilities of the Indian cinema is evident in that an emerging
a kite) refers to the benefits of electricity, signalling a possibility of middle-class ideology opposed to the feudal family structure still
assimilation of the technological aspects of modernity into the old requires a staging of this conflict between the feudal and the
order. The social order ushered in by the new national type, democratic as in Rajkumar Santoshi's Damini (1993; see Chapter 9).
represented by Navrangilal, however, is firmly rejected. The In such films, which stage a transition from the aristocratic melodrama
celebration ofJanmashtami and readings from the Ramayana indicate to a democratic version, we are reminded that melodrama is not
this class's conception of the legitimacy of its socio-economicpower. inherently democratic, as some commentators have argued, but is a
Another more contemporary source of legitimation is Gandhianism, structure within which a struggle between classes, between old and
with its emphasis on the stability of village communities, and the emergent forces, is enacted. Thus we must posit a break between
role of the wealthy as trustees. The power of the modern to destroy early melodrama, with its aristocratic themes, and the middle-class
this order derives from certain weaknesses internal to the order, melodrama, in which we encounter a form that has made a
such as the absence of male heirs (since the hero is the son of the compromise with the dominant realist aesthetic.
younger brother, the line of inheritance is not direct, thus creating a Of the crime films of the fifties, Kala Pani (Raj Khosla 1958)12
gap which the wife's family tries to widen in order to appropriate also employed a broad democracy versus feudalism approach, in its
the wealth) or, as in the case of the hero, a debility caused by the organization of the detection plot. The detective story is one of the
advent of modernity. The restoration of the old order at the end popular forms that teaches the cultural values of the new capitalist
coincides with his being cured of this handicap. The feudal order hegemony. In his cultural writings Gramsci referred to the absence
has its own scopic regime which comes into conflict with that of the of a detective story tradition indigenous to Italy, and the consequent
new order, The voyeuristic look is prohibited. With the arrival of popularity of serialized detective stories from other countries, which
Pran, however, we are presented with the only voyeuristic is viewed as a symptom of the failure to constitute a new national
composition in the film, where Pran in the foreground, with his
12See Vasudevan (1993) on the significance of the Indian crime film of the
back to the camera, looks at Nutan, her body framed internally by a 1950s,
door, as she sweeps the yard.
 68 • Ideology of fhe Hindi Film
culture (Cultural WritinRs 1985: 254-5; 359-62; 369-74)13. In India, The Absolutist Gaze • 69
Guru Dutt and Dev Anand, together with directors like Raj Khosla had borne the guilt of haVing wrongly accused an innocent man
tried their hand at the detective film. Although these films-like and had resigned from his job at India's independence, so that its
Kala Pani and C.ID. (Raj Khosla 1956)-had a very elementary fledgling legal order would not be tainted.
plot, the narratives had a distinct anti-aristocratic thrust. The 'truth' that the hero of Kala Pani seeks is a legal truth, based
In Kala Pani, the hero's investigation of a 15-year old murder for on the legal discourse's emphasis on precision of language. As s'uch
which his father was wrongly convicted, unfolds in a social space it enables an escape from the moral categories of shame and sinfulness
III characterized by the coexistence of the feudal and the modern in an which, in their diffuse and flexible application, do not allow for
uneasy consensus enforced by the feudal elements who continue to exoneration. Thus, the father's immorality is beyond question: even
control the institutions of the modern state. On the side of the good if he did not kill the courtesan, he frequented the brothel. Sinfulness
are the hero, his parents, his lover (the daughter of a lodge-keeper), is established on the basis of such association. But the question that
and his friends (who include a penniless poet, a retired and penitent the hero undertakes to solve is a leRal question, concerning his
police officer and a waiter). The feudal order is represented by a father's guilt in the murder of a courtesan. It is this shift, from the
Dewan, who is the real murderer, and his lawyer, also a colonial morality of sinning by association to the legality of guilt by
aristocrat as his title ('Rai Bahadur') suggests, who represents the commission, that reactivates a legal apparatus and a new style of
coloniLation of the democratic legal apparatus by feudal interests. narrative involVing investigation (the hero poring over newspaper
There is also the in-between world of the courtesans, where the reports that are 15 years old), and mystery. It also mobilizes the
murder took place, peopled by ambiguous figures like Kishori, who nation, represented by the newspaper and the reading public, against
blackmails the Dewan with an incriminating letter and later surrenders the diffuse hiradan' and sarna} (community) which allocate honour.
to the new values represented by the hero, by assisting him in his Such instances notwithstanding, the family romance centred around
search for justice. aristocratic or otherwise exemplary figures retained its hold through
The occasion for the narrative is the discovery' by the hero that the sixties.
his father, whom he believed dead, was alive and serving a life-term Early melodrama tends to privilege the moral sphere over the
for murder. This secret had been maintained by his mother and legal (Grimsted 1968: 225-6). One striking feature of Andaz(l949)
uncle, both of whom were anxious to spare him the shame of is the position occupied by the legal structure vis-a-vis the moral
tt
dishonourable parentage. Kala Pani thus revolves around the imperatives of the feudal family.14 The heroine, who transgresses
# distinction between honour (which has to be maintained by secrecy, the feudal moral code by engaging in a series of covert romantic
by suppression of the unpalatable) and conscience (which requires exchanges with a stranger during the absence of the man who is

i the uncovering of truth, the coincidence of word and reality). In this

struggle the legal system is democracy's ally, although it m.ust be
freed from the control of the feudal class. In a revealing scene, the
Dewan suggests to his lawyer that they eliminate the intruding hero,
pre-ordained to be her husband, ends up killing the stranger in
order to prove her innocence and is tried and sentenced to prison.
In the end she declares her punishment as justly deserved, not for
the murder, but for her transgression of the moral code. Here the
who is digging up the past, whereupon the lawyer reminds him that law is figured as being in consonance with the feudal family's
the aristocratic order does not exist anymore. The murder took place Worldview, rendering a justice that restores a moral order that is,
in 1943, linking the aristocratic order with the era of British rule. strictly speaking, beyond its jurisdiction.
The police officer who convicted the hero's father declares that he Speech in the early melodrama is conventional, contrived,
excessive. 'Even when a specific object was mentioned, the reference
13The relation between hegemony and aesthetic forms is also touched upon by
Roy Armes (1971), who that the 'prevalence of short story over novel, in
Was usually both metaphorical and highly conventionalized.' It was
Italy as in Germany, is a reflection of wider issues: until quite recent times any sort of a language suited to the idealized, extraordinary world that was
coherent social view has been impossible because of the political disunity of the represented, a world of moral absolutes which did not afford a
country' (p. 23).
14 See discussions of Andaz hy Havi Vasudevan (1993) and Paul Willemen (1993).
 The Absolutist Gaze • 71
70 • Ideology of the Hindi Film to the epics and their semi-divine heroes (although historically, the
'taste of real life' because 'Elevation was the primal)' aim' (Grimsted power and wealth of the landowning class derives from the social
1968: 231). Language in melodrama is not derived from realist order instituted by British colonial rule). Representations of this order
speculations about the necessities of the situations and characters and the threats posed to it are enunciated from its own point of
represented. The characters are objects of emulation or disapproval view, while making this point of view coincide with the will of a
rather than identification. 15 As such they speak a language suited to divine authority. Thus speech in such a configuration can only be
the primal)' function of representing the conflicts of a moral order. already interpreted speech, whose meanings are readily visible on
They are, as Paul Wille men has suggested, agents or functions, rather the surface (d. Barthes (973) on myth). By contrast, in the realist
than characters' in the realist sense, and as such they are conceived text the spectator/reader holds the interpretive authority (at least
in a non-psychological manner, liberating them from the obligation formally) and is therefore presented with a speech that is immanent
to speak like 'real people' (Willemen 1993: 185; Elsaesser 1991: 69). to a represented scene.
Discussions of Hollywood melodrama have not paid much At stake here is also the feudal order's firm resistance to the
attention to this question of language or dialogue, which is all- 'invention of the private' which is a mark of the transition to a
important in considerations of western stage melodrama. There is a modern state. For speech in melodrama is cleansed of its private,
reason for this: in Hollywood melodrama, the camera's role as an interpersonal character and elevated to the status of a symbolic
instrument of signification and the visual codes of representation discourse. According to Peter Brooks, melodrama penetrates the
acquire primacy over the dialogue, which is reduced to a 'surface reality' of evel)'day life to get 'under the surface of things'
complementary function. In the movement towards the consolidation where a 'mythological realm' of 'large moral entities' comes into
of a separate genre of women's. melodrama, there also occurs a play. From this topography, Brooks, derives the notion of a 'moral
subordination of the stage melodrama's textual anarchy to the control occult' that is the stuff of melodrama. Perhaps it would be more
of a realist aesthetic code. Iii The excesses of dialogue are in the accurate to say, of the early western stage melodrama and Indian
process pared down considerably. The feudal family melodrama of film melodrama in any case, that it aspires to the transcendental,
Indian cinema, however, retains the autonomous signifying function ceaselessly sublimating the realities of existence into mythical moral
of dialogue intact. Dialogue-writing is a specialization in the Indian categories because these are the currency of human interaction in
film industry, with its own minor star system. In Chapter 2, I argued the pre-modern symbolic order maintained by the church and the
that this pattern of autonomization of skills and talents led to the monarchic state. The language of melodrama reduces practical activity
prevalence of the heterogeneous form of manufacture in the Bombay to a mythical residue.
film industry. The narrative structure of the feudal family romance is Due to its rigid commitment to a moral project, this primal)'
an effect of this separation. This feudal order claims a divine sanction narrative segment of the early melodrama cannot, as Grimsted put
for its power and authority, a claim that is reinforced by the references it, give us a 'taste of real life'. However, these plays incorporated
scenes representing ordinal)' life situations, with recognizable people
15From the heginning, melodrama, as a theatrical tradition, was defended as a speaking a more familiar language. 'Less elevated in principle and
means of popular education, in which 'people were not shown the world as it is, but
rather as it should be' (de Pongerville, a French writer, cited in Hyslop 1992: 65.)
sentiment than the heroine', these characters were either servants
Hyslop discusses the dehate over melodrdma in which Pixerecourt, known as the (in European plays) or simply poor people, 'lively, good-natured
'father of melodrdma', defends it as an instructional medium with a high mordl purpose. and often in love with one another'.
She argues, against Peter Brooks and Thomas Elsaesser, that the 'democrdtic' nature
of melodrdma cannot be taken for grdnted (pp. 67-8). In contrast to the characters in the central structure of the mclodra'ma,
E. Ann Kaplan notes that 'in the modern period (unlike melodrama in they partook more of purely human qualities and less of superhuman
other cultures), in Europe and North America the gel1I'e used realism. This was because, virtue or subhuman baseness. The good were likely to be worldly-
in order to consolidate its power, the bourgeoisie desired art that mirrored its wise, and the bad to have a roguish charm. If seldom many-sided
institutional modes. forms, rituals, making them seem natural, nonideological, "given".' human beings, neither were they moral abstractions (Grimsted
(Kaplan 1()'j2: 12). For a very useful compardtive history of national melodramatiC 1968: 183-4).
trauitions, see Maureen Turim (1993).
 72 • Ideology of the Hindi Film
This aspect of early melodrama too is reproduced in the Hindi film.
The Absolutist Gaze • 73
The above description could be applied word for word to the 'comedy himself, as if he never knew himself. He believes he has become a
track' that was a standard feature of Hindi cinema all through the very exceptional person because someone is going to film him. My
task is to return him to his original nature, to reconstruct him, to
sixties. Comic characters played by Johnny Walker, Tuntun, Agha,
reteach him his usual movements (Rossellini 1979: 98).
Manorama, Dhumal, Bhagwan, Mehmood, Rajendranath, Jagdeep,
etc. figured in these comedy scenes often as servants in the feudal While Rossellini wants to capture this person as he really is, the
household, or as the hero's or heroine's accomplices. The hero's latter, upon seeing the camera, instantly begins to pose for it, to
male friend and"the heroine's female companion often went through speak to it. He then has to be taught to 'be himself'. This story could
a romance that ran parallel to the main narrative and involved some be read as a parable about the difference between realism and
very worldly negotiations and deceptions in which, for instance, the melodrama. Rossellini's approach is that of the realist, who wishes
female comic's father, who aspired to marry his daughter to a social to capture a reality that does not give itself to be seen, while the
superior, would be deceived into agreeing to the comics' alliance. ordinary man cannot relate to the camera's presence without
The hero's comic accomplice is often conceived of on the lines of attempting to create an ideality-a combination of proper demeanour
Hanuman, the monkey-assistant of the epic hero Rama. 17 This fact and proper speech-that, in his eyes, would be worthy of public
perhaps led some critics to regard the comedy track as a distinctly circulation. It is not that the man 'forgets himself'; on the contrary, it
Indian feature deriving from Indian theatrical traditions. However, is only when confronted by a camera that he remembers his existence
the association with Hanuman is an additional coding of a feature and seeks to produce, from within himself, the distinction between
integral to the structure of the melodramatic form, just as the feudal what he really is and what must be represented. Realism disapproves
family's colonial wealth and power is given a divine legitimation by of this because it wishes to retain the task of representation for
associating it with the moral order of the epics. itself. Melodrama, like the peasant before a camera, can be defined
as a representation that gives itself to be seen.
But this realist convention is also the primary requirement of
the voyeuristic look of the spectator in the cinema. As Laura Mulvey
The Structure of Spectation
I" has argued, the separation of the object from the look directed towards
it is central to the constitution of the 'active' voyeuristic aspect of
What the two modes of realism discussed above share is a premise
scopophilia. 'Although the film is really being shown, is there to be
that the world represented on the screen is, in Christian Metz's (986)
seen, conditions of screening and narrative conventions give the
words, a world that is seen without giving itself to be seen. This
spectator an illusion of looking in on a private world' (Mulvey 1975: 9),
premise, the true mark of realism, is what distinguishes it from of 'unauthorized scopophilia' (Metz 1986: 264). Taken in its double
melodrama. The difference emerges sharply in a little story told by function as both a voyeuristic relation and a realist convention, this
Rossellini, about how he deals with non-professional actors: structure of spectation is distinguished by a displacement of the
I watch a man in life and fix him in my memory. When he finds contractual relation from the site of the performance to a place
himself before a camera, he is usually completely lost and tries to outside it. There is no longer a contractual coming together of
'act', which is exactly what must be avoided at all costs. There are performer and spectator for a mutually agreed purpose. Instead,
gestures which belong to this man, the ones he makes with the same there is established a contractual link between the members of the
muscles which become paralyzed before the lens. It is as if he forgets audience, including the film-makers, thanks to which the object-
world can be represented in its there-ness. It is this latter contract
that is at the base of the metalanguage of realism and it is because
17Hanuman. the very emhodiment of devotion and dedication to the master's
of the operation of this contract that it is possible for the metalanguage
GIUSe, is the presiding deity of hachelor cluhs, hire-cycle shops and lower-class
hody-huilding cults. As the quintessential subaltern suhject, he is the figure of to effectively disappear in its material aspect without eliminating
identification for the Bajrang Dal, the vigilante arm of Hindu nationalism. any of its effects.
But there is a second, narcissistic aspect of scopophilia which is
 The Absolutist Gaze • 75
74 • Ideology of the Hindi Film its principal characteristics. 19 But in its most widely employed sense,
a function of ego libido (Mulvey 1975: 10), and involves the darsana refers to a relation of perception within the public traditions
mechanism of imaginary identification with an ego ideal. This of Hindu worship, especially in the temples, but also in public
mechanism has the narrative function of organizing the field of appearances of monarchs and other elevated figures. Typically this
perception around a central figure with whom the spectator identifies. structure is constituted by the combination of three elements: the
It could be argued that this mechanism functions to supplement the divine image, the worshipper and the mediating priest. In common
invisible metalanguage of the contract with an internal contractual parlance, the act of going to the temple is perceived as involving
relation. This is necessary because the contractual relation that the 'taking' of darsana (darsan lena) by the devotee and the 'giving'
supports the metalanguage does not include all in its purview, and of darsana (darsan dena) by the divinity in question. (This is in
IS mostly closed to subaltern subjects, especially women (but also Hindi. In the south Indian languages the eqUivalent expression
the lower castes and the proletariat in general), who are regulated translates as 'making' or 'doing' darsana) The practice signifies a
by the contract without being its signatories. 18 Excluded from the mediated bringing to (god's) presence of the subject, who, by being
abstract space of the social contract, the subject requires another seen by the divine image, comes to be included in the order instituted
kind of anchoring in the real, another axis of relation with the world, and supported by that divinity. The mediation of this relation by the
which subtends the performance relation. The star, who, despite priest is not incidental but is integral to the structure. The priest
:1111
appearances, is best understood as a reality reference for the subject, performs the task of bringing the devotee to the divinity's attention.
is one such 'charismatic' supplement (Dyer 1991). As Mulvey In this structure, the priest has monopoly over the verbal invocation
observes, 'the cinema has distinguished itself in the production of by means of which the perceptual link between devotee and divinity
ego ideals as expressed in particular in the star system, the stars is brought about and rendered meaningful.
centring both screen presence and screen story as they act out a The devotee's muteness is a requirement of the entire process.
complex process of likeness and difference' (Mulvey 1975: 10). The devotee's look, moreover, is not one that seeks to locate the
The contractual space ends where the domestic space begins. divinity, to inspect it and be assured of its existence. It is not a look
This is the space of femininity and love, the space where modern of verification but one that demonstrates its faith by seeing the divinity
film melodrama unfolds. The two limits to the contract's effectivity where only its image exists and by asking to be seen in turn. It is
are thus the family and the world of the subaltern. These are the not surprising that in the more individualized modes of worship
sites in which many modern narratives are situated, although the that have developed on the fringes of this central institution, the
watchful eye of the citizen's law is always present, whether in the devotees close their eyes and connect with the deity through words.
form of male characters representing the rational world or an invisible This development constitutes a threat to the monopoly over language
frame of intelligibility coinciding with the sphere of the state. that the priest enjoys in the orthodox structure but given the
This structure of spectation in which the spectator occupies an persistence of this monopoly over language(s) in other spheres of
isolated, individualized position of voyeurism coupled with an modern society, there continues to operate a set of relations akin to
anchoring identification with a figure in the narrative is specific to those characteristic of the temple darsana structure.
western popular cinema and a small tendency within Indian cinema. Before the transformation of the cinematic field in the crisis of
Turning to the Hindi feudal family romance we find that its the early seventies, the darsana structure imposed a set of protocols
organization of the look differs from the above model in being of perception that differed from the two inter-related aspects of
governed by a pre-modern institutionalized structure of spectation scopophilia. In the first place, contrary to the voyeuristic in
embodied in the tradition of darsana. There is no study of the
191 have come across only two studies of darsana, by Diana Eck (981) and
politics of darsana (literally 'seeing') that would enable us to identify
Lawrence Bann (981), neither of which. however, deals with the political dimension
of this institution of spectatorship. Ravi Vasudevan has also noted the significance of
18 See Kant (983), pp. 61-92 on who can he a citizen, i.e. a signatory to the the notion of darsana to the study of popular Indian cinema.
contract.
76 • Ideology of the Hindi Film The Absolutist Gaze • 77
the darsanic relation the object gives itself to be seen and in so doing, of [he female figure is mostly confined to the presumably non-diegetic
confers a privilege upon the spectator. The object of the darsanic space of the song. (Where it is not so confined, the voyeuristic look
gaze is a superior, a divine figure or a king who presents himself as is attributed to the villain, as in the Khandaan scene discussed above
a spectacle of dazzling splendour to his subjects, the 'praja' or people. and is coded as irredeemably evil.) The song-and-dance is a form of
Unlike the hero of the democratic narrative, who is, by common spectacle that belongs to the order of contracted performances like
understanding, 'any individual subject', the hero of the feudal family stage dances, cabarets and the striptease. As such it calls for a direct
romance is not chosen randomly by the camera but belongs to the perception of the spectacle rather than a perception mediated by
class of 'the chosen' in the extra-filmic hierarchic community. the identificatory relation. The frontal orientation of the screen image,
The object of the darsanic gaze is only amenable to a symbolic especially in the song-and-dance sequences, makes the erotic
identification: 'in imaginary identification we imitate the other at the spectacle less capable of functioning as a device of male-to-male
level of resemblance-we identify ourselves with the image of the identification. This is not to say that the Hindi film narrative does
other inasmuch as we are "like him", while in symbolic identification not privilege the male; however, this privilege does not derive from
we identify ourself with the other precisely at a point at which he is such cinematic strategies.
inimitable, at the point which eludes resemblance' (Zizek 1989: 109). Another deployment of the darsanic gaze can be seen in Hindi
Imaginary identification, however, is enabled by the comedy track, cinema of the post-70s, especially in the Amitabh Bachchan films.
where more familiar, less exalted figures enact a more worldly drama The most interesting example of this is the 1989 film Main Azad
of everyday life. The structure of this staggered identification process Hun (Director: Tinu Anand), which is a remake of Frank Capra's
powerfully links up, as already noted, with the relation between MeetJohn Doe (941) with an original darsanic twist that is different
Hanuman and Rama in the Ramdyana, especially as elaborated in from the many variations on the ending that Capra is said to have
popular discourse. This aspect particularly is strongly apparent in tried 2J In the Hindi version Azad dies. In the original, John Doe is
the regional cinemas of the south where male comic actors often prevented from committing suicide by the intervention of the reporter
declare an abiding loyalty to the reigning male star, both on screen and the people, who assure him that the movement bearing his
as well as off. 20
name will continue and will succeed in its mission of asserting the
It is in relation to the figure of the woman, according to Mulvey,
rights of 'the common man'. But it is not the difference between
that 'the gaze of the spectator and that of the male characters in the dying and liVing that makes the ending of the Hindi version so unique.
film are neatly combined' (Mulvey 1975: 12), giving rise to the 'split It is the fact that, after his death, Azad's Videotaped message to the
between active/male and passive/female' (ibid: 11). It is crucial to people (who are figured not as 'other John Does' who are inspired
determine how Hindi films, while inviting the darsanic gaze, are by him as in the Capra film but as followers, or more precisely,
able to deal with this form of voyeurism. One explanation is that fans) is played on a giant screen in a sports stadium in a drama of
typically the Hindi film combines two modes of representation resurrection and apotheosis staged by the repOlter and her associates.
('realist' narration and a series of punctuating tableaux) as Ravi This mode of inviting the darsanic gaze is characteristic of the populist
Vasudevan has insightfully argued. As such it can include scenes of films of Amitach Bachchan. But in Main Azad Hun, made after
voyeuristic fixing of the female figure as object, while elsewhere Bachchan's political decline had begun, the power and charisma of
asserting the unavailability of the female figure for the spectator's the popular hero is appropriated by his managers who wield his
enjoyment. But there are other clues that point to another possible image as a weapon in the political struggle for the people's support.
explanation. One such clue lies in the fact that the erotic exhibition The popular hero's relation with the people is thus mediated by a
priestly class consisting of journalists and other middle-level agents.
20Dwarakish, a popular comic actor in Kannada films, was once shown with an Thus, in the Hindi film the gaze is mobilized according to the
open shirt revealing a ve.q on which the face of Rajkumar, the top male Kannada film
star, was printed. This recalls the popular calendar image of Hanuman ripping open
his chest to reveal the image of Rama in the place where his heart should be. 21 See Charles Wolf<: (1989) for the story of how the film's ending became a
national issue, and for a sampling of variations on the ending.
 78 • Ideology ofthe Hindi Film
The Absolutist Gaze • 79
rules of a hierarchical despotic public spectacle in which the political
subjects witness and legitimize the splendour of the ruling class. In The history of Indian cinema shows that it has not been easy to
the horizontal organization of the image-series that characterizes the overcome this injunction against the subordination of spectacle to
realist narratives, the spectator's gaze is powerful in its active an individualized point of view. 23 Far from being a 'natural' derivative
voyeuristic holding of the image but at the same time its control is of India's cultural heritage, therefore, the Indian popular film is the
forever threatened by the possibility that the distance that separates product of a specific political conjuncture whose histo'rical force
the look from the object may widen into an unbridgeable gulf. The has not yet been exhausted. A struggle for the reorganization of film
Ii spectacle around an individualized point of view has been waged
pleasure of voyeuristic capture derives from the overcoming of this
by a section of the industry. The universalization of the figure of the

I
very threat. However, the despotic spectacle creates its own field of
perception into which the subject must enter in order to see and be citizen is the political goal whose ideological supplement is the point
seen-the spectator's gaze here is not threatened by the perils of of view narrative. However, in the early decades of independence,
,I
the 'public' spectacles staged by the 'social', with their emphasis on
I voyeurism.
corporate identity, retained their position of dominance. At times,
In a society of castes and traditional ruling elites, the 'private'
II cannot be represented in public (or, to put it differently, images when new generic tendencies emerged, threatening to segment the
cannot be represented from a 'private' point of view) because such audience, the 'social' reasserted its dominance through strategies of
a representation violates the ruling class's scopic privileges (this is annexation that re-installed the absolutist subject at the helm of the
taken up in detail in Chapter 4). In this context it is pertinent to narrative. Sholay achieved this in the seventies, against a sudden
,,,
Ii
Ii
recall that for the British colonial government, cinema censorship eruption of 'cowboy' and bandit films featuring small-time villains
'I
became important not only to suppress overtly nationalist and anti- and cabaret dancers in leading roles, addressed to a predominantly
II
I,
colonial films made in India, but also to prevent the colonized from proletarian B-movie audience (see Chapter 6). But there was an
earlier instance of a similar 'return of the social' in the sixties, which
seeing images (especially in American films) of white people engaged
demonstrates the centrality of the absolutist gaze to this super-genre.
in activities that exposed the well-kept secret that the white race
Here it was the middle-class audience that posed the threat of
was also human. Ruling classes protect themselves by claiming to
'secession' from the consensual 'social'.
protect their women and it was the 'damage done to the image of
r British women through the films, mainly American, screened in India'
that led to the introduction of pre-censorship of films in 1918. Indeed,
the recommendation by W. Evans that 'films suited to an Indian
Why Rajendra Kumar Had to Die
audience' (Baskaran, nd) should be encouraged was not unrelated to a In the detection ptot of Kala Pani, we have seen how the individual
perceived need to wean Indian audiences away from the films about hero's quest opens the space for a point of view narrative. Another
t, white society which made them contemptuous of British authority 22 generic tendency could be seen, beginning perhaps in the late fifties,
22See also the Report ofthe EnqUiry Committee on Film CetlSorship 1909; Margaret and representing a move towards a Hollywood-style women's
Dickinson and Sarah Street's Cinema and State: The Film Industry and the British melodrama whose subsequent fate is illustrative of the nature of the
Government 1927-84 (I985), shows that the 13ritish had their own ideas of nationalism struggle mentioned above. Films like Chirag Kahan Roshni Kahan
which included a sense that the colonies were part of the 'nation', although this (Devendra GoeI1959), Dhool kaPhoo/(Yash Chopra/BR Films 1959),
claim was made only in the context of a perception that 'trade follows film', that
audiences were 'hypnotised into purchasing items' they had seen in American films,
Dil Ek Mandir (Sridhar/Chitralaya 1963) centred on the question of
But there was the additional fear of exposure of the 'private' realm of white society women's position in a modernizing society. These and other films
to Indian eyes. In a parliamentary dehate on the subject, Lord Newton declared: represented an unmistakable generic tendency, with the actor
'Imagine what the effect must he upon millions of our coloured fellow citizens in Rajendra Kumar, who acqUired a reputation as a 'women's star' often
remote parts of the world who perpetually have American films thrust upon them
which frequently present the white man under the most unfavourahle conditions'
playing the male lead. These films were notable for their promotion
(Dickinson and Street 1983: 10). Then as now, American films represented a 'cultural
invasion', though for different reasons. 230n the centrdlity of narrative point of view as well as point of view narrdtion
to cinema's aesthetic identity, see Jacques Aumont, Quarterly Review: 11.
 The Absolutist Gaze • 81
80 • Ideology of the Hindi Film
of middle-class consumerism in the course of narratives of love,
betrayal, sacrifice and reunion. Of these Dhool ka Phool is perhaps
the most remarkable. It tells the story of a woman who, abandoned
by her lover, gives birth to a child, whom she in turn, abandons in
a moment of fear and helplessness. Brought up by a kind old Muslim
who is ostracized by his community and spurned by the Hindus for
his act of kindness, the child becomes the focus of a narrative
movement that ends with the Muslim man handing the child over to
the mother, while the father is punished for his crime by being
denied access to the child. Chirag Kahan Roshni Kahan concerns a
,III forbidden romance between a widow with a child and a man who
I
II becomes fond of her child. In Dil Ek Mandir a forgotten romance is
'I rekindled when a woman accompanies her husband to the hospital,
l where he is treated by her former lover. In all these narratives we
l,
I:, see an attempt to represent the woman's point of view or to centre
the narrative on a woman caught between desire and an oppressive
tradition.
In Dil Ek Mandir the narrative movement is facilitated by a serial
Raj Kapoor breaching the bond between Dilip Kumar and Nargis in Andaz attention to the three main characters' points of view. Each of the
(Mchboob 1954). Courtesy National Film Archive of India, Pune.
characters is shown in interaction with the other two. Thus Rajendra
Kumar and Meena Kumari have to work through the unfinished
story of their romance; Meena Kumari has to establish her devotion
to her husband; and Raaj Kumar (the husband) extracts a promise
from Rajendra Kumar that in the event of his death the latter would
marry Meena Kumari. The issue of widow remarriage is introduced
in the form of a pact between two men about the future of a woman. 24
Although the film finally restores the status quo and eliminates
Rajendra Kumar, its narrative structure is especially designed to allow
for the elaboration of the thematics of love as a relation of mutuality
in conflict with the compulsions of marriage. The husband's legitimacy
I,
is restored only after a full acknowledgement on his part of the
legitimacy of his wife's relation with the doctor.
In 1964, a year after Dil Ek Mandir, Raj Kapoor released his
megafilm Sangam. Critics regard this as a turning point in Kapoor's

.4.
career because it was seen to mark the beginning of a shift away
from the 'progressive' orientation of the fifties, when in collaboration

24When this pact is first broached there is a barely visible cutaway to a church
seen through a window and lit by.a flash of lightning, suggesting trult widow remarriage
has Christian sanction and thereby mitigating the scandal of a husband's proposal of
Rajendra Kumar and Meena Kumari in Cbirag Kaban Rosbni Aaban his own wife's marriage to another man. At the same time, it also points to the fact
(Devendra God, 1959), a hero willing to belong wholly to the woman. that in India, for historical reasons, the reforms associated with modernity are perforce
Courtesy National Film Archive of India, Pune. also linked up with a Christian world-view.
 82 • Ideology of the Hindi Film
The Absolutist Gaze • 83
with the socialist K.A. Abbas, he made films like Awara and Sbree
420, towards big-budget extravaganzas (d. Chakravarty, 1993: 216).
However, SanRam was an important event in Indian popular
film histOly for a different reason. It represented a decisive (though
not irreversible) generic reannexation of the fledgling' women's
melodrama by the national super-genre called the social, a genre
predicated on the deployment of the absolutist gaze. This conquest
was staged through a combination of strategies. The first of these
was the expansion of the representational space of the narrative to
include the defence of the nation-state as a factor in the unfolding
of the story, thus reducing the family as site of melodramatic thematics
to a position of unmistakable subordination. Secondly, the text
incorporated a long segment, with little narrative value, shot on foreign
locations and offering the pleasures of consumerism on an intensified
scale. Thirdly, buttressed by these extraneous sources of power, the
plot expanded to include both pre-and post-marital romantic conflicts.
In Dil Ek Mandir, the narrative begins after the marriage and thus
Guilty of love, Gopal (Rajendra Kumar) is full of remorse on hearing that
makes the pre-marital romance an event in the past, which the
Sundar (Raj Kapoor), presumed dead at the front, is alive and about to
return home. Sangam (Raj Kapoor 1(64). Courtesy National Film Archive of
characters must come to terms with in the present narrative. In
India, Pune. SanRam, the woman's romantic inclinations are allowed to develop
he(ore the marriage, thus opening up the possibility of choice and
the need to find justifiable ways of denying her that choice. In thus
giving itself a nearly irresolvable problem of woman's desire, SanRam
risks more than the other women's melodramas mentioned above,
but manages to find a resolution through the deployment of the
compulsions of patriotism. The film can therefore be read as an allegory
of resistance to generic differentiation where the latter tendency
represents the fragmentation of the social body into 'interest groups'.
The central device of this narrative strategy is the unseeinR hero,
the 'blind' lover, played by Raj Kapoor, This is the figure of absolutist
subjectivity, more visibly mobilized here than anywhere else, but
nevertheless a characteristic ingredient of the popular film. The story
begins with the three main characters as children, the two boys
vying for the attention of the girl who gives early indications of
being attracted to Gopal (Rajendra Kumar). While both the males
are attracted to Radha (Vyjayantimala),25 they are also attracted to
.. "j
each other by a strong homosocial bond of dosti, which in Hindi
cinema functions as the code of fraternity that binds men into a
Radha (Vyjayanthimala) is horrified when she realizes that Gopal (Rajendra 25The characters' names reinforce the allegorical reading: It is not just any couple
Kumar) has written a love letter to Sundar in her name. Sangam (Raj Kapoor hut the mythical, ideal couple Radha and Gopal, that must he split in order to re-
1(64). Courtesy National Film Archive of India, Punc. assert the privileges of Sundar. to suhmit the conjugal scene, once again, to the
inspection of an absolute authority.
 84 • Ideology of the Hindi Film
separate society. The code of dosti takes precedence over that of
The Absolutist Gaze • 85
heterosexual love and in case of conflict, the latter must yield to the which shattered many illusions and exposed the vulnerability of the
former. Thus, in a conflict over love between male friends, the woman new nation. The tensions with another neighbour, Pakistan, were to
remains out of the picture, while the two males decide between erupt in war in the following year. Thus the film was topical, but
themselves who will have her (another instance of this thematic is unlike patriotic films such as Haqeeqat, it did not take on the burden
to be found in Naya Daur). The bond of dosti is then, a prototype of nationalist propaganda in a straightforward manner. "Instead, it
of the compact among men that institutes the social contract. employed war in order to resurrect an absolutist subjectivity as the
The conflict.in Sangam arises not because both the men fall in anchoring point of national unity. It used war as the legitimizing
love with the same woman, but because one of them establishes a ground for an assault on the domestic enclosure, prising it open to
reciprocal love relation with the woman settling the issue of insert the absolutist imperative, to repudiate the sanctity of mutuality
who will have her with the other man, thus breaching the code of and reciprocity as signs of true domesticity.
dosti. The most difficult representational dilemma that the film creates On the other hand, any austerity implied by this negation of
for itself arises as a consequence of the above breach of the code: domestic love by the imperatives of absolutism is compensated by
since the woman, Radha, has clearly expressed her love for Gopal, the lavish consumerism, the access to the pleasures of western
the film must justify both his breach of commitment to her, as well capitalism that the heroine enjoys, as a reward for her sacrifices. The
as the union between her and Sundar (Raj Kapoor), which takes long segment shot abroad, mainly devoted to tourism, to consuming
place after she has been silenced by the combination of dosti and the sumptuous sights and pleasures of advanced capitalism, and, not
national honour. The segment in which this transfer of rights over least, to the pleasure of representing India to the outside world, stands
the woman occurs begins with Sundar joining the Air Force as a in sharp contrast to the forebodings of a duty-bound, self-sacrificing
pilot during a war. His plane crashes and he is declared dead, leaVing career for the woman that the plot might have prepared us to expect.
the field open for a romance to develop between Gopal and Radha. In effect the father has overridden the son's desires, and kept the
Just as the romance is about to take a significant turn, Sundar returns, woman for himself, a truth that the film does not fail to acknowledge,
....
, having survived the crash and made his way back into Indian territory. if only indirectly, in the humorous song 'Main kya karoon ram
When the three meet together again, a shocking revelation is made. mUjhe budha mil gaya '. By being blind, Sundar remains powerful.
Recounting his experience of the crash and subsequent escape from He does not look for an answering desire in Radha to confirm his
enemy territory, he tells Radha that the only thing that preserved his own; nor does he see the ample evidence of Radha's preference for
courage in the most trying circumstances was a letter she had written Gopal. Both Radha and Gopal, on the other hand, are rendered
to him after he left for the warfront. Radha, however, did not write powerless by being reduced to their ownparticular points of view.
the letter. It was written by Gopal in her name. Gopal stifles her Both become guilty by simply having desired each other because
',i,:.
' .. " protests by lying and pleading silently with her not to betray the their desire, in its mutuality, has the effect of shutting out the world
,'t secret. This scene reveals to the audience an obscene secret that around it, of making them, but especially him, forgetfUl of the duty
resulted from a conflict between the two codes of dosti and love. of the patriot 26 .
From Radha's point of view a redeeming resolution would be an
26The unseeing male lover is a frequently encountered figure in the Hindi film.
open declaration by her and Gopal of their love for each other. But Only rarely, as in Deedar, is he actually blind. In Deedar(l95l) the blind hero meets
the narrative drive is towards another resolution that, forcing Radha a destiny that is the very antithesis of the all-powerful Sundar's in Sangam. His love
to marry Sundar, then turns to the elimination of Gopal (who now proves incapable of winning the woman back from her mutual love relation with a
becomes an unpleasant memory from her past) and in the process, doctor. However, his powerlessness there signifies a sacrifice that ennobles him and
makes him the patron of the couple. Thus, in Deedar the blind lover, through his act
her complete submission to a love that she did not reciprocate but of self-effacement (he finally becomes blind again and retreats from the scene of
which, backed by the might of the state, never encounters the need love), creates a space for the constitution of nuclear couples. By contrast, in Sangam,
to justify itself. Gopal's claim on Radha is delegitimized by the act the blind lover's tyranny breaks the couple in order to reaffirm by force the unity of
that betrays his vacillation between the two codes of dosti and love. the nation. A more detailed study of the 'blind lover' would be required in order to
draw out all its implications for a national ideology. The hero of Cbbalia and the
Sangam was released two years after the surprise attack by China, Muslim character in Dbool ka Pbool are also relevant to this problematic, as is, of
course, the legendary Devdas.
 The Absolutist Gaze • 87
86 • Ideology of the Hindi Film
The killing of generic differentiation begins, of course, at the
It is a fellow-soldier at the front who tells Sundar the story of his level of film budgets. The low-cost women's melodrama has to
betrayal by a friend who, entrusted with the protection of the soldier's compete with a big-budget social which incorporates the former
wife, had an affair with her, a story that Sundar regards as repeating and thus proVides a combination of pleasures for a wider audience.
itself in his own life when he learns of the relationship between It drags the fledgling genre into a space where its freedom to explore
Radha and Gopal. Perspective or point of view here gets coded as women's issues is constrained by the national concerns that relativize
self-interest, self-absorption, a mark of deception and guilt. This their importance. But the difference in expenditure also translates
coding is not entirely mistaken in so far as Metz has defined cinematic into a difference between the types of social space represented in
voyeurism as a 'shamefaced voyeurism'. But the power of the the text. The crucial scene where Gopal's obscene secret is revealed
injunction against individualized perspective is an extension of the shows how in the 'public space' of the social super-genre a woman's
power of a state whose authority rests not on the consent of citizens questions must remain unasked. When Sundar declares that it was
but on a pact entered into by the '(pre)chosen'.27 Radha's letter that kept his courage up at the battlefront, Radha
The Hindi women's melodramas were male-centred, as is begins to deny having written the letter. But she is cut short by
indicated by the presence of Rajendra Kumar in many of them. But Gopal who jumps in to 'remind' her that she had given him the
at the same time they raised the question of women's desire, and letter to be mailed to Sundar. This is accompanied by a beseeching
albeit with adequate patriarchal scaffolding, broached questions look that asks her to go along with the lie. At this point there is an
connected with the emancipation of women from the oppression of extended exchange of looks between Radha and Gopal during which
feudal orthodoxy. To that extent Rajendra Kumar himself came to Radha's face registers first perplexity, then suspicion and finally a
stand as an emblem of female desire. It is thus not a coincidence full realization of the murky horror of the betrayal that she cannot
that in Sangam the death of Rajendra Kumar also extinguishes Radha's even protest against. Although this scene is explicit enough to give
desire and cleanses her marriage with Sundar of the dishonour that us a clear indication of Radha's recognition of her betrayal and
her desire represents. The quasi-autonomous woman's film thus secret prostitution, Sangam succeeds in finding a resolution without
I: . gets re-annexed to the social genre which symbolizes the form of answering the woman's unasked but obvious question. The fact
'I national integration favoured by the coalition of modern and pre- that Sundar does not see this long exchange of looks indicates that it
modern ruling elites. belongs to a world of privacy that cannot intrude upon the narrative
The mobilization of the state apparatus in the service of a as public spectacle. The spectator's own muteness is signalled by
perspective-free national subject's enjoyment also reminds us that the fact that his/her witnessing of this private moment remains
Raj Kapoor had a special status in Nehruvian India especially because unacknowledged by the narrative.
of the role played by his films in proViding a cultural dimension to The dominance of this spectatorial relation is thus a symptom of
Indo-Soviet friendship. Raj Kapoor was able to get the help of the the continuation of the despotic/monarchic organization of public
Air Force as well as shoot some scenes during the Republic Day space. In the next chapter we will see how this mode of organization
parade, both involving a scale of operations that few Indian film- of public space is reinforced by means of a prohibition of
makers could dream of seeing through at the time. Sangam was representations of kissing.
also the first and probably the most lavish of a series of sixties films
to be shot on foreign locations, which implied a whole range of
government approvals.

:,1· 27Mehboob's A ndaz where similarly the heroine's illicit (because) desiring, relation
with another male ends in the latter's death, is more open in its affirmation of the
feudal family's drive to maintain its status. There too Nargis and Dilip Kumar were
linked by a mutual, intimate and guilt-ridden exchange of glances and Raj Kapoor
was blind. The blind hero who represented the feudal family in Andaz has become
the patriot in Sangam.
 The Absolutist Gaze • 87
86 • Ideology of the Hindi Film
The killing of generic differentiation begins, of course, at the
It is a fellow-soldier at the front who tells Sundar the story of his level of film budgets. The low-cost women's melodrama has to
betrayal by a friend who, entrusted with the protection of the soldier's compete with a social which incorporates the former
wife, had an affair with her, a story that Sundar regards as repeating and thus provides a combination of pleasures for a wider audience.
itself in his own life when he learns of the relationship between It drags the fledgling genre into a space where its freedomto explore
Radha and Gopal. Perspective or point of view here gets coded as women's issues is by the national concerns that relativize
self-interest, self-absorption, a mark of deception and guilt. This their importance. But the difference in expenditure also translates
coding is not entirely mistaken in so far as Metz has defined cinematic into a difference between the types of social space represented in
voyeurism as a 'shamefaced voyeurism'. But the power of the the text. The crucial scene where Gopal's obscene secret is revealed
injunction against individualized perspective is an extension of the shows how in the 'public space' of the social super-genre a woman's
power of a state whose authority rests not on the consent of citizens questions must remain unasked. When Sundar declares that it was
but on a pact entered into by the '(pre)chosen'.27 Radha's letter that kept his courage up at the battlefront, Radha
The Hindi women's melodramas were male-centred, as is begins to deny having written the letter. But she is cut short by
indicated by the presence of Rajendra Kumar in many of them. But Gopal who jumps in to 'remind' her that she had given him the
at the same time they raised the question of women's desire, and letter to be mailed to Sundar. This is accompanied by a beseeching
albeit with adequate patriarchal scaffolding, broached questions look that asks her to go along with the lie. At this point there is an
connected with the emancipation of women from the oppression of extended exchange of looks between Radha and Gopal during which
feudal orthodoxy. To that extent Rajendra Kumar himself came to Radha's face registers first perplexity, then suspicion and finally a
stand as an emblem of female desire. It is thus not a coincidence full realization of the murky horror of the betrayal that she cannot
that in Sangam the death of Rajendra Kumar also extinguishes Radha's even protest against. Although this scene is explicit enough to give
desire and cleanses her marriage with Sundar of the dishonour that us a clear indication of Radha's recognition of her betrayal and
her desire represents. The quasi-autonomous woman's film thus secret prostitution, Sangam succeeds in finding a resolution without
gets re-annexed to the social genre which symbolizes the form of answering the woman's unasked but obvious question. The fact
national integration favoured by the coalition of modern and pre- that Sundar does not see this long exchange of looks indicates that it
modern ruling elites. belongs to a world of privacy that cannot intrude upon the narrative
The mobilization of the state apparatus in the service of a as public spectacle. The spectator's own muteness is signalled by
perspective-free national subject's enjoyment also reminds us that the fact that his/her witnessing of this private moment remains
Raj Kapoor had a special status in Nehruvian India especially because unacknowledged by the narrative.
of the role played by his films in providing a cultural dimension to The dominance of this spectatorial relation is thus a symptom of
Indo-Soviet friendship. Raj Kapoor was able to get the help of the the continuation of the despotic/monarchic organization of public
Air Force as well as shoot some scenes during the Republic Day space. In the next chapter we will see how this mode of organization
parade, both involving a scale of operations that few Indian film- of public space is reinforced by means of a prohibition of
makers could dream of seeing through at the time. Sangam was representations of kissing.
also the first and probably the most lavish of a series of sixties films
to be shot on foreign locations, which implied a whole range of
government approvals.

27Mehboob's Andazwhere similarly the heroine's illicit (because) desiring, relation

with another male ends in the latter's death, is more open in its affirmation of the
feudal family's drive to maintain its status. There too Nargis and Dilip Kumar were
linked by a mutual, intimate and guilt-ridden exchange of glances and Raj Kapoor
was blind. The blind hero who represented the feudal family in Andaz has become
the patriot in Sangam.
 Guardians ofthe View • 89
this ban, with a survey revealing that 51 per cent 'expressed the
view that kissing scenes should be deleted from Indian films even if
kissing and embracing was a natural part of the st0'Y' as against
4 33.3 per cent who voted for a more 'liberal' code (ibid: 83). According
to the gender diVision of votes, more men (52:45) voted for a
stricter code than women.
Guardians of the View: Discussion in the film magazines in the wake of the committee's
report proved to be quite revealing of the opinion within the indust'Y.
The Prohibition of the Private The committee's recommendation to lift the ban did not meet with
the sort of universal welcome that might have been expected from
an indust'Y that was supposed to be united in its objection to the
excesses of censorship. Indeed, many notable film personalities wrote
n the post-independence era, a much discussed feature of the articles opposing the introduction of scenes of kissing.! It was not

I censorship code for Indian films has been the prohibition of

scenes of kissing. As the enqui'Y committee on film censorship
led by G.D. Khosla reported in 1969, this prohibition was based on
until the mid-eighties that films began to appear in which some
awkward and perfunct0'Y kissing scenes were included, as if to
merely register the lifting of the ban.
an 'unwritten rule' (Report 1969: 93). The written rules prohibited One must avoid the temptation of concluding, as some
'excessively passionate love scenes', 'indelicate sexual situations' 'enlightened critics' have done, that the lifting of the ban in itself
and 'scenes suggestive of immorality', all of which were derived
from the British code of censorship applied in Britain as well as
(with modifications) in British India (ibid: 20). No reference to kissing
as such, as a target of prohibition, is to be found in the censorship
guidelines.
In the first place, the ban on kissing may be related to a nationalist
politics of culture. The most frequently offered justification of this
informal prohibition has been that it corresponds to the need to
maintain the Indianness of Indian culture. Kissing is described as a
I',
sign of westernness and therefore alien to Indian culture. In keeping
il
I, with the logic of this justification, this principle has never been
applied in the censorship of foreign films. Further, there has been
the occasional Indian film shot abroad, in which the Indian characters
have to observe the ban, while the usually white couples, who
appear in the background are allowed to break the rule (for ego Raj
Kapoor's Sangam). The 'double standard' whereby foreign films
were censored according to a different code was justified on the
basis that the audiences for these films were different from the ones
for Indian films, with some even arguing that this was appropriate 'I am an Indian girl and according to Indian custom, that ... that's only after
since 'foreign pictures cater to a higher stratum of society' (ibid: 82). marriage.' Sharmila Tagore denies Shammi Kapoor a kiss in An Evening in
There also appears to have been (at least in the late sixties, when Paris (Shakti Samanta 1969). Courtesy National Film Archive of Inuia, Punc.
the committee was doing its work) significant popular support for
lSee ankles in Screen during the months of August and September 1969.
 Guardians of the View • 91
custom is not only to the family or the institution of marriage, but to
90 • Ideology of the Hindi Film the nation itself, as if the expansion of the sphere of sexuality
represents some form of liberation, although the existence of the threatened to break open the national borders and destroy its identity.
prohibition would seem to validate the 'repressive hypothesis' As such it raises the question of the nature of the relation between
(Foucault 1987). The standard opinion is that the ban on kissing is a sexuality and national identity and reminds us of Fanon's assertion,
manifestation of a form of prudery, a residual Victorianism in Indian in the course of a discussion of the, contestation over the veil in
culture which constitutes a national embarrassment. But, as everyone Algeria, that the 'phenomena of resistance observed in the colonized
acknowledges, there is a great deal of sexual 'vulgarity' in Indian must be related to an attitude of counter assimilation, of maintenance
films. The so called 'cabaret dance', and other song and dance of a cultural, hence national, originality' (Fanon 1965: 42). This need
sequences are evidence of a sexual permissiveness that contradicts for counter assimilation as a guarantee of national originality focusses
the idea that Indian censorship is a transparent reflection of a Victorian on women's cultural behaviour. It is women who are regarded as
the guardians of the national culture, it is women's appearance that
attitude to sexuality.
How do individual films negotiate this prohibition? For it is an becomes the mark of distinction. Thus, while colonialism leads to
observable fact that whatever the self-appointed interpreters of 'Indian changes in men's clothing (with the European shirt and trousers
culture' may say about the cultural status of kissing, the very fact becoming standard at least in cities), what wQmen should wear
that a prohibition must be imposed in order to keep it out of sight becomes a subject of national debate.
means that the culture in question is not as homogeneous as it is But there is a third W1.y of negotiating the prohibition which
made out to be. At the level of content, then, we see in Indian films complicates the picture. Typically this approach is employed in song
(at least) three different ways of dealing with the ban. The first way sequences: the dancing couple retreat behind a bush or a tree and
is to stage the prohibition itself, as in the scene from Hrishikesh after a pause the heroine emerges into the frame wiping her lips.
Mukherjee's Asbirwad (969), where as the lovers move towards This public confirmation of a private act has cultural associations
each other for a kiss, a fade out overtakes them and prevents, not with a certain feudal practice of communal eroticism that consists of
the act itself, but its appearance on the screen. In this way the film the display of the marks of sexual initiation on the female body. In
reminds us of the ban and at the same time ridicules it. This is the the 1992 film Beta, the heroine's sahelis (female companions), singing
cinematic equivalent of the 'enlightened' attitude, disdainful of the in chorus, ask her to explain a series of marks on her body-the
meaningless prohibition but resigned to the power of the bureaucracy smudged hindi, the crumpled clothes, etc. This form of eroticism,
to impose it. It hints at the non-coincidence of representation and which displays the female body for communal inspection, consists
its content, in the process representing censorship itself as an of a retreat of the sexual act itself to a zone of privacy while exhibiting
extraneous limit, a constraint that cUrlails representations but does the evidence of its consummation. And, not surprisingly, the alleged
sexual conservatism of Indian censorship has not prevented such a
not determine them.
Another approach is to thematize the prohibition as a cultural display of the female body in spite of Widespread public protests.
truth and a duty, thereby inscribing it within the represented content, What is it that makes the kiss so objectionable while other forms of
instead of treating it as a political act of curtailment. This happens sexual display pass the censors without much difficulty?
for instance, in An Evening .in Paris (967), where the contrast Here it is necessary to recall one more complicating
prOVided by the foreign location, with its alien mores, serves to informal nature of the prohibition. Such unwritten rules have a way
highlight the uniqueneSs of the national culture and the responsibility of themselves seeming to be the obscene result of some illicit
of the characters to uphold it. Thus, the heroine in this film invokes cohabitation. For one cannot help but ask who thought up such an
Indian custom to refuse the hero's demand for a kiss. In such films idea, how it came to be adopted by a group of licensed to
the reality implied by the prohibition is literally produced as truth at exercise moral authority, who gave the sanction to this at the level
the thematic level. The idea of cultural/moral duty is a striking feature of the government, and how it was possible after all this to keep it
of this approach and points to the elevation of particular moral informal. Viewed from this angle the issue suddenly explodes into
codes in force among some Hindu castes to the status of a national
truth. It is significant that the threat posed by a transgression of
92 • Ideology of the Hindi Film Guardians ofthe View • 93
questions about the nature of informal authority in a democratic recognition of the possibility, which we otherwise take so much for
society, the nexus between the state (which is understood to be granted, that while the representation circulates in public spaces, it
functioning according to written and legislated codes) and other need not necessarily be qfthe public. Far from being an idiosyncratic
sources of authority which function on the strength of less view, this idea is actually an accurate description of the consensual
systematized but no less effective modes of power. In brief, the ideoldgy that undergirds the popular cinema as a national institution. 2
prohibition of kissing, a meaningless prohibition of a harmless act, The contradictory attitudes to kissing (which is banned) and the
may well reveal some dirty secrets of the state. erotic display of the female body as spectacle (which is widespread)
We have so far desisted from attempting to verify the truth claim in the popular cinema is explained by this very ideology of the public
on which the prohibition is based, i.e. the claim that kissing is alien sphere. The female body as spectacle is a public representation, a
to Indian culture. Such a claim would be impossible to verify and putting before the public. of an erotic imagery that does not violate
raises questions about the attempt to imagine a homogeneous 'Indian the code that prohibits the representation of the private. This is
culture' in a country with such a variety of ethnic, religious and linguistic because (1) such spectacle occurs in song-and-dance sequences
groups. But should we venture to take a step in this direction, we are which are conventionally coded as contracted voyeurism, rather
at once reminded that no one is really making such a claim. We than an unauthorized view of a private world; and (2) where they
discover a vagueness that goes hand in hand with the appearance are not so coded, they serve, as Mulvey has poiVted out, as points
of a dirty secret that the whole business of enforcing the ban takes of narrative arrest. Kissing on the other hand, and by extension the
on as we approach it. The secret that it most reminds us of is that of details of a sexual relation between two people, belong to the realm
the Emperor's new clothes, one that could be held up as the truth as of the private. It is significant that among the recent popular films
long as it went unscrutinized. As soon as the child declares that the that feature scenes of kissing this occurs usually in the song-and-
emperor is naked, what is revealed is not the 'truth' but the fact that dance sequences, as if the intention were to embed this in a stylized
community consensus is what maintains the social order intact. By space where the kiss would become another novel movement in a
breaking the silence, as Slavoj Zizek has pointed out, we disrupt the dance.
'intersubjective network' without which our very existence as a It is not without significance that of all the features that attract
community is endangered (Zizek, Looking Awry 1991: 11). the censor's scissors the prohibition of the kiss alone is justified by
But even this imprecise justification has a further significance. an argument for cultural non-correspondence. On the other hand,
Thus, a witness who was interviewed by the censorship inquiry as Kumar Shahani has pointed out, the word shudra is not allowed
committee, justified the prohibition in these words: to be used in a film although it refers to a real social hierarchy
You cannot have the same yardstick both for the western films and (Shahani, Framework 30/31: 88). This is also an unwritten rule in
for the Indian films. There have to be two standards. Our culture is the censorship code. It would therefore be fruitless to speculate
different from the western way of life. Our dresses, our emotions, whether there is some validity to the truth claim made in this regard:
our background arc different. For instance in India, when two people the truth is of little consequence here because if the criterion of
meet, they do not begin to embrace and kiss each other in public, cultural authenticity is applied, far more than the kiss would have to
though they may do so in private. In the west, people do embrace be deleted from every Indian film. What is more to the point is to
and kiss in public (Report 1909: H1).
ask why this realist demand is made in relation to this particular
The meaning of the private/public divide that emerges from this representation.
explanation is worth examining in detail. This witness's confusion
of the categories is not simply an error of thinking but an imprecision
2T he same explanation has been repeated endlessly by almost everybody who
integral to the nature of the prohibition and its social function. The defends the ban. Rosie Thomas, commenting on the ban, also cites this argument,
error consists in equating cinematic representation with the and characterizes it as 'puritanical'. According to her the ban 'came only with the
representation of the public sphere. In this account there is no puritanical reformist zeal after Independence that saw kissing in public as an immoral
Western import' (Thomas 1987: 320; my emphasis).
94 • Ideology ofthe Hindi Film
Guardians of the View • 95
The Invention of the Couple
is the 'political subject' that guarantees a State that is free from the
risk of despotism (Grosrichard 1979: 223). Here we may recall Carol
In reality then, what the prohibition targets is the representation of
Pateman's argument in ?be Sexual Contract, which asserts the de-
the private through a meaningless ban on kissing. In order to
pendence of the social contract on a (logically) prior sexual contract.
understand what this means it is necessary to survey the history of
The sexual contract, it is to be noted, is not a contract between the
capitalism and colonialism leading to the organization of the private
man and the woman who form the couple, but between the men,
that came to be a distinct feature of capitalist societies: the nuclear
who all agree to recognize one another's right to a space of (despotic)
family, centred around the couple. Some remarks by Alain
sovereignty: the family and the woman who, within it, becomes the
Grosrichard are extremely pertinent here: Grosrichard speaks of the
man's property (Pateman 1988: 2). It is this dual contract that alone
'invention of the couple' by Rousseau who, like many French writers
produces the conditions of pOSSibility of a modern state, where the
of his time, was preoccupied with the spectre of despotism 0979:
phalliC power is not incarnated in the liVing body of a despotic king
222-3). How does this 'invention' of the couple solve the problem
but instead is distributed among the male contracting members of
of despotism?
society, thefraternite that formed the third element of the slogan of
Grosrichard's book consists of a complex analysis of the European
the French Revolution. Thus the very stability of the post-despotic
'fiction' of Asiatic Despotism. Instead of trying to demonstrate the
state rests on the stability of the of the nuclear
falseness of this discourse by marshalling contrary historical evidence,
family. The fiction of contract marks a transition from the rule of
he asks what function this fantasy served for the Europeans who so
fathers to the rule of brothers (ibid: 77-9).
assiduously pursued this idea of the despotic regime. Such an
The cinema, emerging in the historical space of the modern, is
approach enables him to locate Montesquieu, Rousseau, Voltaire,
committed, as Raymond Bellour has said, to the endless reproduction
Diderot, Bernier and other writers' preoccupation with the nature of
of the couple, in narratives that bring about or restore the conjugal
despotism in relation to their fears about the degenerate monarchies
scene (Bellour 1980: 183). However, while the cinema in the west
that they were witness to. It also succeeds in recreating the picture
has only to re-present the transition from the familial to the conjugal
of this despotic regime as one governed by a chain of command
-'the resolution of Oedipus'-as cyclical process that
which runs from God down to the last position of power in local
has been inaugurated (Bellour 1986: 78), in Indian cinema
communities. The absolute power of the despot allows no scope for
the state is present as only one of several patriarchal
challenging his authority, but the despotic regime is at the same
authorities competing for domination. As such we find that in the
time rife with transgressions. These transgressions take the form of
dominant filmic narrative the drive towards the affirmation of
a subterranean proliferation of 'perversions' which survive through
conjugality is reined in by the restoration of the clan to its position
the elaboration of secret codes of communication. Absolute power
of splendour and power; the couple, in other words, is repeatedly
thus begets rampant decadence. The European thinkers who
reabsorbed into the parental patriarchal family and is committed to
recognized this relation concluded that any transformation of the
its maintenance. The modern family romance occurs in the popular
microsocial would depend on a permanent securing of the state
Hindi film only in an embedded form, under the aegis of the
against the recurrence of despotic regimes. The despotic regime is
compound authority of a feudal and a modern patriarchy. This is
founded on an acknowledgment of the psychoanalytic assertion
amply illustrated by a phenomenon that has been often noted, that
that 'there is no sexual relation': here the relation of the phallic
in Hindi films (at least in the sixties), the 'police always arrive late'.
authority to the members of the harem is mediated by the eunuch,
In other words, the climax of the romance would usually consist of
who is the sexual 'in-between', and polygamy is one of its necessary
a battle between the hero and a primary villain, with lesser villains
consequences.
being fought by the hero's accomplices in the background. And the
In response to this, Rousseau (and Diderot) construct the couple,
police usually arrive only in time to witness the decisive defeat of
as an accomplishment of the impossible (sexual relation). The couple
the villain and to endorse the justice'rendered in their absence. This
phenomenon tends to be read as a satire on the incompetence of
 Guardians ofthe View • 97
96 • Ideology of the Hindi Film
the Hegelian ideal, the members of the couple become as one.
the police. But something more is involved here: the late arrival of
Thus, while the spectacle of the female body poses no threat to this
the police attests not only to the endorsement of a feudal system of
informal alliance thal constitutes the Indian ruling bloc, the scene of
justice by the representatives of the modern state, it also enacts the intimate exchange where bourgeois female subjectivity (the 'law of
formal alliance between these two sites of power which retain their woman' being for Hegel the 'law of the inward life' and opposed to
separate identities. Thus, to borrow Marx's terminology from a the 'law of the land', finding its proper sphere of influence in the
different context (Marx, Capital, 1977: 1019-28), here the subsumption family, which is the woman's 'substantive destiny') may emerge,
of the feudal family romance in the modern is only formal, not real. challenges the claim of the intermediate patriarchal authorities to
I I
Real subsumption would render the family a transitory functional
! I unrestricted control over the space of conjugality.
entity committed to re-enacting the conjugal scene in the lives of As a space marked by a discursive shift (the appearance of private
" I

II I
its children, after which it must, as Hegel says, dissolve itself (Hegel languages, the pOSSibility of unsanctioned practices), the private is a
I I
1967: 117-22). self-enclosing libidinal exchange that various authorities seek to
The 'new family' in Hegel takes the place of the old one which
oversee. 3 Any representation of this private space and its activities
was committed to 'preserving the family and its splendor by means in the public realm thus constitutes a transgression of the scopic
of fideicommissa and substitutiones (in order to favour sons by
privilege that the patriarchal authority of the traditional family reserves
excluding daughters from inheriting, or to favour the eldest son by
for itself. Such a representation threatens to draw a circle around
I excluding the other children),' a proclivity that Hegel characterizes
the couple, thus realizing its autonomy, its independence from the
as 'an infringement of the principle of the freedom of property ...
II self-appointed sanctioning authority and at the same time makes
like the admission of any other inequality in the treatment of heirs'
the modern state the overseeing authority and the guarantor of the
I (Hegel 1967: 121). The family that does not dissolve itself into the
couple's autonomy. This moment also marks the inauguration of
I
families of its children and instead regards its own enjoyment as the
the history of realist voyeurism.
I ultimate aim contravenes the ethical life that Hegel is elaborating as The prohibition of kissing, as we have seen, is attributed to 'lndian
the integral external embodiment of the modern state. The old family culture'. The prohibition, according to this understanding, blocks
institution 'depends on an arbitrariness which in and by itself has the centrifugal force unleashed by the kiss that would threaten the
no right to recognition, or more precisely on the thought of wishing integrity of the culture. Absence is translated as a negative injunction.
to preserve intact not so much this family but rather this clan or We are dealing here with what psychoanalysis terms the 'Big Other',
'house' (ibid: 121) or, in the Indian context, the khandan, gharana which Zizek describes as 'the agency that decides instead of us, in
or vansh. our place', an invisible hand, which in our case takes the form of
The kiss that seals the Christian marriage and inaugurates a zone Culture (Zizek, For They Know Not 1991: 77). The prohibition of
of privacy, thereby dissolVing all other intermediate claims to authority certain practices is attributed to this Other of the symbolic network,
except that' of the state, is the very same kiss that is prohibiled on by reference to which what is prohibited is also said to be non-
the Indian screen, between Indian citizens. The private is only existent. This paradOXical prohibition of the non-existent is the basis
invented in and through this relationship of the family to the state of the consensual formation that ensures the stability of the
(the end result of the contract that inaugurates the new patriarchy),
community's identity.
whereas in the old family, which is also, at the same time, an Why must the non-existent be prohibited? It is a question of
authoritarian regime, the private does not exist. As such the unspoken desire, of a certain tendency of desire that cannot be integrated into
('informal', like the prohibition) alliance between the modern state
y- a homeostatic system (such as the nation-state is enVisaged to be), a
. (which is only formally in place) and the numerous premodern desire thal threatens to break out of the limiting circuits of the national
r;'"
points of power and authority (which could also be stated in another body to seek its fulfilment 'elsewhere', this elsewhere being, precisely,
way: the state is the embodiment of the alliance of premodern centres
of power and has no substance of its own) prohibits the invention 3See Jacques Donzelot, Policing tbe (980).
of the private, the zone of intimate exchange and union, where in
98 • Ideology of the Hindi Film Guardians of the View • 99
the culturally non-specific, deterritorialized space of modern predicated, paradoxically, on the possibility of the free circulation
consumer culture. of autonomous subjects. It is the initial free pact between 'consenting
Going beyond this we must pose the question that brings the
adults' as the law puts it that is the condition of possibility of a
historical into the picture, that is why this specific prohibition is so
private space.
important to the stability of the social formation. Why should the Thus, in Anubhav the wife's pre-marital romance with the man
ban be anything more than a meaningless act that was stupidly
who has now re-entered her life as her husband's employee, consisted
continued for a long time? Indeed, if the ban on kissing as such is in no more than 'a few hours of conversation' in which the subjectivity
the issue, there is nothing more to be said about it. But if it is denied to her in her parental home found a space to emerge. Having
acknowledged that this meaningless prohibition extends beyond resolved to restore the space of intimate exchange between herself
the kiss to a certain notion of the 'private', and that it is imposed in and her husband, the heroine's first act is to dismiss all the servants.
the service of an informal alliance of patriarchies, then the picture The servants have occupied and fully control the domestic space. In
becomes more complicated. their midst the marriage is a daily spectacle and their intrusive
In Basu Bhattacharya's Anuhhav('Experience' 1971), a film which
presence is the mark of a lack of closure in the relationship. They
self-consciously attempts to deal precisely with this question of a stand in for a traditional overseeing authOrity, penetrating the conjugal
'private space', the problem that threatens the family is defined by space with the inspecting glance. 4 While in the eye;, of this overseeing
the heroine as the lack of lappa (attachment) between husband and
authority the marriage retains the external features of conjugality-
wife. The couple then proceed to create this absent connection,
cohabitation, economic co-operation, etc.-its internal subtance is
which consists in prodUcing a space of intimacy, of closed or restricted
absent, the love or lagao that guarantees a nuclear family's autonomy.
exchange. The problem of the couple is the problem of the formation It is the Hegelian ideal of the Christian marriage, distinguished by
of a middle class, where the possibility of restricted exchange is spiritual unity that is represented as an absence. In bringing it about,
support is drawn Lom the only servant who refuses to leave, claiming
for himself a special status in the family: he is the non-intrusive,
supportive remainder of the dissolved parental family.
It is in the context of a state-form in which the relations between
the citizen and the state (itself guaranteed by the Law of the Father)
are mediated by unreconstructed patriarchal codes that the injunction
against the representation of the private becomes intelligible. A state
that has to oversee the expanSion of capitalist production through
the maintenance and sometimes intensification of pre-capitalist modes
of exploitation is obliged to maintain a protected sphere of cultural
traditionalism: women and the peasantry are often the objects of
this paternalist attention. This is not to suggest that the patriarchal
nexus that maintains this protected culture is actually successfully
regulating the modes of reception of new cultural forces by the
people. Such regulation would be difficult if not impossible. But
what it does accomplish is the naturalization of the ideological notion
of a conflict between tradition and modernity and the prohibitive
force of tradition.
A middle-class housewife, trying to set her house in order, encounters a
remainder from the past: Dinesh Thakur and Tanuja in AnubhalJ (Basu 4That the servants can function as a surrogate of the feudal patriarchal authority
Bhattacharya 1973). Courtesy National Film Archive of India, Pune. should not surprise us: the eunuch in the harem was precisely such a figure, a
servant who was like an extension of the master's body.
98 • Ideology of the Hindi Film
Guardians of the View • 99
the culturally non-specific, deterritorialized space of modern
consumer culture. predicated, paradoxically, on the possibility of the free circulation
Going beyond this we must pose the question that brings the of autonomous subjects. It is the initial free pact between 'consenting
historical into the picture, that is why this specific prohibition is so adults' as the law puts it that is the condition of possibility of a
important to the stability of the social formation. Why should the private space.
ban be anything more than a meaningless act that was stupidly Thus, in Anubhav the wife's pre-marital romance with the man
continued for a long time? Indeed, if the ban on kissing as such is who has now re-entered her life as her husband's employee, consisted
the issue, there is nothing more to be said about it. But if.it is in no more than 'a few hours of conversation' in which the subjectivity
acknowledged that this meaningless prohibition extends beyond denied to her in her parental home found a space to emerge. Having
the kiss to a certain notion of the 'private', and that it is imposed in resolved to restore the space of intimate exchange between herself
the service of an informal alliance of patriarchies, then the picture and her husband, the heroine's first act is to dismiss all the servants.
becomes more complicated. The servants have occupied and fully control the domestic space. In
In Basu Bhattacharya's Anuhhav ('Experience' 1971), a film which their midst the marriage is a daily spectacle and their intrusive
self-consciously attempts to deal precisely with this question of a presence is the mark of a lack of closure in the relationship. They
'private space', the problem that threatens the family is defined by stand in for a traditional overseeing authority, penetrating the conjugal
the heroine as the lack of laRao (attachment) between husband and space with the inspecting glance 4 While in the eye,s of this overseeing
wife. The couple then proceed to create this absent connection, authority the marriage retains the external features of conjugality-
which consists in producing a space of intimacy, of closed or restricted cohabitation, economic co-operation, etc.-its internal subtance is
exchange. The problem of the couple is the problem of the formation absent, the love or lagao that guarantees a nuclear family's autonomy.
of a middle class, where the possibility of restricted exchange is It is the Hegelian ideal of the Christian marriage, distinguished by
spiritual unity that is represented as an absence. In bringing it about,
support is drawn Lom the only servant who refuses to leave, claiming
for himself a special status in the family: he is the non-intrusive,
supportive remainder of the dissolved parental family.
It is in the context of a state-form in which the relations between
the citizen and the state (itself guaranteed by the Law of the Father)
are mediated by unreconstructed patriarchal codes that the injunction
against the representation of the private becomes intelligible. A state
that has to oversee the expansion of capitalist production through
the maintenance and sometimes intensification of pre-capitalist modes
of exploitation is obliged to maintain a protected sphere of cultural
traditionalism: women and the peasantry are often the objects of
this paternalist attention. This is not to suggest that the patriarchal
nexus that maintains this protected culture is actually successfully
regulating the modes of reception of new cultural forces by the
people. Such regulation would be difficult if not impOSSible. But
what it does accomplish is the naturalization of the ideological notion
of a conflict between tradition and modernity and the prohibitive
force of tradition.
A middle-class housewife, trying to set her house in order, encounters a
remainder from the past: Dincsh Thakur and Tanuja in AnubhatJ (Basu 4T hat the servants can function as a surrogate of the feudal patriarchal authority
Bhattacharya 1973). Courtesy National Film Archive of India, Pune. should not surprise us: the eunuch in the harem was precisely such a figure, a
servant who was like an extension of the master's hody.
 Guardians a/the View • 101
100 • Ideology 0/ the Hindi Film
The cinema 'only gives it [the object] in effigy' (Metz: 262). When
To summarize, the prohibition of kissing is a symptomatic cultural
the actor was present (during the shooting) the spectator was absent,
protocol whose origins lie in the need to prevent the dissolution of
and when the spectator arrives, the actor has already left (ibid: 264):
pre-capitalist patriarchal enclaves, to rein in the forces of democratic
this 'missed encounter' that constitutes the essence of cinematic
transformation. It is not the transparent expression of a pre-existing
voyeurism (reminiscent, we might add, of the missed encounter
cultural predilection but a 'meaningless' (the moment we recognize
between the two agents of the 'original' economic activity of barter,
that it is not meaningless, not just stupid or merely puritanical, it
when money intervenes to split the exchange relation into its
ceases to function effectively) prohibition that regulates the public
component parts, buying and selling as independent activities) makes
circulation of images as an obligation of the contract between new
cinema a distinctly capitalist cultural phenomenon. Metz contrasts
and traditional elites. Its tangible result in cinema (which has been
cinema with other 'more intimate voyeuristic activities' like 'certain
the central national cultural institution because mass illiteracy poses
cabaret acts, striptease, etc', where 'voyeurism remains linked to
obstacles to literature playing a similar role) is a blocking of the
exhibitionism, where the two faces, active and passive, of the
representation of the private.
component drive are by no means so dissociated; where the object
seen is present and hence presumably complicit .... ' (ibid: 262-3).
The Prohibition of Cinema This presence, 'and the active consent which is its real or mythical
correlate (but always real as myth) re-establish in the scopic space,
The prohibition of the private in a way amounts to the prohibition momentarily at least, the illusion of a fullness of the object relation,
of cinema itself. For what is at stake here is the specific scopic of a state of desire which is not just imaginary' (ibid: 263).
regime that is activated by the cinema and its social significance in This vestige of a mythic fusion with the object, which survives in
the context of a capitalist social formation. In a section of The Imaginary the theatre, is 'attacked' by the cinema signifier in so far as the
Signifier' entitled The Passion for Perceiving' 0986: 260-7) Christian consent of the object on the screen cannot be taken for given.
I
Metz elaborates on the specificity of the scopic drive within the Cinematic voyeurism thus turns out to be 'unauthorized scopophilia'
cinematic relation. The practice of cinema is dependent on the activity (ibid: 264) and its difference from the theatre can be further
II of the scopic and the invocatory or auditory drives, both of which contextualized in the 'socio-ideological circumstances that marked
relate to their objects at a distance. In voyeurism, there is a constitutive the birth of the two arts'. Thus:
distance between the object (what is looked at) and the source of cinema was born in the midst of the capitalist epoch in a largely
the drive (the seeing eye). The voyeur represents in space the fracture antagonistic and fragmented society, based on individualism and the
which forever separates him from the object; he represents his very restricted family (= father-mother-children), in an especially
dissatisfaction (which is precisely what.he needs as a voyeur), and superegotistic bourgeoiS society, especially concerned with 'elevation'
thus also his 'satisfaction' in-so-far as it is of a specifically voyeuristic (or facade), especially opaque to itself. The theater is a very ancient
type'. The looking drive (and with modifications the auditory drive), art, one which saw the light in more authentically ceremonial societies,
thanks to this function of distance in its very unfolding, cannot ever in more integrated human groups (even if sometimes, as in Ancient
afford the illusion of 'a full relation to the object' (ibid: 261). Greece, the cost of this integration was the rejection into a nonhuman
exterior of a whole social category, that of the slaves), in cultures
These features of the scopic drive are however common to all
which were in some sense closer to their desire (=paganism); the
visual and auditory modes of representation. The specificity of the theater retains something of this deliberate civic tendency toward
cinema arises, according to Metz, from 'an extra reduplication' of ludico liturgical 'communion', even in the degraded state of a
this relation of absence or lack of the object. In the first place, the fashionable rendezvous around those plays known as pieces de
absent object is infinitely more varied in the cinema and secondly, boulevard.
its absence is not simply marked by the distance that separates the
spectator from the stage, as in the theatre, but by the absence of the It is for reasons of thiS kind too that theatrical voyeurism, less cut off
from its exhibitionist correlate, tends more toward a reconciled and
object from the stage (or its cinematic equivalent, the screen) itself.
 102 • Ideology of the Hindi Film
community-oriented practice of -the scopic perversion (of the
Guardians of the View • 103
component drive). Cinematic voyeurism is less accepted, more engenders the 'shame-faced' voyeurism of the cinema and
'shamefaced' (Metz 1986: 265). presupposes the reality of the subject's solitude in the act of
Cinema thus reflects the dispersal of the 'community' that is voyeuristic perception, and the dissolution of the substantive
characteristic of capitalist societies. But the 'unauthorised scopophilia' communal relation into the atomistic individualism of capitalist social
of the cinema 'is at the same time authorized by the mere fact of its relations.
institutionalization' (ibid: 265). This' "reprise" of the imaginary by Thus, at the heart of the film industry an informal injunction
the symbolic', whereby a 'legalization and generalization of the goes to work to prohibit the representation of kissing and thereby
prohibited practice' becomes the established reality of capit::l1ist generates a chain of implied prohibitions: the prohibition of
societies links cinema to certain clandestine but sanctioned spaces representations of the private, the prohibition of cinema (in the
like the licensed brothel. In spite of the legitimacy that western 'emblematic' sense), and, we are now in a position to add,
institutionalization provides, however, this place of leisure remains the prohibition of the open acknowledgement of the capitalist nature
a "hole" in the social c1O/:h' (ibid: 266). of the new nation-state. Where socialism was only invoked as
In Indian popular cinema we observe a tendency to resist the ideology, and Congress socialism was no more than a protective
extra-communal tendency that Metz regards as constitutive of shield for the development of indigenous capitalism, the emerging
cinematic culture. The mandatory 'cabaret' scene in many Hindi capitalist culture had to be disavowed and this disavowal was the
films, marked by a tendency to frontal representation (where the only (negative) proof of the existence of socialism.
dancer often looks straight into the camera, in violation of the 'recipe The Indian popular film bridges the gap between the screen and
of classical cinema' which forbids such a direct address, and which the spectator (a gap which in Hollywood cinema is bridged only by
originates in the logic of cinematic voyeurism), this spectacle is the spectator's participation in the unfolding of the narrative, a process
clearly 'theatrical' in Metz's sense. That which is offered as spectacle which highlights his/her complicity) through the effect (produced
for the cinematic voyeur is distinguished by the fact that it 'lets itself by various means, of which the prohibition of kissing is only one)
be seen without presenting itself to be seen' (ibid: 264). of an underwriting of the voyeuristic relation by the Symbolic. This
This disjuncture, which Metz tends to locate at the points of is made clear by the reading of the politics of the darsanic gaze in
cinematic production and projection can also be related to the the previous chapter, where we saw that the subject is invited to
aesthetics of realism. What Metz broadly reads as a difference between participate in a spectacle as witness to the splendour of that which
the theatre and the cinema can also be seen as a historically datable presents itself to the subject's gaze. The cinema, according to Metz's
difference between pre-realist and realist theatre, with the latter definition, takes place in a reserved space, where the functioning of
inaugurating the aesthetic that Metz identifies exclusively with the symbolic is suspended (or left outside, standing guard) in order
cinema. s Realist theatre and classical cinema manifest a common to allow the activity of 'unauthorized scopophilia'. By contrast, the
attempt to erect an invisible but unsurpassable barrier between the cinema in India unfolds as if under the aegis of the Symbolic.
spectator/reader and the object, a barrier whose traces are precisely When the members of the couple turn to each other for a kiss,
those injunctions against direct address, as well as the tendency to what occurs (or what is feared) is a decisive shutting out of the
..; I

Ii
represent the private, that which does not present itself to be seen. Other, whose gaze then at once becomes, or is reminded of its,
By contrast Indian popular cinema, with its rejection of realist shamefaced voyeurism. This gesture of withdrawal by the object
principles of representation accords more with those forms of throws the subject back onto itself, and acts as a reminder of the
voyeurism in which the complicity of the object is a crucial real or subject's solitude, the condition of individuals in a capitalist society.
mythical assumption. It is the representation of the private that The couple's withdrawal into an inviolable privacy threatens to set
5As stated earlier (see IntroduL1ion), it is the combination of elements (eg. realism
the image loose from its mooring in the contracted voyeuristic
+ camera + ...) that gives cinema the capitalist specificity, the emblematic quality, relation, sending it spinning away on an unpredictable course (as
which is disavowed in the Indian case. the couple literally does in Adoor Gopalakrishnan's Swayamvamm,
1972), leaving the spectator similarly rudderless, the imaginary unity
 104 • Ideology of the Hindi Film Guardians of the View • 105
then coming permanently under the ever present threat of an The basic principles of the commercial cinema derive from exactly
the core concerns of the Indians caught between the old and the
irreparable rupture. In prohibiting this withdrawal, the cinema
new, and the native and the exogenous. That is, the strength of the
produces and maintains the illusion of a community, the alertness
commercial cinema lies in its ability to tap the fears, anxieties and felt
of all subjects to the existence of all others or the alertness of the pressures of deculturation and even depersonalisation which plague
Subject to the existence of all subJects. 6 the Indians who do not find the normative framework of the
The subject's desire, constitutively unpredictable in its choice of established urban middle-class culture adequate for their need., CNandy
object, is a disruptive element that the national ideology-Barthes 1987: 72).
once described ideology as 'the Cinema of a society' (Barthes 1973: 3)
--of communal cohesion has to manage. Indeed, desire (as desire The primacy accorded to need in Nandy's discussion gives him a
for the modern that cinema is and represents) is often replaced by reason to defer the question of the aesthetic. Thus, his comparative
the curious notion of need as an explanatory factor for the Indian treatment of 'art', 'middle brow' and 'commercial cinema' does not
people's enthusiastic reception of the popular cinema. The opposition question the legitimacy of the art film (Nandy 1988b: 61). The
constituted by the terms need and desire in the context of a theory comments made in favour of the commercial cinema are qualified
by others stating 'however much we may bemoan the entry of mass
of (Indian) cinema has implications at the level of a theory of the
culture ... ' indicating an uneasiness on the aesthetic question which
modern Indian state and its location in the global capitalist system.
is all-important for the art cinema. A second consequence is that the
In order to examine these implications, I turn to a text by Ashish
notion of cultural need, which implies that different groups have
Nandy which elaborates a need-based theory of 'commercial cinema'.
different needs, leads to the argument in favour of a sectoral division

i
This discussion will also disclose the real stakes of the ideological
of culture: 'art films cannot and should not hegemonise the entire
project of Indian popular cinema: in prohibiting representations of
II cultural space available to the Indian cinema' because 'there is need
the private, this cinema blocks the recognition of the breakdown of
! for at least a tripartite division of spoils among the high, middle and
;11
precapitalist community bonds and the learning of new modes of
low-brow cinema in India' (Nandy 1988b: 60-1).
solidarity based on the shared interests of the working classes.
II!' Nandy produces a folk culture for us out of a supposed intimate
I, fit between a displaced proletariat (uprooted from their relatively
I'
I stable rural existence and thrown into the uncertainties of urban
II. The Disavowal of Capitalism life) and its favourite cultural institution, the commercial cinema.
The usefulness of this cinema lies in its ability to heal the wounds of
In a spirited defence of commercial cinema, Nandy asserts that it deracination. This is at the individual level. On another level, this
speaks for the masses and has a claim to legitimacy as valid as that cinema also helps preserve the endangered traditions of the
"

of the 'art cinema' in its own sphere. modernizing nation-state by making tradition the 'normative fulcrum'
of self-expression, thereby providing the displaced masses with a
take on modernity from their own standpoint. Nandy urges 'us' to
6 1t goes without saying that the illusion of communal cohesion can only be
maintained with the active complicity of the audience. It is not a question of an recognize that this cinema, while meeting the needs of the masses,
imposed illusion. One encounters, in cinema halls, signs of this complicity whenever also satisfies 'our' longing for the preservation of tradition. It is by
a scene of intimacy between two chardcters appears to go on for longer than is giving the masses what they want that we can be sure of getting
appropriate to the maintenance of the community effect. Shouts will be heard from what we want.
someone or the other, expressing discomfort with the proceedings. In Bangalore,
this used to take a particular, curious form. At such moments someone would inV'driably This reading of popular cinema marks a break with the more
shout, 'Thaaniningo!' The word means a palmyrd fruit which is usually sold on city common aestheticist tendency to treat it as not-yet-cinema, a formless
streets at night (usually after 9 or 10) to preserve its juiciness. The everyday experience and anarchic bricolage of titillation, violent spectacle and moral
of the nocturnal intimacies of couples being disrupted by the call of the fruitseller is conservatism. But having left the aestheticist critique behind, Nandy
evoked by the shouts and the awkwardness of the moment, which threatens to
remind the spectator of his voyeurism, is thus overcome. does not quite manage to free his arguments from a temptation to
106 • Ideology 0/ the Hindi Film
Guardians a/the View. 107
simply reverse the equation. His text has a strong tendency to equate
the defence of the commercial cinema with a defence of the people, the normative function of tradition provided by the cinema is a
the masses and their (supposed) role as the preservers of tradition therapeutic necessity.
in a modernizing society. He explains his position thus: The discourse of and on popular cinema has always involved a
dialectic of modernity and tradition in which the point of enunciation
Now that modernity has become the dominant principle in Indian
cannot be unambiguously located in one or the other for all time.
public life, when much of the oppression and exploitation in the
society is inflicted in the name of modern categories such as
And even where we are able to clearly identify the perspective, in
development:science, progress and national security, the logic of the individual films, the 'traditional' is by no means identical with the
situation demands a different kind of political attitude towards cultural interests and desires of the dispossessed and displaced masses. It is
traditions. However much we may bemoan the entry of mass culture problematic to employ tradition and modernity in this sense as terms
through the commercial cinema, the fact remains that it is the of analysis. It is true that popular films deploy this binary frequently
commercial cinema which by default is more protective towards and that thematic conflicts are structured around it. But to treat it as
traditions and towards native categories CNandy 1988b: 61). if it were a transparent representation of some real conflict between
Nandy's claim is that popular cinema speaks for the people and these two concepts is to fall into an ideological trap. For the
their traditions and against the encroachment of the principle of construction of 'tradition' is part of the work of modernity. This is
modernity. And yet he also asserts that it is in the context of the not to deny the material effectiVity of the binary in the social. On
domination of the principle of modernity that this cinema must be the contrary, our questioning of the binary necessitates the
defended. Thus commercial cinema, if it is indeed as he describes it, investigation of the relation of these representations (of conflicts
would seem to the fighting a lost battle. Read in conjunction with between tradition and modernity) to the real relations that characterize
the social formation.
the idea that different sectors of culture serve different needs, this
seems to carry a disturbing implication that popular cinema should Sectoral need theory neglects the relational aspect of any social
be protected because of its ability to serve, not as the site of a divisions that it may identify. In Anubhav, as we have seen, the
transformative critique of modernity, but as a rejuvenating, healing couple's resolve to produce a private world is supported by a self-
ideological refuge from it. Where these 'native categories' have been effacing patriarchal servant figure. In a scene at the beginning of the
irreversibly emptied of any real social effectivity, cinema mitigates film, this old man gives the hero, a newspaper editor, a massage
the trauma of the masses' encounter with the new by preserving the while the latter works late into the night 7 In the conversation that
illusion of a persistence of tradition. This affirmative theory of the ensues, the servant gently criticizes the master for working too hard
popular would thus appear to have as its gUiding principle, an and long and not enjoying the fruits of his labour. Thus the servant
administrative concern with normalcy, law and order. Here we makes visible to the man an important truth about his existence.
encounter the theoretical justification for the disavowal of the capitalist The film tries to realize the positive suggestion contained in the
nature of the Indian nation-state. This disavowal is partial, confined servant's remark. But this suggestion is never allowed to reflect back
to the psychic sphere of the proletariat and accordingly, finds it on the working life of the servant himself, who as we can plainly
possible to divide cultural spheres into incommensurable sectors. see, has no fixed working hours and no 'private life' either. The
We of the middle class, who know that modernity can no longer be obvious naturalness of the terms of this relationship, in which the
defended against, and who participate in its expansion with our servant is made to pronounce a truth that applies to the master but
commitment to the western aesthetic standards that make a Satyajit not to himself, also depends on a version of the sectoral theory of
Ray film so appealing-we are not being asked to commit ourselves needs. The proletariat's right to a fixed working day, a 'modern'
to a rejection of modernity or to a denial of its arrival. We are being 7An almost identical scene occurs in GuIzar's Aandhi, with the same actors,
invited, on the other hand, to confine the modern revolution (or, A.K. Hangal and Sanjeev Kumar playing the roles of servant and master: clearly no
more accurately, the consciousness of it) to our sphere of existence, aCcident, given that both Aandhi and A nubhav figure in the list of middle-class films
(discussed in Chapter 7) which, in the late seventies, attracted audiences drawn by
not to insist on its extension to the people, for whom the illusion of the promise of social distinction.
108 • Ideology ofthe Hindi Film
Guardians ofthe View • 109
right, if asserted in such a context could upset the neat division of
whether they regard the cinema as speaking on their behalf when it
the social into sectors.
disseminates tales of feudal morality. The primary attraction of the
In his description of the commercial cinema, Nandy refers to its
cinema is its modern character, whereas once drawn into the theatre,
ability to 'tap the fears, anxieties and felt pressures of deculturation
we may be presented with traditional ideologies that try to deny the
and even depersonalisation'. Given the emphasis on culture as a
changed circumstances that are the very condition of possibility of a
need, it is not surprising that desire does not figure in this list.
cinematic culture. What the ideology of cultural need denies is the
Desire, once introduced, threatens to lead the subject astray (into
pOSSibility that human beings may desire the transformation of their
the spaces of modernity, reserved for the middle class and the
conditions of eXistence, that a utopian element may inhere in cultural
connoisseurs of art cinema), whereas the point of the exercise is to activity.
bind the subject to a place in a need-based, self-reproducing cultural
While often anchored in familiar narratives that reinforce
economy. The desired image of the masses is an image of the masses
traditional moral codes, the popular film text also offers itself as an
as lacking desire.
object of the desire for modernity. The fragmentary text of an average
Need is that which can be met by a specifiable and unchanging
popular film is a serial eruption of variously distributed affective
object. Hunger, for example, can be satisfied by food and only by
intensities whose individual effects are not subsumed in the
food. By making culture a sphere of need, Nandy integrates the
overarching narrative framework. As an effective medium of
psychic into the modern economy and identifies the cinema as that
propagation of consumer culture, popular cinema has managed to
which meets the needs of the population. Culture becomes a sphere
combine a reassuring moral conservatism with fragments of utopian
of nature, not one in which meanings circulate, producing frames of
ideology and enactments of the pleasures of the commodity culture.
intelligibility by means of which the relations of power and production
The very familiarity of the narrative makes it a useful non-interfering
are justified. That there may be a demand for a different social grid within which to elaborate the new.
order, that cinema provides various explanations for the contradictions But consumer culture is itself not a neutral 'content' which fits
of capitalist society, that tradition as the 'solution' for these indiscriminately into any available narrative framework. While
contradictions may be an ideological construction disseminated by functioning within the grid of the traditional moral tale, it at the
popular Hindi cinema, these are ignored. By this reckoning it must same time conflicts with that tale and makes for contradictions at
be said that while the other sectors of the economy have failed to the level of narrative. These contradictory features can be read as
meet the basic material needs of the masses, the culture industry reflecting the contradictions of a capitalist society functioning on
alone has succeeded in effectively meeting the demand that is placed the basis of pre-capitalist social relations. Popular films represent
on it. If we push this argument further, it may turn out that the
the utopian ideal that consists of not only the pleasures of commOdity
culture industry's success in meeting this need gives the other sectors culture but also the microsocial forms such as the nuclear family,
of the economy and the exploitative system itself some respite. For
which is at once an ideal consuming unit that the industrial economy's
if tl)e basic needs were to become more important to the masses at
logic calls for, as well as an alternative to the existing patriarchal
any time, would the cultural need continue to remain the same? enclaves within which subjects are situated. It is then a question of
And conversely, if the basic needs were ever to be adequately met,
emerging from feudal social relations into capitalist ones, an epic
would the masses then not be in a position to demand a different narrative of the transpatriarchal migration of subjects, a struggle
kind of entertainment, even one that is not predicated on a disavowal within the social for a radical transformation which cinema represents
of modernity? Is it then Nandy's argument that when the people are and resolves in its own way.
hungry, commercial cinema is the best thing for them?
It is not simply a question of opposing need to desire but of
acknowledging the dispersal of communities and then figuring
whether the people's interest in cinema signifies the desire for a
transformation that will acknowledge their entry into modernity, or
110 • Ideology of the Hindi Film Guardians ofthe View • 111
came into with religious dogma (ibid: 32). Romantic love, like
The State of Love the courtly version, 'finds its divinity in the act of lOVing' (ibid: 293).
In India it was the medieval bhakti movements and personalities
It is the discourse of romantic love that the popular film deploys in who elaborated a discourse of spiritual love with romantic overtones.
its representation of this ideal. As argued above, the tale of romantic Thus the songs of Mirabai, the sixteenth-century devotee and self-
love has continued to be embedded in an overarching framework proclaimed bride of the god Krishna, express devotional love in a
derived from the feudal family romance. Thus the romantic couple's language drawn from the institutions of sexuality: courtship and
courtship takes. place in a space of controlled anonymity.8 They marriage (Alston 1980) But romantic love as a social practice
meet by accident in a public space, as if it were a question of"two transforming relations between individuals did not emerge from these
'citizen-subjects' encountering each other and falling in love in the moments. Persian and later Urdu poetry, flourishing in India's
course of a long courtship: but what begins as an accidental encounter aristocratic Muslim society, elaborated a discourse of love that Hindi
between two individuals turns out to have been predestined. While cinema took over wholesale when it turned to the inexhaustible
initially their love invites the disapproval of one or both the families, thematics of love. This discourse had no social currency, its intricate
last minute turns in the narrative disclose certain pacts entered into conceits and metaphors were more suited to poetry than to everyday
by the families, which had sanctioned the love relation even before language. As such its use was largely confined to songs.
it took place. Thus, the centrifugal force of the love relation is reined Mainstream Hindu society, which has continued to be governed
in and the family in its feudal self-governing form re-secures its by the caste system, was in no position to generate a discourse of
boundaries. This is a narrative pattern that was endlessly repeated love. There were attempts at social revolution which consisted
in popular cinema throughout the sixties and in spite of many precisely in challenging the caste division and proclaiming a direct
transformations, has not entirely disappeared. The family capital link between the devotee and the divine. Such was the revolutionary
was one of the key issues in the unfolding of the narrative. The slogan of the bhakti movement in twelfth-century Karnataka, one
son's love adventure ran parallel to the plotting by close relatives to instance of the early protests against the monopoly over religion by
grab the family fortune through manipulative matchmaking, established orthodoxies. But these movements did not succeed in
embezzlement, etc. (Warn is a representative film of this type.) their mission to transform Hindu society. After 1947, Hindi cinema
The emergence of the discourse of romantic love has been traced borrowed the discourse of love elaborated in Persian/Urdu poetry
to North Africa and medieval Europe (Spain and southern France), and superimposed it on the traditional sexual relations of Hindu
although, if we consider the lOOo-year history of the ghazal, or the SOCiety. However, its elaborate conceits and refined language
Indian bhakti movements, an earlier or parallel Asian origin is continued to serve as reminders of its aristocratic origin, which meant
suggested (Dale 1996). The second great era of the elaboration of that love itself came to be associated with a certain soulfulness and
this discourse in Europe was the Romantic age, from which the otherworldliness.
modern conception of love derives (Singer 1984: 1, 23, 283 ff) In this context it is of interest that the last few years have seen a
(Needless to say, it is the concept of love that can be said to have a sudden proliferation of the use of the English language expression
specific place of origin, not the affect itself). As a concept, romantic 'I love you'. From Hindi films to the regional language cinemas of
love is 'an ideal for changing the world or ... a psychological state' the south, songs and dialogue everywhere are littered with this
(ibid: 3). Love's transformative potential lay in the idea that it was expression. It is sung to a variety of tunes, subjected to the most
an 'intense, passionate relationship that establishes a holy oneness unpredictable conceits (as in the song which begins 'yeh ilu ilu kya
between man and woman' (ibid: 23). This ideal of oneness, which hai?', a question about the meaning of the expression, which then
was an attribute of religious love before the emergence of courtly expands into a musical primer of love). In part this is one more
love, represents a secularization of religious devotion and as such instance of popular cinema's pedagogical function as an initiator of
the masses into consumer culture: in the past, new fashions, dance
B-rhis pre-marital encounter is often a mere ritual of aristocratic socio-sexual
arrangements as is dear in a film like Chhalia CManmohan Desai 1960). forms and other practices of (western) capitalist culture were similarly
112 • Ideology of the Hindi Film Guardians ofthe View • 113
introduced, Thus, not too long ago, the song '1 am a disco dancer' which it transports the couple, are also marked as a social privilege,
taught the national audience the 'meaning' of disco, spelling out the a mark of social distinction. What is this Other whose recognition is
word as if it were an acronym. invoked and guaranteed by this expression? This Other, the witness
But beyond this consumerist function, the utopian aspiration to to a coupling that is beyond the formal coupling sanctioned by
social transformation that the concept of love embodies also finds traditional authority, is as yet unformed, unidentifiable, its only trace
itself invoking a certain state-form as its true ground (d. Bellour being the obsessively recurring English expression that attests to the
1980). A striking illustration of this intersection of consumerism, fact that something is being called into existence, Would it be
romantic love in its congealed form as an English expression, and farfetched to speculate that this Other is precisely the modern state
the modern nation-state is proVided by Mani Rathnam's highly in which the romance of the nuclear family and the state would
popular Tamil film Raja 0992; see Chapter 9). The following lines dissolve or sublate all other mediating categories?
of dialogue, in which the English expression is employed, are In any case, popular cinema displays no unequivocal preference
exchanged by a newly married couple, who take a holiday in Kashmir for a traditional standpoint in its narratives of conflict between the
when the husband is sent there on an assignment. After an exhausting traditional and the modern, On the contrary, one of its constant
erotic game of running around the hotel room, the two plunge into preoccupations is with the propagation of commodity culture within
bed. The husband is a Madras-based cryptographer, employed by the context of traditionally regulated social relations. In the process
the intelligence Wing of the state, while the wife is from an interior it sometimes represents the utopian aspiration to transform the social
village of Tamil Nadu. (The italicized words are spoken in English): in keeping with the promises made by capitalism and the modern
'Hey Village girl, if I say somethiflg to you in English, will you be
nation-state,
able to understand it?
'Say it, let's sec.
'! love you, '

Here in these three lines we have the initiation of a closed exchange

which can create the private space of the couple. But in these same
lines we also get a glimpse of the (impossible) condition of possibility
of that closure.
In this exchange what comes across is a strongly felt compulsion
to consummate the marriage by means of the English language
utterance. It is as if a lack had remained, after the marriage
ceremonies, that could only be filled by the intervention of this
ritual declaration. The expression, delivered to the adressee, transports
the couple into their own private space. In this process the hitherto
unapproachable precinct of romantic love is domesticated, by
inhabiting it. But this space of symbolic consummation, by whose
grace a private space is made possible, is also the most public space
of all: like the first person pronoun that circulates freely among all
those who enter the symbolic network, and is unavailable for
exclusive possession, the expression, '1 love you' transports the
speaking subject and the addressee into a different symbolic network,
one in which the declaration is the true legitimation of the couple.
Being in English, this expression and the symbolic network into
 5
The Moment of Disaggregation

Aaina bamen dekbke bairansa kyun bai?

-Shahryar

P
art I developed a general theoretical framework for the study
of popular Hindi cinema through an investigation of the
conditions of possibility of the dominant textual form, the
'social'. We have seen that in the post-independence era a modular
and 'public' textual form rose to dominance, whose ideological
mission was to produce a coherent subject position in a situation
where the democratic revolution had been broached and then
indefinitely suspended. Three mutually-reinforcing factors served
as the conditions of possibility of this textual form: (1) backward
capitalist conditions in the film industry; (2) a transitional state-form
determined by the interests of the dominant coalition, characterized
by the deferral of bourgeois dominance; and (3) the persistence of
pre-capitalist ideologies and the continued authority of traditional
elites.
Against this background I turn in Part II to a conjunctural analysis
of developments in the field of film culture during a brief period of
political and ideological crisis of the Indian state. The attempt here
will be to develop a 'historical construction' of the transformations
in the field and their ideological significance. A historical construction
is not a 'reconstruction' in all its detail, of the events of the period in
question. It is an attempt to understand the historical significance of
a constellation of events by focussing selectively on certain aspects.
The hypothesis constructed and substantiated here can be stated
as follows: a period of intense political upheaval beginning in the
mid-sixties brought into crisis the political form of the national
consensus (represented by the dominant integrationist role of the
118 • Ideology of the Hindi Film The Moment of Disaggregation • 119
Congress party). Since the forces unleashed by this crisis were re- or retardation of the democratic revolution, required two conditions:
contained by an authoritarian populist government, only a limited 'a low level of popular mobilisation, when the lower orders of the
transformation of the political field occurred. Re-organized in a looser, electorate voted on the advice of superordinant interests of some
somewhat disaggregated form, including a more visible though kind'; and 'a loose and largely federal political machine in which
fragmented opposition, the political system was able to absorb or negotiation of local support, at local prices, were [sic) ldt to local
marginalize radical challenges through populist mobilization. bosses of the Congress' (Kaviraj, EPW 1986: 1699).
Within the ideological sphere, the film industry faced a challenge Indian politics, according to Kaviraj, was coalitional in two senses.
to its established aesthetic conventions and mode of production. It There was first of all the class coalition, whose significance is
was able to survive the crisis by a strategy of internal segmentation structural, and entails 'long-term costraints'. This structural feature is
which enabled it to absorb the challenge of a politically-mobilized threatened but did not undergo any significant transformation during
and demanding audience, and at the same time to reduce the threat the Indira Gandhi era. Politics is also coalitional in a second sense,
of a state-sponsored rival production apparatus. The segmentation at the level of 'parties or political formations'. 'Around a central,
produced three distinct aesthetic formations-the new cinema, the disproportionately large party of consensus were arranged much
middle-class cinema and the populist cinema of mobilization. smaller parties of pressure, which imposed a coalitional logic-on
This chapter will expJain and specify the political and institutional both government and opposition political groups.' The right and
factors behind the pressure for change within the film industry, and left factions within the Congress party had more ideological affinities
the manner in which segmentation evolved as a solution to the with opposition parties like the Communists and the Swatantra than
crisis. The process of segmentation will be discussed in relation to with each other. Thus the Congress itself was a coalition that enforced
the theoretical problem of genre formation as a feature of capitalist a coalitional logic on the functioning of the party system as a whole
(ibid: 1986, 1698). Both these coalitional structures have a bearing
culture.
In political history, the period in question roughly coincides with on the ideological question. While the general theoretical framework
the first phase of the Indira Gandhi era, from 1966-when after Lal elaborated in Part I must be understood by reference to the class
Bahadur Shastri's death, the Congress Party elected her to take over coalition, the historical construction attempted in Part II refers itself
as Prime Minister-to the state of Emergency which was in place for to the local crisis in the mode of political functioning of the coalition.
18 months from 1975 to 1977. 1 This period was marked by the The crisis in question begins with the unmistakable signs of
decline and fragmentation of Congress and the beginning of a series popular dissatisfaction in the late sixties, an indication 'that lower
of political challenges from the left and the right to the Congress- orders of people were becoming less inclined to vote on the basis
managed 'consensual' stalemate between the defenders of traditional of primordial controls' (ibid: 1699). The particular strategies adopted
privileges and free-market principles on the one hand, and the forces by the regime (authoritarian populism based on a direct appeal to
agitating for the realization of the new nation's professed democratic the masses over the heads of the intermediate leadership), were
and socialist ideals on the other. According to some political theorists, determined by the challenges to the consensus from both left and
the consensual stalemate, which amounted to a negotiated suspension right and a recognition of the need to transform the political form of
the consensus. Through the late sixties and early seventies, the
lIn view-of the goals of my project, I make no attempt at providing clear cut-off political situation in India remained volatile, with a wide variety of
for the 'period'. There can be no exact overlap of political and culturdllogics movements occupying the centre of the political scene. While one
of periodization. Taken separately, the period of crisis for the film industry could be
said to begin in 1969 with the launching of the new FFC policy. But it is more
segment of the communist left was making political gains through
difficult to say when the momentum of a new thrust comes to an end. politically, participation in the electoral process, another Maoist segment aligned
1969 and 1977 can serve as more stable cut-off points because it was in 1969, with itself with the rebellious peasantry and rural working class and
the split in Congress, that Indird Gandhi's transformation of Indian politics began appeared to be gaining ground in the countryside. Urban working-
and it was in early 1977 that the first phase of her rule came to an end with the lifting
class militancy was at its peak in this period, and a combination of
of the emergency and the electoral defeat.
 The Moment ofDisaggregation • 121
120 • Ideology of the Hindi Film
forces led by the ex-socialist ]ayaprakash Narayan mounted a strong
'Social Tax' Versus State Competition
2
offensive against Congress dominance.
The crisis can·be usefully described as a deep disaggregation of The cnStS in the ideological instance of popular cinema took the
the socio-political --Structure resulting in the delegitimation of the form of a segmentation of audiences, the obsolescence of. the feudal
consensual ideology of the state. Given the central role of the family romance, the pressure to develop new textual forms. It was
Congress in maintaining the political equilibrium up to this point, it the period in which the 'social', whose cultural status was remarkably
is not surprising that the party became a prominent site of the similar to that of the Congress on the political plane, underwent a
unfolding of the crisis. The fragmentation of the Congress, beginning multi-faceted transformation. While one significant causal factor
with the various dissident formations that sprang up in the 1967 behind this drive for transformation was the politicization and
elections, at the state and regional level culminated in what was mobilization of the masses, another was the state-sponsored
popularly known as the 'Indicate-Syndicate' split in 1969. The former movement that sought to give substance to the idea of a national
group, led by Indira Gandhi and defined by its left-oriented cinema. These two factors were related, because the decisive step
programme, broke away and quickly marginalized the Syndicate with towards a new approach to film financing by the Film Finance
a reorganization of the political machine that rendered the existing Corporation (FFC) in 1969 was made possible by the Indira Gandhi
modes of political negotiation obsolete overnight. In the Nehru era, government's interventionist policies. These were strongly stated by
the ability of the Congress to either marginalize or absorb rival political her and the information and broadcasting ministers in her cabinet,
tendencies had enabled it to produce and maintain the cohesion- Nandini Satpathy and I.K. GUjral. The latter, in the course of an
effect. Its modular unity reflected the unreconstructed articulation exhortatory speech, told the industry that its demand for a reduction
of a variety of old and new enclaves into a national political network. in entertainment tax would be considered seriously if it was willing
The disaggregation of this structure manifested itself in the form of to pay a 'social tax' instead. 3 Thus, government co-operation in
a serious political crisis with several possible resolutions. developing the capital base of the industry was to be purchased by
This crisis represented the culmination of a democratic ferment a commitment by the industry to the production of films with
which promised a transformation of the social order. During British progreSSive themes, to proVide cultural support for the developmental
rule the nationalist movement had mobilized the masses with the goals of the 'socialist' government. The industry'S leaders were
promise of democracy. After independence, the people were repaid habituated to making pledges of loyalty to the policies of the ruling
in the heavily devalued currency of citizenship, whose only tangible party, but on this call for commitment unanimity was out of the
benefit was universal adult suffrage. The new regime found that the question. The maintenance of a posture of deference towards the
long process of colonial exploitation had left the economy too weak, 3Film/are, 4 July 1969, p. 29. Gujral championed the Film Council proposal with
that the infrastructure for self-reliant industrial growth had to be great The progressive role of cinema would only be guaranteed by a well-
built almost from scratch. In view of this constraint on capitalist organized industry communicating with government through 'a single highpowered
growth, the Nehru era, with its programme of state-led economic authority capable of acting as a guide and mentor, as well as a responsible executive
agency for undertaking worthwhile programmes of establishing professional norms
growth and 'gradual revolution' found itself relying upon the and a rational code of intersectional relationship' (ibid: 27). In his presidential address
continued operation of the ideology of the despotic colonial state to the seventeenth Film/are awards assembly in 1970, Gujral expanded on his vision
and the feudal order it had instituted. by argUing that politicians and artists were united by the bond of 'the peopie'. He
The forces opposed to this order gathered strength in the post- contrasted the regressive tendencies in cinema with the 'genuine national style of
expression' that had been developed in theatre, literature and painting. that the
Nehru era. Thus, this eventful period represents a revolutionary intervention was conceived as a measure to break the hold of the popular industry
upsurge whose potential was hijacked by the Indira Gandhi govern- by setting up a rival sector is borne out by his assertion that while Bombay was
ment and channelled into an authoritarian interregnum. merely follOWing foreign models in its 'retarded growth', the question for India was
which cinema would dominate. Offering to 'share power' with the industry, Gujral
2For a detailed description of the political ferment of this period see Francine asked for a reciprocal abandoning of 'laissez-faire' and greater social responsibility
Frankel, chapter 9-13, pp. 341-582. See also Biplab Das Gupta (1974), Sumanta (Fi/"'!(are, 22 May 1970, pp. 29-33).
Banerjee (1980), Achin Vanaik (990)
122 • Ideology of the Hindi Film
The Moment ofDisaggregation • 123
leadership was all that the industry could manage 4 The most that
such government pressures on the mainstream industry achieved of production relations within the eXisting industry. But it had not
was to inspire some producers to include, within a formally unaltered anticipated the form of expansion that the FFC finally chose. While
framework, 'progressive' elements which they hoped would win depriving the industry of even the meagre finance hitherto available,
government approval. S Sometimes this led to the granting of it now established a parallel industry with an alternative aesthetic
programme. No longer Content to produce newsreels as ao
entertainment tax cuts or exemptions.
instructional supplement to the entertainment film, the government
However, the Film Institute and the Film Finance Corporation
was now expanding the sphere of state-sponsored production to
together formeo part of very different kind of intervention which
the aesthetic realm. However, the crux of the matter was not the
was to have a lasting impact. While the institute offered training in
ideological dangers of state-sponsored cinema (which were minimal
the technical as well as performance aspects of film-making, the
since the FFC policy was administered by an independent bodY),6
corporation, after a few years of lethargic and unimaginative
so much as the economic danger of the emergence of a formidable
functioning, launched a financing policy aimed at the development competitor.
of 'good cinema', which for most people associated with the project,
The implications of the new FFC policy gradually became clear
meant a cinema that was realist, narrative-centred, developmental,
with groWing signs of audience interest in the promise of novelty,
and culturally distinctly Indian. Although the change in policy had
and Wide support from the press for the ventures. The
been initiated in 1964 by Indira Gandhi when she was the Information
industry was also preoccupied with the more immediate dangers
and Broadcasting minister, its decisive implementation roughly
foreboded by rumours of an impending nationalization, Gujral's active
coincided with the arrival of a number of trained directors, actors
pursuit of the Film Council idea, the calculations within the industry
and other technicians from the Film Institute.
about the mode of accommodation with the government's new
The FFC had hitherto functioned somewhat like other state
socialist agenda, etc. As president of the Film Federation of India,
financial institutions, supplementing the budgets of mainstream film-
Sunderlal Nahata called for internal unity and discipline as the only
makers (and of individuals with international standing like Satyajit
way of side-stepping the encroachment by the government which
Ray). Now, changing course to became a producer, the corporation
was seen as the main purpose for the institution of the Film Council.
entered into direct competition with the mainstream industry.
Unity was to be supplemented with a stance of co-operation in the
Although the protests were muted in deference to the prevailing national project:
mood of populist mobilization, this development caused great panic
in the industry. The industry had for a long time been demanding Big social changes are taking place in the country. Society has been
that the FFC should expand its operations by increasing the capital awakened to the: realities and SOcialistic trends are on in the country
available for lending, to provide state support for the transformation for the welfare of the nation . the government can ill-afford to
ignore our prohlems when we prove to it that we share in the
4Even this form of feudal allegiance without specific commitments on policy responsibilities to contrihute to the welfare of the nation in our own
came under severe strain in these years of political turmoil. Thus, at a meeting humhle way as any other industry does7
addressed hy the prime minister, I.S. Jc)har who was at the time the head of a producers'
organization, responded to the prime minister's criticism of the industry (Mrs. Gandhi But with the visibility achieved by Mrinal Sen's Bhuvan Shame
is reported to have said: 'We do have an impression that this industry is only interested (969), which won awards and had a limited but surprising
in making money'!) by reminding her of the 'obscenity of poverty' (Screen, 2 January commercial run, it became clear that a substantial challenge was
1Y70, p. I). This led to an uproar in the industry, with several major figures writing
letters of protest, publicly dissociating themselves from Johar's position and even gathering strength. In the past, figures like Satyajit Ray had developed
writing letters of apology with a promise of good behaviour to the prime minister their own individualistic trajectories which precluded any
(Screen, YJanuary 1no, pp. 1,(,; 1(, January 1970, p. I).
5Some tried easier ways to align themselves with the 'socialist' power. Thus, (,Several prominent members of the FFC board, led by Hrishikesh Mukherjee
Shyam Behl, in his Gold Medal (1970), had sequences shot at the annual Congress and B.K. Karanjia. resigned in 1n(, when the Emergency leadership started interfering
session, and presented a reel containing these scenes to the prime minister (Screen, in the affairs of the corporation (Fil1ri!are, 11 June 1Y76, p. 35>-
20 Fehruary 1Y70, p. I). 7Screen, 14 :-.Iovember 1969, p. 8.
124 • Ideology ofthe Hindi Film The Moment of Disaggregation • 125
presentation reiterating the cultural policy of the Indira Gandhi
government, Screen published a long 'critical study' of the speech.
Noting that the speech seemed to be an indication of the policy of
the 'new radical leadership', the writer drew attention to Satpathy's
approving comments on the 'new wave' films. The government was
mistaken in thinking that these films fulfilled the aims of cultural
policy, the writer warned. 'Mrs. Satpathy could be wrong about the
Indian "new wave". Its inspiration appears to be outlandish and
there is little of Indian reality in its products.' 10 By contrast, the
Bombay film 'has been a vehicle of Indian thought, culture and
ideals'. Moreover, the government was warned that by encouraging
the 'new wave' it was playing with fire. The virtues of the Bombay
film lay in their 'innocuous' story-telling technique, while the
'committed film-maker, committed to advance a particular ideology,
can pose a serious danger to society'. On the economic side, the 'new
wave' was a loss-making venture and it was 'unethical', a 'grievolls
misconception of priorities' to encourage such indUlgence in a poor
Shome's body learns strange new dialects: Utpal Dutt in Bhuvan Shame country. The article concluded by suggesting that instead of the
(Mrinal Sen 1969). Courtesy National Film Archive of India, Pune. new FFC programme, an academy of motion picture arts should be
set up with Satyajit Ray-'the undisputed master of the medium'-
institutionalized aesthetic programme. The industry had found it at its helm.
possible to acknowledge Ray as the 'Master' and a national cultural The mainstream industry had good reason to invoke the authority
hero, without jeopardizing its own system of production and values. of Ray to serve as an aesthetic focal point that would reduce the
As Bikram Singh observed at the time, 'It is mainly the institutional importance of the political dimension. Ray's opinions on the 'new
forces and the strength they began to gain in the late sixties which wave' were first aired in an article 'An Indian New Wave?' published
the established film industry has found less easy to ignore than it in Film/are (8 October 1971) and again in a review article 'Four and
did Satyajit Ray,.8 While providing opportunities for a variety of a Quarter', published in Indian Film Culture in 1974. 11 In the first of
styles and political and aesthetic positions, the new aesthetic these, Ray drew attention to the practical constraints on the ambitions
programme was unified by an oppositional stance towards the of the neW film-makers. Debunking the trendiness of their enthusiasm,
commercial cinema. The political dimension of the challenge posed Ray pointed out that narrative was central to cinema, that 'experiment'
by this initiative was not lost on the mainstream industry. In a review was costly and bound to fail where audiences were untrained in
of Mrinal Sen's Interoiew, Screen, while acknowledging its strengths, cinematic language. This criticism was based on the assumption
called it biased, and nervously observed that the film may appeal to that experiment necessarily entailed an imitation of 'Godard', a code-
9
a 'now growing type of Indians' but not to a 'normal' audience. word for experimental cinema. Welcoming the new FFC policy, Ray
.Among the many compromises that the mainstream industry explored nevertheless implied that products of such a policy were not going
as a means of defusing this challenge, one was particularly significant to succeed with the audience at large. Besides, films like Bhuvan
for the manner in which it sought to blunt the political thrust by Shame, which had been hailed as the harbinger of a new movement,
foregrounding the 'artistic' dimension of the new movement.
In response to Nandini Satpathy's speech at the National Awards 1OScreen, Ifl February 1972, p. 4.
11 130t h are now available in Ray's Our Films Their Films, pp. 81-99; 100-7
flPilm!are, 10 January 1975, p. 26. respectively.
9Screen , 11 December 1970, p. 19.
126 • Ideology of the Hindi Film The Moment oj Disaggregation • 127
were old-fashioned narrative films after all. In his response the critic feeble attempts were made in this direction. This impasse was one
Bikram Singh pointed out that while Ray found foreign experiments of the factors that led to compromise formations such as the middle-
always suited to their time and place, he wanted Indian film-makers class cinema, whose most Widely known practitioners, Basu Chatterjee
to know in advance the effect of their experiments on the audience, and Hrishikesh Mukherjee, were both associated with the FFC project,
the commercial viability of the films, etc. The viability criterion but made most of their films in this period with private finance.
amounted to a pre-emption of experiment. 12 Ray's rejoinder and
Singh's counter-response 13 only reinforced the basic point of
difference. Ray's argument was circular: he regarded narrative as Segmentation
central; he opposed experiment because it was anti-narrative; he
found that the films made under the FFC aegis were narratives after
The main sponsors of the middle-class cinema included the N.C. Sippy
all; he therefore questioned its claim to be a 'movement'. It was a
family, Tarachand Barjatya, B.R. Chopra, Suresh]indal, etc., most of
no-win argument. If the new film-makers wanted to be called a
whom were established figures in the mainstream industry. This
movement they must experiment; if they experimented, they were
cinema was distinguished by its narratives of upper caste, middle-
out of touch with reality. Mrinal Sen, in a letter purporting to be an
class life with ordinary-looking deglamourized stars. It consolidated
extract from a letter to a friend, summed it up thus: 'to me it (Ray's
itself by elaborating a negative identity based on'its difference from
article) doesn't mean much except that he emphasizes on the
the mainstream cinema, thus appropriating one of the main slogans
necessity to build opinion for the "prevention of alleged cruelty to
of the FFC-sponsored 'movement'. An inter-textual reference system
money-backers". And this, to my mind, hardly builds an aesthetic
case ... ,14 developed thanks to the regular appearance of a set of stars, the
iconography and language of the middle-class household, a constant
Ray's emphasis on narrative was shared by most people in the
use of the popular cinema as a point of counter-identification, even
FFC. As the project unfolded, it was narrative that became the most
direct references to other middle-class films (as in Guizar's Mere
visible mark of the new cinema's difference from the popular.
However, the dispute between Ray and some in the FFC was over Apne in which a poster and a radio advertisement for Anandfigure
political and institutional questions. Ray's arguments were anchored prominently). While remaining firmly within the stmcture of the
in a notion of the film-maker as an individual artist who must function established industry, middle-class cinema represented the first serious
in a market that imposes its own rules. He was pragmatic in his and successful attempt at a planned segmentation of the industry
recognition of market constraints but this did not impair his image based on the perception of a changed market and the threat of a
as an artistic genius. The new film-makers would introduce a political rival's potential monopoly over that market. The middle-class cinema
element into the aesthetic field, by claiming for their experiments a took over that aspect of the FFC's 'realist' aesthetic project Which
significance that went beyond the 'improvement' accomplished by consisted in narratives of identification, centred on the urban upper-
good narratives. At this juncture, Ray decided to side with the caste family, a demand for authentic urban middle-class characters
commercial industry by invoking pragmatic considerations, rather who were recognizably ordinary, etc. The two films which are usually
than serving as a supportive elder figure for the new enthusiasts. cited as the first successes of the new FFC policy, Mrinal Sen's Bhuvan
The biggest obstacle to the FFC's project was the strong nexus Shame and Basu Chatterji's Sara Akash both presented this aesthetic
between the theatre owners and the financier-distributors, on account of authenticity and simplicity. When it came to commercial exploitation,
of which the new films found themselves without exhibition outlets. however, the main cultural 'resource' proved to be Bengali middle-
The construction of theatres by the government was seen as the class culture, which for historical reasons had developed early and
only possible solution, but despite such appeals only one or two boasted of a rich literary tradition.
Significantly, while FFC failed to create exhibition space for its
12Filn!fare, 14 January 1972, pp. 21-3 films, the middle-class cinema movement within the mainstream
13F1In!fare, 25 Fehruary 1972, pp. 51-2, 53. industry was strong enough to prompt a suitable expansion of
14Fi1n!fare, 24 March 1972, p. 51.
128 • Ideology oj the Hindi Film The Moment of Disaggregation • 129
exhibition outlets. In many cities new theatres with reduced seating
more forceful argument of economic viability, this amounted to an
capacity were built specifically for the middle-class film. The Nartaki-
effective prohibition of aesthetic exploration aimed at developing a
Sapna complex in Bangalore, which was built in the early 70s,
cinematic discourse distinct from both the 'realism' of instantaneous
reproduced architecturally the relations between the mainstream
consumability and the aesthetic of the dominant popular cinema.
film industry and its new branch, the middle-class cinema. Nartaki
As a powerful player in the world of the commercial film industry,
is an enormous theatre which showed only the biggest of the big
B.R. Chopra had much to say on the dangers of the new development.
Hindi films at that time. Sapna, which is still associated with the
Chopra had acquired a reputation as an innovator by virtue of having
'realist' cinema, is a single-level theatre wedged into one corner of
made successful films without songs (Kanoon, lttejaq). The latter
the ground floor of the building. Sapna was soon followed (and
was marketed as a turning point in Indian cinema: it was short; it
elsewhere, preceded) by other such small theatres clinging to bigger
had taken only a few weeks to complete; it had no songs. Chopra,
ones. Thus permanent exhibition space was created for a new sector
who presided over a symposium on 'parallel cinema', leading to a
of the industry. walk-out by some new film-makers,16 attacked the very notion of a
Certain FFC principles were thus appropriated and developed
parallel cinema movement and heaped abuse on the pretensions of
into a viable segment of the industry relatively easily due to the fact
'a crop of pseudos', who 'in the name of art and realism, (had)
that those who had included the middle-class aesthetic principles in
introduced new kinds of vulgarities'. He attribl1.ted the art versus
the FFC 'manifesto' were themselves responsible for initiating their
commerce split to the evil of democracy, which he defined as 'rule
commercial exploitation. Hrishikesh Mukherjee and Basu Chatterjee
by mediocrity'. Film, 'which was once the entertainment of the
were key figures in developing the commercial middle-class cinema
intelligent middle class' had been destroyed by democratic forces
with the financial backing of people like N.C. Sippy. Other principles,
which 'had taken over cinema and converted it into a mediocre art',
however, seemed doomed to a slow extinction until Shyam Benegal
leading to a compensatory art film movement. The solution was a
emerged, literally from nowhere, to exploit their commercial potential.
'healthy' cinema that was free from the compulsions of democracy.
As editor of Filmjare, B.K. Karanjia provided crucial media support
The middle-class cinema was thus not only a partial commercialization
for all aspects of the new cinema movement. But Mukherjee and
of the goals of the FFC project, it was also seen as a protection
others like B.R. Chopra and even Karanjia, were unapproving of,
against the lures of political cinema.
and sometimes extremely hostile to the radicals who had used the But it is puzzling that a segment that was manifestly handicapped
opportunity provided by the new FFC policy to make films ranging by a variety of impediments should cause so much panic in the
from the openly political to the experimental. Such experimentation, industry. One reason for this was the perception that the privilege
which resulted in films like Mani Kaul's Uski Roti or Kumar Shahani's of serving as India's 'national cinema' would be more or less
Maya Darpan, was ridiculed as an elite preoccupation for which monopolized by the FFC sector. The auteurist FFC films were natural
the masses had neither the time nor the inclination. (Many writers candidates for awards and for foreign festival entry. Such a turn of
on Indian cinema spontaneously echo this populist argument, with events also presaged government indifference, if not hostility, to the
the result that the names of Kaul and Shahani have become a mainstream industry, which meant that the process of bargaining
convenient shorthand for the denunciation of experimentation.) A with government for concessions, incentives, and other forms of
common sense demand for easy intelligibility was deployed to co-operation could well cease altogether. The industry's claim to
mobilize public opinion against experimentation. FN the proponents national cultural significance would lack any credibility.
of middle-class realism, the role of new cinema was to function as Although there was no possibility of a significant popular success
IS
'leaven' to improve the quality of the mainstream product. Not to of the experimental films, their continued production under the
compete with, but to supplement-was the slogan that Karanjia, for supportive aegis of the government implied real long-term
example, developed with vigour in Filmjare. Coupled with the even consequences for the mainstream industry. The alarm would not
15Pilmjare, 1 January 1971, p. 31. 16Screetl,'17 January 1975, p. 15.
 The Moment of Disaggregation • 131
130 • Ideology of the Hindi Film Gavras tradition, while a fourth category of films made in the regional
have assumed such proportions if it were not for a fear that there languages, focussed on rural India, with its feudal social order, the
existed a growing interest in precisely the kind of aesthetic shifts community rituals, etc. This last category proVided the material from
that the political cinema was attempting. While the 'normal' audience which Benegal forged the developmental aesthetic that came to be
was still there, a 'new type' of audience was perceived as growing. celebrated as the political cinema par excellence. This aes'thetic was
There was a real possibility that a substantial segment of the audience based on the appropriation of regional realism, and its elaboration
for cinema would be drawn to an alternative cultural space, thus as national cinema, while retaining the regional content as the object
cutting into the size of the middle-class audience for popular cinema. of a strategy of framing that produced a spectator position, allied
Although the press and popular opinion continued to propagate the with the developmental perspective of the state.
myth of a cinema exclusively addressed to a mass, proletarian Thus, the FFC's intervention in film production can be read as a
audience, the middle-class audience (as Ashish Nandy has pointed story of the establishment of a research and development facility,
out) is the decisive factor for the survival of the industry. The genius which conducted a variety of experiments from which the commercial
of the middle-class cinema lay in its ability to construct an aesthetic cinema picked up and exploited the most viable forms, leaving the
based on disidentification with the popular cinema while remaining less viable ones to be pursued by individuals who came to be
within the financial and talent structure of the mainstream industry. identified with aesthetic preoccupations to the national
But there remained a political excess which the identificatory realism culture. Commercial viability depended on the amenability of the
of the middle-class cinema was unable to accommodate because its forms to ideological re-inscription. The cross-over process filtered
field of representation did not include the domain of the urban out critical experimentation resistant to the prevailing ideologies.
working class or the countryside, where the feudal order was being What remained of the FFC's interventionist aesthetic programme
challenged by violent uprisings in which urban middle-class youth was undercut by the 1975 Report of the Committee on Public
were prominent actors. It was through the construction of a Undertakings, which recommended commercial viability as the
developmental aesthetic that commercial cinema eventually managed primary condition for film-financing.
to exploit this political excess.
While the lack of exhibition spaces kept most of the experimental
films off the market, one of the incentives for a commercial exploitation The Construction of Amitabh Bachchan
of urban middle-class political discontent was the exhibition space
that became available with the lapsing of the contract with the Motion While these developments were made possible by a combination of
Picture producer's Association of America (MPPAA) for import of Widespread politicization of cinema audience, especially the middle-
Hollywood films, as pointed out by Shyam Benegal himself (Rizvi class and the students, the declining efficacy of the feudal family
and Amlad 1980: 8). Until this happened, though the 'demand' for a romance prompted a move by the commercial cinema towards an
political cinema did exist, there was no sector in the industry that aesthetic focussed on the mobilization-effect. The legendary star-
was competent enough to exploit it. 'Blaze', an advertising company, figure of Amitabh Bachchan, the single most important mass cultural
had entered distribution and, sensing the existence of a market for phenomenon of the seventies and after, with a fame stretching from
a cinema different from the popular as well as the 'middle class' the subcontinent to North Africa, was constructed through a series
variety, engaged one of its ad-film makers, Shyam Benegal, to direct of contingent occurrences within a relatively short period of two to
Ankur, thus inaugurating the commercial exploitation of the political three years.
dimension of the FFC's aesthetic project. The Bachchan persona, identified with a primordial anger and
The politically committed film-makers who benefited from the populist leadership qualities, was, ironically, given its first exposure
new FFC policy had no common aesthetic programme. Some adopted in Hrishikesh Mukherjee's Anand and Namak Haram. In Mukherjee's
Brechtian aesthetic principles, while others pursued an aesthetic films, Bachchan's roles were varied. But beginning with Prakash
based on a critical appropriation of the techniques of melodrama.
Some of the successful films were pure political thrillers in the Costa
 The Moment of Disaggregation • 133
132 • Ideology of the Hindi Film capable of holding together a new form of modular text in which
Mehra's Zanjeer, a series of films isolated and elaborated the image the old ingredients would reappear but under a new aegis.
of the 'angry man', which soon pushed the other Bachchan persona In the era of the feudal fami1y romance, the star-image and the
out of popular memory. While continued to cast Bachchan acting role were linked by the prevailing Hindu codes of iconicity.
in his films (Abhimaan, Mili, Chupke Chupke, Alaap), the 'industrial The roles of aristocratic or upper-caste heroes and heroines were
hero' had overtaken the middle-class character. played by actors carefully chosen for their looks, which had to match
The disaggregation of the national audience should not be taken a certain conception of the 'heroic'. This attempt to approximate
to mean an empirical division of the population into distinct consumer upper-caste and aristocratic ideals of physical beauty dates back to
groups. Although a section of the population clearly patronized only the time of Dadasaheb Phalke, who in one of his writings, outlined
foreign films and indigenous art films, the rest of the national audience the ideal features of the actors who would play lead roles (Phalke,
was not so clearly segmented, and even after the decline of the Continuum 1988-9: 65-9). Star glamour in such a context was
feudal family romance, the audiences for the emerging generic indistinguishable from the 'innate' glamour or the splendour of the
tendencies were not mutually exclusive. However, new expectations elite.
arising out of the political upheavals of the period produced the With the Bachchan phenomenon, however, we see the emergence
conditions for exploration of new forms, narratives and characterolo- of a new function for the star image. Now it is not just a question of
gical innovations. Disaggregation brought to the fore, class, gender exceptional physical features. 17 Nor does it follow the Hollywood
and generational differences which the social had contained within tendency, as described by John Ellis (992), where acting roles and
its overarching feudal form. Thus, to give just one example, while star-persona exist side by side, with the films serving as instanciations
the 'social' usually incorporated consumerist references to the latest of a star's image. In this western model, the star's image is built on
fashions and other preoccupations of youthful audiences, these did the combination of ordinary and extraordinary traits that are
not contribute to a distinct 'youth culture' because the paternalism developed in stories published in star magazines. Crucially, a clear
of the reigning feudal ideology resisted any delinking of youth from line separates the star from the acting role, although there is a degree
its sphere of authority. But during and after the seventies, commercial of seepage of star value into the acting role. 18
culture gained access to a student/youth audience without paternalist The Bachchan persona is different because in it there is a degree
mediation even if these films ultimately worked towards restoration of integration of star-value with narrative that is unprecedented in
of a reformed familial bond. (In Hare Rama Hare Krishna the reform the Hindi cinema. What this demonstrates, however, is not the
of parental authority comes after the death of the Janice character unfathomable power of the Amitabh mystique as much as the
played by Zeenat Aman.) This is a clear sign of an emerging capitalist demands placed upon the star image by a new form of narrative in
tendency towards a disaggregated commercial culture. which the innate charm of the aristocracy was no longer the obvious
In the context of the commercial film industry which was in the central content of the text. The Bachchan phenomenon cannot be
process of a many-sided and unpredictable transformation along analysed in isolation from the construction of this new narrative
with manifest tendencies to audience segmentation, the Bachchan form, in which the writer duo Salim-Javed played an important role.
phenomenon, though apparently 'in the spirit of the times', is best With the disintegration of the feudal family romance, the entry of
understood as a unifying phenomenon which re-established the 'ordinary' heroes into the popular film became possible, perhaps
popular film industry on a new foundation. While radically different even necessary. Dockworker, mineworker, railway porter, police
from the feudal form that had dominated the scene for almost twenty
17Amitabh Bachchan's acting ambitions were initially ridiculed by some producers
years, the Bachchan film was nevertheless the means by which the Who found his face unherolike; Hrishikesh Mukherjee's role in launching Bachchan
industry transformed itself internally, providing it with a new identity is crucial precisely because unmindful of the unattractive physical features, he cast
.:lat was capable of combining the novel aesthetic possibilities opened him in his films and proVided a showcase for Bachchan's unorthodox talents.
Bachchan's first role, however, was in K.A. Abbas's Saat Hindustani.
up in the period of crisis with fragments of the old form. The mobiliza-
18See also, Dyer (lWm.
tion effect was the most significant new element, whose force was
134 • Ideology oJ the Hindi Film
The Moment oj Disaggregation • 135
officer, small-time crook: these were some of the roles Amitabh
played in his career, roles that were predominantly lower class and The Politics of Genre
integral to the evolution of the aesthetic of mobilization (discussed
in Chapter 6). Before moving onto a more focussed analysis of films from these
Such ordinariness brought with it a dilemma: the old hero's pre- three segments, it would be useful to draw out the implications of
eminence had derived from the hierarchies of a social order that the historical construction attempted here for the question of genre.
were reproduced within the film text. The middle-class film, on the Specifically, how is the segmentation of the industry discussed above
other hand, adopted a code of ordinariness that excluded both the related to or different from genre formation'
divine splendour of the aristocracy and the political passions of the The question of genre has been a notoriously difficult one for
proletariat to create a circumscribed representational field where critics of Indian cinema. Some critics evade the difficulties by simply
narrative requirements prevailed over the self-valorizing logic of the identifying the mythological and the social as the principal Indian
star system. But from the mainstream industry's perspective, genres. Others recognize that generic differentiation in the Hollywood
ordinariness, in reinforcing the primacy of narrative movement, is a sense is not evident in Bombay cinema, although in the early studio
threat to the old order, in which as we have seen in Part I, era similar distinctions were prevalent. 19 In a recent essay, Rashmi
heterogeneous manufacture, predicated on the assembly of pre- Doraiswamy (993) acknowledges the difficulties surrounding the
existing 'craft' products and congealed values was the prevailing question, but decides to use the 'personality ty[1e' as the basis for
mode of production. While the political ferment of the Indira Gandhi making generic distinctions. In Chapter 3, we have seen how incipient
era was strong enough to render the old form obsolete and give rise generic distinctions are undermined by the expansive identity of
to pressures for change, it did not bring about a complete the 'social'. However, the 'social' has eluded a precise definition,
transformation of the aesthetic bases of the industry. The problem serving simply as a label for a large quantity of films which resist
that the industry faced was how to continue to function with the more accurate differentiation.
eXisting mode of production without the readymade narrative One of the reasons for the relative weakness of generic differentia-
framework of the feudal family romance. The FFC project's long- tion in the H.indi cinema could be the prevalence of a particular
term threat was a reorganization of film-production on the basis of mode of production in the industly, as argued in Chapter 2. Besides,
the centrality and autonomy of the production sector. This was the the possibility of cultural production under such circumstances
factor that prompted a search by established industry figures for
compromise solutions involving a workable mix of star and narrative !(\udhir (19HO) observed there system of film genres,
values. Salim-Javed also identified themselves with this project for the heing the Brahmin of them all the stunt films heing
the shudras. This wuuld seem tu have given way to the of the .'<,·cular soci,iI.
internal reform. But the resolution that imposed itself finally was
the of the as well the shudra antics of the
which would make this change of direction unnecessary. This stunt film. It is thus not surprising in the crisi.' period under the
resolution was made possible by the intensification of the value decline of the Jed to the resurgence of the 'shudra' genres like the stunt film.
deriving from the star system through the infusion of political power with 'shudra' stdr.' (in the sense of heing exploited minor like Jyothilakshml
reViving the phenomenon. (See G. (1994) B.
into the figure of the star on the model of the populist cinema of
dnd R. (991) for discussions of the films.) In Hindi cinemd.
Tamil Nadu. The star became a mobilizer, demonstrating superhuman in tl1(: era of the of the there suh-culture of gladidtor films
qualities and assuming a power that transformed the others who ·thrillers' sUrs like Singh Feroze Khdn. Sheikh
occupied the same terrain into spectators. As the auratic power of Ansdri. These were shown in frequented hy a Muslim
One of the for the tremendous success of the first few Sdlim-
the represented social order diminished, there was a compensating
Jdved films WdS the use of motifs from Muslim culture dnd Muslim
increase in the aura of the star as public persona. folk religion which WdS 'In to a hitherto dudience. On the
other the 'Brdhmin' mythological did not enjoy 'I corresponding resurgence.
This mdY sugge.st thdt the soeidl effected irreversihk of the
1989: 25), although the revival of the latter on television in
recent years the picture.
136 • Ideology of the Hindi Film
bespeaks a whole array of other factors, including a distinct political The Moment of Disaggregation • 13 7
structure and an ideological impasse. The pulls and pressures of
In the period of crisis, we encounter a moment when a genre
such a social organization impose certain conditions of possibility,
formation based on political differentiation is forced on the industry
certain constraints on cultural production and genre formation. At
as a solution to the delegitimation of its dominant formal strategies.
the same time, the existence and wide circulation of Hollywood
Here it is necessary to free ourselves from the spontaneous association
genres gives rise to imitations and fragmentary appropriations by
of genre formation with the specific form it has taken in the case of
Hindi film-makers: the dacoit film was combined with elements from
Hollywood cinema. While differentiation does manifest itself in the
the Hollywood 'western in films like Khotey Sikkay and Sholay and
Indian case, it does not follow the Hollywood pattern. The
'horror films' combined marztravadis and white-clad ghost-beauties
cinema, the middle-class cinema and the reformed social emerge as
from folk narratives with hairy monsters from a western repertoire. 2o
three strong generic identities whose neceSSity derives from the same
In the midst of such forays, the portmanteau 'social' has remained
political pressures that led to a transformation of the national
the dominant, and during certain periods, the sole genre with a
consensus from which the Indian state derived its legitimacy.
contemporary signified. The only element that is exclusive to the
In the three chapters to follow, I take up each of the three generic
social and thus critical to its identification as a genre is its
tendencies identified above for discussion, in order to bring to light
contemporary reference. Its dominance attests to a certain ideological
their substantive identity, to investigate their strategies of representation
imperative that is peculiar to the modernizing Indian state. and their ideological projects.
With a few exceptions, these socials are usually musicals. The
musical, which is an intermediate form in which cinema's links with
the stage are worked out, and in which pre-and extra-cinematic
skills and languages are put on display, has become a marginal
form in Hollywood, whereas in the Hindi cinema the continuing
dominance of the musical-social is a symptom of the continued
dependence of the cinema on the resources of other cultural forms.
This is not to be read simply as a question of a gradual
technological advancement which will eventually lead us out of a
dependence on music. The problem of what Rajadhyaksha
(Framework, 1987) calls the 'neo-traditionalism' of Indian popular
film culture is a political, not a technological, issue. The social does
not occur as a transitional form marking the non-completion of some
technological journey. Its function, on the other hand, is to resist
genre formation of any kind, particularly of the type constituted by
the segmentation of the contemporary. This ideological function is
imposed on it by the nature of political power in the modernizing
state. The segmentation or disaggregation of the 'social' is prevented
by the very mode of combination of the aesthetic of the signifier
(music, choreographed fights, parallel narrative tracks, etc.) with
that of the signified (or realism, which requires continuity, a serial
track and subordination of music to a narrative function).

20Steve Neale (l980) proVides a good introduction to the theoretical significance

of the genre question in film studies. See also Jane Feuer (982) and the essays in
Grant (986).
 The Aesthetic ofMobilization • 139
production sector through an emphasis on narrative. l Further
developments contributing to this end were the experimentation
with a novel approach to screen writing in which the indivisibility
of the story and dialogue departments was maintained. 2
Rajesh Khanna was the reigning male star during the years in
6 which the Bachchan persona was being constructed. Sippy Films,
Shakti Samanta and other commercial film-makers had tried to m3ke
films with an emphasis on narrative. Shakti Samanta's Aradhana,
The Aesthetic of Mobilization based on an old Hollywood melodrama, To Each His Own, proved
a tremendous success, with its message of patriotism and a little
boost from the rumoured 'controversy' over Sharmila Tagore's
appearance in a bath-towel. G.P. Sippy's Andaz was also a 'script
film' with a borrowed French narrative. It was successful, but the
he recuperation of the commercial film industry from the brief appearance of Rajesh Khanna in a flashback, singing the

T crisis of the Indira Gandhi era required a reconstruction of its

cultural base and a reform of its mode of address. In the
past its composite textual form had been capable of including a
variety of pleasures. The protocols of darsanic spectacle had been
immensely popular 'Zindagi ek safar hai suh,ana' became the
highpoint of the film, obscuring the somewhat unorthodox plot
involVing widow remarriage. Thus, there were signs that commercial
cinema was itself experimenting with a gradual reform of the
dominant textual form that could preserve the star as the industry'S
sustained by the deployment of narratives of familial splendour.
main source of value while asserting the autonomy of the production
With the disaggregation of the socio-political order, however, the
sector with an emphasis on narrative. Other successes of the period
middle class became amenable to the seductions of a new identity
like Bobby, ]awani Diwani, lmtihan, Hare Rama Hare Krishna
based on disidentification with the 'socialist' programme in the
addressed the student/youth segment of the audience. Of the star
national project. The dominant textual form's consensus-effect broke
down and a search was launched for new modes and targets of
1See interview with G.P. Sippy in Screen, 21 February 1969. Combining arguments
address. for national reconstruction with promises of economic benefit, Sippy remarked that
Amitabh Bachchan's star personality has to be understood in films depicting social and political problems that could raise awareness were necessary
this context. Bachchan came to be identified with the dominated, a to 'revive the declining patronage' of the industry'S products. The immediate evidence
figure of resistance who appeared to speak for the working classes for this was the failure of some big-budget productions. The industry wanted freedom
from censorship to tackle themes that would help 'the crystallisation of political,
and other marginalized groups. "However, the effectivity of the social and religious outlook of the country and restoration of communication between
Bachchan persona must be investigated not only at the level of a the generations.'
shift to proletarian themes but more importantly, in its function as a 2Film/are, 13 December 1974. See also, interview with Javed Akhtar in Kak
rallying point for the industry as a whole, a magnetic point around (1980). Film/are, in the spirit of its leadership role in reforming the commercial
industry, had in 1969 renamed the award for the best dialogue as a screenplay
which the industry reconstituted itself. The ingredients of this persona award, to give importance to 'the blueprint which incorporates the total vision of the
go beyond the personal 'charisma' of the individual and include projected film' (3 January 1969, p. 3). While the reformist impulse of the magazine
political, aesthetic and institutional values. Bachchan thus became may have had some impact, the problem it was supposed to attack was not caused
an 'industrial hero' (Valicha 1988) not only in the sense that he by the incompetence of individuals but by the conditions prevailing in the industry
(discussed in Part I). The peak of Salim-Javed's fame, moreover, was reached with
played working class characters but also because he was the hero of the enormous popularity of the dialogues of Sholay. While the story and dialogue
the industry. departments were indeed fused into one in the sense that they were both written by
Bachchan's emergence as the main source of value for the industry the same people, the autonomous force of the dialogue within the film text remained
unaffected.
was preceded by parallel attempts to achieve autonomy of the
140 • Ideology of the Hindi Film The Aesthetic ofMobilization • 141
figures involved in these films, only Zeenat Aman and Rishi Kapoor The difference between Mukherjee's films and those that built
develop'ed lasting careers, Dimple Kapadia, who might have had up Bachchan as a star persona was that in the former, the star
greater success than any of the others, left the industry to get married. represented only an infusion of additional value into a narrative
While many stars succeeded in developing star-images of minor which retained its primacy. (In a film like Abbiman, the conflicting
significance, only Bachchan evolved into a national figure. His role trajectories of narrative and spectacle were sought to be resolved
is thus to be understood trans-textually, as a figure of cohesion in through the narrativization of the star figure.) In the Salim-Javed led
the industry as a whole. project, however, the star remained a semantic excess of the narrative
'Bachchan's star-image was constructed through two different process, available for future exploitation.
points of entry. After an initial period in which he failed to secure The value deriving from a star persona is part rent and part
any significant acting roles, Bachchan found a hospitable climate in profit. From the star's perspective, his/her body is a source of rent,
Hrishikesh Mukherjee's middle-class films where he appeared as a since its principal quality, charisma, is coded as a possession that
cultured, concerned doctor (Anand), angry son of an industrialist he/she is 'born with', notwithstanding the work that goes into
(Namak Haram), a singer who rebels against his orthodox father producing it. From the perspective of the film-makers, the payment
(Aalap), etc. In this early period he also worked as a hero of the old of rent enables the exploitation of this 'ground' in profit-making
style in films like pyar ki Kabani and Bombay to Goa, while taking ventures. The star's persona thus accumulates within itself attributes
on roles in some low-budget films as well which might well have that are specific to various instances of performance, as well as
led him the way of minor stars like Navin Nischal and Vinod Mehra. various value-laden associations deriving from personal history. Thus,
The turning point came with the scripts written by Salim-Javed. Of as an example of the latter, we may cite Bachchan's literary and
these the most significant were Zanjeer(1973), Deewar(197 4), and political affiliations. His father, Harvansh Rai Bachchan, is a well-
Sholay (1975). Bachchan came to be associated so strongly with the known Hindi poet and his mother Teji Bachchan, a distinguished
latter that his early films, even the successful ones made by Mukherjee, member of the social elite. (Mukherjee's Aalap showed Amitabh
have been almost forgotten. 3 This is despite the fact that it was singing one of his father's poems.) The Bachchans were also close
Mukherjee's casting of Bachchan in the 'brooding' roles of Anand friends of the Indira Gandhi family. Amitabh would later enter politics
and Namak Haram that disclosed the potential that would be as a Congress candidate for parliament and remain Rajiv Gandhi's
exploited on a gigantic scale by the commercial industry.4 close ally for many years. These bits of information were stirred into
the star persona by the press.
3S um ita Chakravarty, who mentions some of Bachchan's early films, nevertheless The persona also absorbed the characteristics of several characters
makes the surprising observation that Chupke Chupke was 'the only film in which played by Amitabh in the early part of his career. Anger, self-
Bachchan appears as a "gentleman'" 0993: 231). This perhaps demonstrates the
absorption, rebelliousness, devotion to mother, proletarian identity
retroactive power of the evolved Bachchan image. Chakravarty does not dwell on
the process of production of the Bachchan persona, attributing his success instead to were some of the attributes of the roles that came to be absorbed
his 'haunting and haunted eyes' (ibid: 231) and other 'innate' sources of charm. into the star persona. While the power derived from elite affiliations
4Thus Film/are, looking back in 1989, commented: 'They called him the One served to legitimate the persona for the middle class, the personality
Man Industry and for sixteen years he churned out hits with assembly-line regularity. derived from the subaltern roles was the basis for a new mode of
Zanjeer, Deewar, Don, AmarAkbar Anthony, MuqaddarKa Sikandar, Trishul, Kasme
Vaade, KaalaPatthar, Mr. Natwarlal, Laawaris, Kaalia, Naseeb, NamakHalal, Andba
address, which spoke to the proletariat and other marginal sections
Kanoon, Coolie, Mard, Geraftaar . .. It seemed as if the sun would never set on the and mobilized the spectator behind the star. The rest of this chapter
reign of Blockbuster Bachchan. Never before had a star seen this kind of success, will be devoted to a discussion of the first three Salim-Javed films,
and for so long. The distance between him and his rivals was so vast that in the Zanjeer, Deewar and Sholay. The primary aim will be to identify the
number game, they'd allotted'the numbers 1 to 10 to him, the competitio. 'really
took place way down there and it never affected the big man at the top' (Film/are,
strategies through which these films constructed the mobilized (and
6June 1989, p. 38), cited in Sumita S. Chakravarty 0993: 230). Not a single Mukherjee mobiliZing) su baltern hero as an agent of national reconciliation
film is named in the list, although Abhiman was a big success and other films like and social reform.
Cbupke Cbupke cashed in on his star status.
142 • Ideology of the Hindi Film The Aesthetic ofMobilization • 143
law against Sher Khan, who is a law unto himself. Agreeing to Sher
Zanjeer (Prakash Mehra, 1973)
Khan's challenge to meet him on his own ground, Vijay goes to his
This was one of the first independent successes of the writer-duo
mohalla after duty. In the ensuing duel neither is able to defeat the
Salim-Javed, whose star status is intimately tied up with the three
other. Sher Khan, acknowledging his rival's strength, abandons his
films we are concerned with. Employed for a period in the G.P. Sippy
illegal activities and pledges to assist Vijay in his fight against crime
Films Writing Department, where they participated singly or together
and injustice. Thereafter, dismissed from the force on a false bribery
in the writing of Andaz(based on A Man and a Woman), and Seeta
charge, Vijay, assisted by Sher Khan and a Christian old man (Om
aur Geeta (based on Ram Aur Shyam), Salim-Javed struck out on
Prakash) confronts the city's big crime gang, discovers that the gang
their own with Nasir Husain's Yadon ki Barat (based on an idea that
boss is his parents' killer, and has his revenge. The novelty of the
Husain had already tried out in Pyar ka Mausam) and Prakash
narrative is the combined result of two elements.
Mehra's Hath ki Safai and Zanjeer. While all of these films were big
1) The revenge ofthe mphan: The orphan is a figure of marginality,
earners, Zanjeerwas the film that launched Salim-Javed into stardom.
deprived of the normal familial pleasures by the intrusion of evil.
Bachchan was chosen for the role of Inspector Vijay when Dev
The orphan's actions are attributed to a force beyond his control,
Anand, enjoying a resurgence of popularity after the success ofjohny
haunting his dreams and driving him to act in ways that conflict
Mera Naam and Hare Rama Hare Krishna, rejected the offer. As
with the procedural protocols of the law. He lacks the personal
Salim-Javed recollect it, the final form of Zanjeer owed much to
stability that would enable him to function as a normallaw-enfQrcing
their insistence on strict adherence to a tightly-composed screenplay.
agent. He is a loner and a stranger to his colleagues, a narcissistic
(Prakash Mehra, the producer/director, had wanted to make room
personality. His personal need for revenge is not recognized by the
for a plane hijack half-way through the shooting.) Indeed, by their
law that he serves. The law draws upon his strength to implement
own reading, it was a novel approach to screen-writing which insisted
its will but refuses to loan him any part of its strength so that he may
on the indivisibility of the 'story' and 'dialogue' departments
exact his revenge. This figure exists in a space between the law and
(traditionally regarded as separate skills in the industry) that made
illegality, a figure whose ability to fulfil his role as a citizen is
their films distinct. obstructed by the pathological history ofthe subject, which demands
The institutionalization of the subaltern as mobilized subject,
a cure that is extra-legal by definition. It represents the unfinished
however, was effected through narrative mechanisms to which we
character of the bourgeois revolution, the failed reconstruction of
now turn. In Zanjeer, the Bachchan persona came to be identified
the social in accordance with a new philosophy.
with a subaltern anger and an affiliation with the masses symbolized
At the same time, the figure of the inspector with an unreconciled
by an alliance with a figure representing the Muslim minority. The
history stands for the existence, within the field of the law, of a fund
hero of Zanjeer is an honest police officer who uses extra-legal
of transformative will. It heralds the possibility of a reform of law to
methods to bring criminals to justice and in the process antagonizes
make it serve the needs of the dispossessed and the marginalized.
his colleagues and incurs the wrath of the criminal underworld.
The law displays its humanity by revealing its pathological side: it
Tormented by the memory of his parents' assassination by a criminal,
too is haunted by unfinished projects of retribution and redistribution.
Inspector Vijay (Amitabh Bachchan) has a recurring dream of a
Through the in-between figure, the law maintains its position of
masked figure on horseback. The image is traced back to a bracelet
impersonal power, while allowing a part of itself to respond to the
worn by the killer. The dream and the hero's inability to understand
demands of those who are its victims.
it signal his possession by an elemental force which drives him to
2) The mobilization of the dispossessed: Whether it is a question
act in unorthodox ways but always towards honest ends. In the
of the suspension of the law for the duration of a retributional
course of an investigation, he becomes friendly with a female knife-
narrative or the re-awakening of the law to its unfinished historical
sharpener (Jaya BhadurD whom he rescues from the street after
project, the solution has to be backed by the will of the people. In
persuading her to give evidence against some criminals. Next he
Zanjeer the hero's mission is aided by a series of 'donors' (to use
confronts Sher Khan (Pran), a Pathan who runs a gambling den in a
V.I. Propp's term somewhat loosely), who stand for different segments
moballa notorious for criminal activities. This confrontation has a
of the dispossessed. There is first of all the female knife-sharpener,
symbolic dimension because it pits Vijay, as a representative of the
 The Aesthetic ofMobilization • 145
144 • Ideology of the Hindi Film a civil war between state and community. The film begins with a
traumatic childhood event, the humiliation of the father and his
who represents women on the margins of respectable society,
disappearance, and the flight of the mother with two children to the
abandoned by the patriarchal network to fend for themselves. Second,
city to escape the community'S insults. The father (Satyen Kappu) is
there is Sher Khan, who represents a criminalized but essentially
an upright trade union leader who is forced to sign an agreement
honest Muslim proletariat. And third, the Christian old man, drinking
detrimental to the workers' interests when the mine-owners threaten
to forget his son's death at the hands of the criminals, who comes to
to destroy his family. Unable to bear the opprobrium, he disappears.
Vijay's aid with information about smuggling operations. These poor/
The mother and two children go to Bombay and become part of the
gendered victims of society and marginalized minorities gift their
unorganized working class, liVing on the streets. As the children
combined strength to Vijay, giving his mission a significance beyond
grow up, a field of conflict is established in which the state/citizen
his need for personal revenge. It is through their active involvement
confronts the community/subject. Inspector Vijay of Zanjeer, who
in the mission that Vijay comes to be identified as a hero of the
embodied the combination of citizen and pathological subject, is
masses. He acts with their su pport but also on their behalf, as their
split into two separate figures in Deewar. Inspector Ravi (Shashi
voluntarily chosen representative. Their support endows his personal
Kapoor) and criminal Vijay (Amitabh Bachchan). Educated with the
mission of revenge with a social purpose.
earnings of both his mother, who works at a construction site, and
The Amitabh persona is a 'proletarian hero' who is at the same
his elder brother, who works as a shoeshine, Ravi grows up to be
time a representative of the state. It is the act of switching sides,
an exemplary citizen, passing all his exams with high marks and
positioning himself on the side of the 'illegal' (but morally upright)
after a futile search for employment, trains as a police officer.
margin, that gives the figure its power. Meanwhile, Vijay grows up to be a dock worker and defends his
Deewar (Yash Chopra, 1974) . _ . fellow workers against gangsters who take away a part of the workers'
In rJeewar, however, this double identity of the hero is split into weekly earnings. Picked up by a gang leader (whose rivals run the
two separate figures, resulting in a powerful drama of epic conflict, extortion racket at the dock), Vijay soon becomes the second in
command. The gang leader Davar (Iftikhar) becomes Vijay's surrogate
father. Meanwhile, Ravi completes his training and is posted in
Bombay, to tackle the smuggling menace. When he realizes what
his brother does for a living, Ravi tries to back out of the case but,
inspired by a visit to the house of a poor schoolmaster, he resolves
to put aside all personal considerations in the fight against injustice.
The mother Sumitra Devi (Nirupa Roy) who loves Vijay more than
Ravi, nevertheless opposes Vijay's criminal activities and goes to
live with Ravi. Vijay, for whom his mother's love was the sole
justification for living, despairs. Meeting Ravi near a bridge where
they had spent their childhood, Vijay reminds his brother of bygone
days and tries to persuade him to take a transfer out of Bombay.
Ravi refuses and steps up the anti-smuggling operations. Vijay is
pursued on the other side by the rival gang. ResolVing to marry his
girlfriend Anita (Parveen Babi), a call-girl, and then give himself up,
Vijay sends word to his mother to meet him at the.temple. Meanwhile,
Samant (Madan Puri), boss of the rival gang, returns to take his
revenge. He kills Anita as she is getting dressed for the wedding.
Vijay (Amitabh Bachchan) listens to a Muslim co-worker explaining the
Giving up all hopes of a return to normal life, Vijay kills Samant and
significance of the number on his badge in Deewar (Yash Chopra 1974).
Courtesy National Film Archive of India, Pune.
 ., l' f am the Oedipal enclosure as brother Ravi (Shashi
Th > > haws Vipy s exc uSlon r c , •

th'e place of the farher, beside the mother (Nirupa Roy). The mother goes

alongwith the phallic imperative, punishing Vijay with her righteous defence of law, but
when alone with Vijay, she is racked by guilt. Courtesy National Film Archive of India, Pune.
148 • Ideology of the Hindi Film The Aesthetic ofMobilization • 149
his gang members. Ravi, informed about Vijay's killing spree, sets his head in her lap at the end and asking her to put him to sleep.
out to catch him. His mother hands Ravi his gun and wishes him Vijay's tragic destiny is ensured by his attempt to place his mother
success in his mission. She then proceeds to the temple to await the in the position of the Father, as the authority whose desires he
arrival of Vijay. Fatally wounded by Ravi and pursued, Vijay arrives seeks to fulfil. After joining the gang, Vijay buys a skyscraper as a
at the temple and dies in his mother's arms. gift for his mother, who had worked as a coolie when it 'was being
The narrative is framed by an awards ceremony at which Ravi is constructed. This phallic offering, an invitation to occupy the position
receiving a medal for bravery. In his speech Ravi invokes those who of dominance, is rejected by the mother 5 Instead she punishes him
stand behind the nation's heroes but are never acknowledged in the by serving as the vehicle of the Father's law. Before the final
official record. He asks his mother to receive the medal on his behalf confrontation, handing Ravi his gun, she gives him her blessing:
The mother, escorted to the dais, receives the medal but is distracted 'May your hand not tremble when you shoot.' After his departure,
by a memory. Her gaze, directed at a point outside the frame, prompts she declares, 'The woman has done her duty, now the mother will
the 'flashback' which tells the entire story. Thus the story of Vijay is go and await her son.'
presented as doubly erased, confined to the depths of a mother's Deewar dramatizes the relations between the contractual, law-
memory, remaining her secret, not to be recounted in the public abiding society and its subterranean, criminal obverse, through a
space of the awards ceremony. The flashback structure the masochistic scenario in which the hero's movement towards death
narrative as a mother's memory hidden from public view, evoking a becomes a fantasy resolution of-me impossible desire for reunion
powerful sense that the film will tell an 'unofficial' history, one which with the mother's body. This dramatization points to the political
the audience can share in, although no official record will include uses of masochistic fantasy as an ideological disavowal (which
it. It evokes the community of the 'pre-historic', the solidarity of the amounts to an acceptance) of the legal order. Deewarcan be usefully
mother's world against the world of the father, the Law. It imbues read as an example of cinema as masochistic fantasy as defined, for
the tragedy of Vijay with a secrecy, a subterranean quality. The instance, by Gaylyn Studlar, following Gilles Deleuze. 'The masochistic
'flashback' concludes with Vijay's death and we return to the official fantasy may be viewed as a situation in which the subject (male or
assembly where the mother is still standing on the dais and the hall female) assumes the position of the child who desires to be controlled
resounds with applause. The applause, officially intended for the within the dynamics of the fantasy' (Studlar 1992: 778). According
brave police officer, has now been partially re-allocated to the to Deleuze, masochism is an enactment, 'above all formal and
rebellious son. The enactment of masochistic fantasy takes place in dramatic', determined by 'a specific story' (cited in Studlar 1992:
the shadow of the triumphal march of the patriarchal order. 774). It is the enactment of mythical reunion with the oral mother.
Thus the text stages an imaginary and unofficial elevation of the The subject desires such a reunion, a return to the state of infancy,
resistant subject to a place of honour in the community's informal but '[t]he promise of blissful reincorporation into the mother's body
memory. Sumitra Devi serves as the link between the world of the and re-fusion of the child's narcissistic ego with the mother as ideal
citizen, of law and the rule of merit, and that of the poor, the ego is also a threat. Only death can hold the final mystical solution
victimized and the unreconciled. As a 'woman', she is firm in her to the expiation of the father and symbiotic reunion with the idealized
submission to the law, she takes Ravi's side and leaves Vijay when maternal rule. The masochist imagines the final triumph of a
his smuggling activities are disclosed. As a 'mother', she is equally parthenogenetic rebirth from the mother' (ibid: 780).
firm in her love for Vijay, the elder son, the one who has borne the This theory locates the origins of masochistic fantasy in the
permanent mark of his father's dishonour. By thus splitting the woman experience of the child and by extension, defines the cinematic
into two functions, the film offers the spectator the pleasure of a experience itself as being continuous with that experience. However,
secret liaison with the mother as a surrender to the political power
of matriarchy. The martyred rebel has achieved a reunion with the SBy contrast, the mother in the British gangster film The Krays submits entirely
mother's body suggested not only by the concealment of Vijay's to the criminal splendour of her sons' world. In return she is worshipped by one of
story in the mother's memory but also by the image of Vijay resting them and elevated to a position of familial power.
 The Aesthetic ofMobilization • 151
150 • Ideology of the Hindi Film
embodied as 'community'.) One of the turning points in the film is
Deewar is more accurately described as an allegorization of the history the scene of the meeting at the bridge where Vijay tries to persuade
of the nation-state itself through the masochistic fantasy. The film Ravi to take a transfer to another police station. The entire scene is
text deploys the fantasy politically, as a mechanism of provisional constructed to highlight the difference between Ravi, whose memory
counter-identification. In doing so it draws from the power of has been erased by his emancipation to the position of a
masochism to produce a resolution of the internal conflicts of the representative of the law, and Vijay who remains a victim of his
nation-state which is pleasurable and acceptable to the dominated. past. The scene opens with Ravi waiting at the bridge. On the
In Deewar the masochistic subject elevates the mother to the position soundtrack the patriotic song 'Sare jaban se acbcba' is playing,
of the all-powerful ruler and enacts death as the means of mystical reminding us (but not Ravi) of an event from the past: One morning,
reunion. In the context of a patriarchal order, whose triumph cannot finding Ravi missing, Vijay and his mother go in search of him. They
be disavowed and to which all must submit, the fantasy serves as a find him standing at the gates of a school, listening to the uniformed
pleasurable staging of surrender coded as masked victory. The children singing the song. Up to that point, the mother's earnings
masochistic fantasy enacted in Deewar is subterranean by definition had been too meagre to send either boy to school. On that day,
in that it must be staged in the shadow of the patriarchal order's Vijay decides to take up a job himself so that with the additional
triumph. In its political dimension, the fantasy becomes possible income Ravi could be sent to school. The spectator recalls this earlier
only in a relation of subordination to the dominant patriarchal order. scene, but Ravi has no memories of the bridge under which he had
The masochistic fantasy in Deewar is fully determined by the slept as a child. For Vijay this bridge of memory is the only remaining
dominatedness of its scenario, by the fact that the fantasy cannot be link between him and Ravi, and he wants to reactivate it. Ravi does
represented in the public domain except in the shadow of the not yield to the unifying power of memory. Frustrated, Vijay boasts
dominant, although it offers itself as a subversive alternative to the of his achievements, his worldly possessions, beside which Ravi's
dominant. sub-inspector's salary is a pittance. 'I have all this, but what do you
The conferral of power on the female serves to allegorize the have?' he asks, to which Ravi replies, 'I have mother.' This scene
problem of the internal schism of the modern state, the co-existence prefigures Vijay's tragic destiny. It is here that we learn the difference
of the law and the community as conflicting terrains. The 'ideal' between the new figure, that is representative of the law, and the
configuration would have the law fully enveloping the community, old one. One is possessed by the past and seeks to be possessed
of reconstructing the individual as citizen-subject. But the crisis of and dominated by the mother, who is a figure from that past. The
the state derives from the fact that the law, in its drive to desacralize other, emancipated from the past, is able to 'have the mother', to
and colonize the space of the community,6 faces a number of hurdles possess her as a part of his familial affective realm.
and rival political formations. The mother-figure serves as a narrative Through the metonymic link to the world provided by the
surrogate for all such rival formations: the traditional family, the narcissistic son, the mother also comes to stand for the marginalized,
criminal underworld, the community of the devout. She represents the working classes, as well as the minorities. Vijay's rebellious spirit
the border between the law and these rival formations. But she is is aroused when a fellow dockworker gets killed after refusing to
not the 'prize' for which the two realms are fighting, because only pay the extortionists who run the protection racket. The next week
one of them has the discursive ability to reduce the mother to the he too refuses to pay and takes on the whole gang single-handedly.
status of a possession. She is thus a liminal figure who represents His victory makes him the workers' hero. An old dockworker, Rahim
the resistance of the community to a reorganization of social space Chacha, advises him to hold on to his badge because it bears the
according to the laws of private property. (This does not mean that number 786, which is sacred to Muslims. Like Sher Khan in Zanjeer,
the resistance represents a collective consciousness. In its resistance Rahim Chacha functions as a donor, bestowing on the hero the
to reorganization along individualistic lines, the past comes to be beneficent powers of his religion and at the same time nominating
him as a representative of the minorities and the marginalized. This
6 Jameson's (988) essay 'Cognitive Mapping' for a discussion of the capitalist
See is another instance of the scenes of election and nomination that we
reorganization of space.
152 • Ideology of the Hindi Film
have already noted in Zanjeer in which the Muslim minority
The Aesthetic ofMobilization • 153
symbolically adopts the hero as its own leader. The badge saves his
life twice. The third time, pursued by Ravi, Vijay drops the badge of popular criminality. He joins an eXisting smuggling ring and rises
and cannot retrieve it, ending his good luck. to the top. The initial elaboration of the confrontation between
Deewar is one of the few film epics produced by the Bombay exploiters and exploited is displaced onto a more traditional plot-line
industry. It is the most powerful of all Salim-Javed screenplays, of police versus criminals. Within the world of crime, Vijay's gang is
combining tried narrative devices, a new mode of address, and new depicted as being more ethical in its criminality than the others and
iconic material in a displaced enactment of the hopes and disaffections the audience is invited to applaud Vijay as he tricks the rival gang.
of modern India. Two films from the past provided the primary Haji Mastan, the real life smuggler and slumlord of Bombay, is reputed
narrative material. Mother India (Mehboob 1957) was the source·for to have been the model for Vijay's role. (Mastan and other smugglers
the thematics of the mother-son relationship. There the mother herself were arrested after the film was made, under the new laws of Indira
killed the rebellious son, who had turned into a bandit, and was Gandhi government.) Although Mastan, like other urban gangsters,
rewarded with a symbolic role at the opening of a dam. Her sacrifice enjoyed popularity in the slums where he ruled and dispensed charity,
thus made her a contributor to the progress of modern India. From as a point of counter-identification the smuggler did not have the
Dilip Kumar's Gunga]umna (Nitin Bose 1961) Salim-Javed took the same power that the rural dacoit had. This is why Davar's gang had
theme of confrontation between two brothers, one representing the to be endowed with a vague ethical status and Vijay himself to be
law and the other an honest and hard-working farmer forced into a isolated from the gang into a figure of brooding inwardness. It is
life of crime by feudal exploiters. Combining the two, Salim- through this isolation that it becomes possible to return the spectator
to the 'psychic' pleasures of a masochistic fantasy.
Javed added to an already powerful mix, a third element, the spectacle
of nomination whereby the hero becomes a point of counter- Sholay (Ramesh Sippy, 1975)
identification for the spectator, assuring a pleasurable 'subversion' Sholaywas the third high point in the formative phase of the aesthetic
without undermining the supremacy of the law. Amitabh is at once of mobilization. Here again Amitabh Bachchan's star-image was
Birju, the rebellious son of 'Mother India', whom the mother must
combined with Salim-Javed's narrative of the epic confrontation
sacrifice in order to establish the rule of law, and Gunga, the honest
between the state and an internal rival political power. The setting
man forced into crime by a feudal system which the law is unable to
is a village where a ruthless dacoit, Gabbar Singh (Amjad Khan), is
smash. Gunga also represents the consequences of the failure of the terrorizing the Villagers and extorting payments in the form of seasonal
legal system of the modern state. Where the law does not fulfil its gifts of farm produce. The biggest landlord in the Village, Thakur
role as destroyer of feudal oppression, an alternative system of justice (Sanjeev Kumar), is also a police officer who captures Gabbar Singh
arises. At the same time both Gunga]umna and Deewaremphasize and has him sent to jail. Swearing revenge, Gabbar escapes from
the element of primitive accumulation through which the modern
prison and kills everyone in the Thakur's family, except his daughter-
state itself is established. Both Gunga and Vijay work to send in-law who was not at home. The Thakur goes to Gabbar's camp
their brothers to school, their sweat has gone into the making of and is captured. Gabbar cuts off both his arms and sends him back
the exemplary citizens, Jumna and Ravi. Thus, the law is presented
to the Village. During his tenure as police officer, the Thakur had
as a product of the labour of the poor which turns against the
had occasion to observe the valour of two petty criminals, Jai
poor, the dead labour of the proletariat, alienated from it and turned (Amitabh Bachchan) and Veeru (Dharmendra), who helped him
hostile.
when the train they were travelling in, was ambushed by dacoits.
Gunga]umna and Mother India portrayed the rebels as dacoits,· The Thakur tracks them down and offers them money to help him
rural bandits who belonged to the world of popular criminality capture Gabbar alive. They arrive in the Village and decide to run
celebrated in folklore. Their criminality was a direct result of feudal away after raiding the Thakur's safe. The Thakur's widowed daughter-
oppression and had the additional dimension of Robin Hood style in-law Oaya BhadurO arrives as they are trying to break open the
altruism. In Deewar, however, the hero does not start an enterprise. safe and offers them the keys. Shamed, they give up the plan and
decide to stay. The first opportunity for a confrontation arises when
 The Aesthetic ofMobilization • 155
154 • Ideology of the Hindi Film who became a police officer, as he puts it, for the sake of the thrills
three of Gabbar's men arrive to collect grain from the villagers. The the job promised. His role as representative of the law is thus coded
Thakur intervenes, and with Jai and Veeru demonstrating their as disinterested but at the same time, tied up with the drama of rural
bravery, the three dacoits have to return to camp empty-handed. All conflict. The Thakur's dismemberment has two conflicting but equally
three are killed by Gabbar. On the day of Holi (a spring festival of significant meanings: On the one hand, it represents the disabling
colours), Gabbar leads his men in an attack on the village. Jai and of the apparatus of law and order, its debilitation in the confrontation
Veeru are disarmed but manage to trick Gabbar, leading to a fight in with criminality. On the other hand, it also signifies a temporary
which Gabbar's men are defeated. Jai and Veeru make another breach of the coalition between the rural rich and the state: the
attempt to captore Gabbar as he meets with an arms dealer, but fail. Thakur remains but loses his hands, which he had himself described
Meanwhile Veeru falls in love with Basanti (Hema Malini), who as 'the hangman's noose', i.e. the law. Both of these scenarios make
drives a tonga and Jai is attracted to the mysterious widowed pOSSible and necessary the infusion of new energy from a source
daughter-in-law of the Thakur. outside the coalition. The petty criminals, who provide this
Ahmed (Sachin), son of the blind Imam (A.K. HangaO, who has supplement of energy and serve as replacements for the lost limbs
secured employment in the city, is on his way to the railway station of the Thakur, are the infra-legal, but not irredeemably criminal,
when he is captured by Gabbar's men. Gabbar kills Ahmed and figures with whom the new proletarian and .other disaffected
sends the body back to the village. The villagers turn againstJai and audiences could identify. One of the truly astonishing features of
Veeru for inviting Gabbar's wrath upon the village but the Imam the developing cinema culture of this period is the success with
stands by them, declaring that he would sacrifice more sons for the which criminality could be deployed as a metaphor for all forms of
honour of the village. Jai and Veeru kill a few of Gabbar's men in rebellion and disidentification.
retaliation. The Thakur persuades the widow's father to agree to her The liminal figure in this narrative, the one that straddles the
marriage to Jai. The final movement begins when some dacoits come border between two realms is itself doubled. The petty criminals,
upon Basanti waiting for Veeru near a pond. After a long chase, already doubled, provide the link across one border, between legality
she is caught and so is Veeru who went in search of her. Gabbar and criminality. They are criminals who function on the side of the
makes her dance on broken glass to save Veeru's life. Jai arrives and law. But there is another border, which preViously coincided with
frees Veeru and Basanti and the three make their way back to the the first one, but now stands separate: this is the border between
village. When they lose a horse, Jai stays back and sends the other the state and one of its former representatives, undertaking an infra-
two away to fetch help. He blows up the bridge but is fatally legal mission of vengeance. Here the border figure is the Thakur
wounded. Veeru, returning with the villagers, vows revenge, rides himself, who temporarily sets aside the legal protocols in order to
into Gabbar's camp, and captures Gabbar. The Thakur arrives and effect a justice which the law cannot bring about. The Thakur initiates
asks Veeru to keep his promise and hand over Gabbar to him. He the suspension of legality, thereby breaching the border, but his
then proceeds to take his revenge but the police arrive just in time plan has to be implemented by the production of another border
to prevent him from murdering Gabbar. Veeru, mission accomplished internal to the criminal order. This doubling is implicit in both Zanjeer
but minus his friend, boards the train out and finds Basanti waiting and Deewar: in Zanjeer, Sher Khan is the figure of the second border,
for him. the good criminal, and in Deewar, the mother's role as the figure in-
Like most of Salim-javed's other films, Sholay is also a reworking between the law and the community is doubled by Vijay himself
of elements borrowed from various sources. However, unlike Zanjeer When he allies with the 'good criminal' Davar against the bad Samant.
and Deewar, Sholay transformed the epic formula and its borrowed But in Sholay, the doubling takes on an added significance for two
ingredients into an explicit narrative affirmation of the feudal order reasons: one, the figure who demands our sympathy at the first
and the subordination of the counter-identified spectator's pleasure border is a landlord; by sharing in his desire for vengeance, we are
to the restoration of that order. The central narrative device in this also seduced into participating in a reaffirmation of the feudal order.
project is the figure of the Thakur, who embodies the unity of the Secondly, the political address to the audience through which Vijay
interests of the state and the feudal order. The Thakur is a landlord
156 • Ideology of the Hindi Film The Aesthetic ofMobilization • 157
(of Zanjeer and Deewar) wins a constituency in the cinema hall as Mumtaz began their careers there and moved up into the mainstream.)
well as among the diegetic co-workers, is eliminated in Sholay by Feroze Khan's role in Khotey Sikkay was a blend of elements from
the fact that the two men are hired as mercenaries. The film begins Clint Eastwood, Zorro, and perhaps also the Lone Ranger comics.
with the Thakur's attempt to track down the two men with the help He was a man in search of a dacoit who had killed his parents. He
of a jailor, as part of his plan for revenge. Of course, there is an roams the countryside, protects the weak and punishes the wicked
attempt to provide a certain amount of political support through the in the course of his search for his parents' killer. Meanwhile, the son
mobilization of the village. But the villagers appear as the prize for of a farmer who was killed by the dacoit's men brings a gang of five
which the ThaKur is fighting the dacoits. It is a rivalry for the rights people (echoes of The Five-Man Army, a popular foreign film of the
to political power over the villagers. The protection of the villagers period) from the town to help him protect the village. Helping each
is only a subsidiary effect of the primary plot to defeat Gabbar and other but acting separately, the gang of six and the Zorro character
restore the Thakur's honour. This is why, although they are hired to together enact a narrative similar to that of Sholay, at the end of
go out and capture Gabbar, Jai and Veeru function more as hired which the dacoit is vanquished and order restored to the rural
protectors of the village. Protetling the viIlage is the form taken by landscape. The title, which literally means 'counterfeit coins' is a
the action initiated to restore the Thakur's honour. metaphor for the gang of five: they are urban petty criminals who
The spaghetti westerns were the principal source of narrative are persuaded to give up their disorderly life U1 order to help a
material for Sholay. In this period the Terence Hill/ Bud Spencer village. They give up their counterfeit lives for the authenticity of
adventures and Sergio Leone's films starring Clint Eastwood, The village life.
Good, the Bad and the Ugly, For a Few Dollars More, etc. were ex- In Sholay, the same term is employed to describe Jai and Veeru.
tremely popular in India. Indio, the mad laughing villain of For a When the Thakur tells the jailor to find the two men, he explains
Few Dollars More was the model for Gabbar Singh, India's most that although they were criminals, they had a good side. The jailor
popular screen villain. Throughout the seventies, indigenous film- responds by saying that a counterfeit coin is bad on both sides. The
makers cashed in on the popularity of this genre by making 'westerns' Thakur, however, asserts that there is a difference between. coins
in local settings, with local themes. The most significant phenomenon and human beings. Khotey Sikkay was released the year before Sholay .
arising from this transfer of cowboy iconography and revenge themes and it is difficult to say whether Salim-Javed had made use of its
was the Tamilrrelugu 'western' (the English press referred to it as narrative material. However, the westerns in circulation at the time
the 'idli western'). A series of cheaply made films were released in (in particular Sergio Leone's Fora Few Dollars More) provided most
the seventies in which male stars like Krishna and two 'cabaret of the material that these two films shared. Like the southern
dancers' Jyothilakshmi and Vijayalalitha, starred in avenger roles. It 'westerns', Khotey Sikkay was a sub-cultural text in which marginal
was a sub-cultural phenomenon which re-duplicated the cultural figures and 'villains' like Narendranath, Ranjit and Danny became
status of the spaghetti western (and the indigenous stunt films of an heroes.
earlier era) not only in its choice of themes of revenge but also in Sholay, on the other hand, is one of the most expensive Indian
the construction of an alternative star system which survived in the films ever made, with a long list of top stars, spectacular fight scenes
interstices of mainstream culture on the enthusiasm of proletarian and other potlatch features. It was a successful appropriation of a
audiences. sub-cultural form for mainstream exploitation. Like Sangam, which
In Hindi, a similar tendency was manifesting itself just before a decade earlier had annexed the fledgling genre of women's
Sholayarrived on the scene. An emblematic film of this sub-genre is melodrama to the 'national' textual form (see Chapter 3), Sholay
KhoteySikkay, released in 1974. The main character in this film was annexed a marginal B-film genre to a mainstream big-budget
played by Feroze Khan, who until then had been a star in another extravaganza. It supplemented the structure of the revenge film with
long-standing sub-culture supported by a predominantly Muslim a frame that incorporated other interests into the motivations for the
lower-class audience. (Sheikh Mukhtar, Dara Singh, Ansari were some narrative.
of the other stars in this subterranean constellation. Others like Sholay adopts a mode of othering that follows the urban/rural
 'I'
,;rif';;

158 • Ideology of the Hindi Film

The Aesthetic ofMobilization • 159
divide. In films like GungaJumna, Jis Desh mein Ganga Behti Hai
and Kachche Dhage the dacoit is portrayed as a rational subject, i.e. supplement the heteronomous condition of the text as a darsanic
one whose criminality has a social motivation. In Sholay the dacoit occasion is maintained. The industry favours a situation in which its
figure is evacuated of all social content, has no personal history. profits depend on the rent-earning star body, rather than one in
Pitted against the legitimate rule of the landlord, his political ambitions which the ability of a narrative to interest audiences is the decisive
are not supported by any manifesto, whether personal or social. factor in making or marring a production. In response to the pressures
The film stages the triumph of the Law over the intransigent political for J transformation of the textual form, the industry thus managed
order of the countryside which threatens the dominant coalition's to produce a populist aesthetic of mobilization designed to contain
the centrifugal tendencies to segmentation.
rural partner, the landed bourgeoisie.
As we have seen, the narratives of these three films were drawn
from other sources. The originality of the textual form derives
primarily from the mobilization effect which accompanies the
narration. The scenes of nomination, in which the hero is elected to
lead workers and minorities, function to extend the relationship of
leader and led to the audience as well. The figure who commands
the audience in this way is the star. The star's function is mobilization,
the rallying of forces behind a narrative exposition. This elevation
compensates for the loss of the hero's traditional authority, and
enacts a transition from feudal to populist power. Through the
production of a supplemental charisma, the industry overcomes the
problems posed by a shift of narrative focus to the realm of the
ordinary. The star-image restores the heteronomy of the text.
Although unprecedented in the history of the Hindi cinema, the
extra-cinematic authority of the star as mobilizer was already a feature
of Tamil cinema, in the star-image of MGR. Amitabh Bachchan did
not enter politics until much later in his career but even in the
formative stage his star-image had a political dimension that paralleled
MGR's. A populist political culture, elaborated through the cinema,
developed very early in Tamil Nadu as a supplement to the Dravidian
movement 7 The spread of populism led to similar developments in
the neighbouring states of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, where
Rajkumar and N.T. Rama Rao, respectively, became the focal points
of a political-cultural formation. The Amitabh Bachchan phenomenon
can be said to represent the arrival of populism on the national
arena. Populism, employing the supplement of charisma produced
in the scenes of election and nomination, enables the control of the
text's meaning-production from a point outside it. Through this

7M.S.S. Pandian's The Image Trap is the best available study of the politics of
Tamil cinema and the persona ofMGR (M.G. Ramachandran). See also ST. Baskaran's
The Message Bearers for a history of Tamil cinema's role in the national movement.
 Middle-Class Cinema • 161
expression in a realist portrayal of the nation in cinema (ibid: 70).
The FFC project drew from both these strands in defining its
realist programme. However, in 1969 the possibilities for a realist
aesthetic were determined not only by the available models but
also by the political imperatives of the moment. In the event two
7 broad tendencies began to emerge within the single programme of
realist cinema. The beginning of the shift is usually identified with
two films, Bhuvan Shame and Sara Akash. In a comment on the
Middle-Class Cinema latter, we find this version of a frequently encountered statement: 'A
simple story, told with touching realism, Sara Akash was made the
same year that Mrinal Sen's Bhuvan Shame ushered in the "new
Indian cinema". Part of the same genre, both films have realistic

T
he FFC project was defined by a commitment to realism, but locales, new faces, and an unglamorous setting' (Banerjee and
this was by no means the first attempt in that direction. There Srivastava 1988: 162).1 Five years later, a new round of national
. already existed a progressive realist tendency of which K.A. enthusiasm was focused on two privately-financed films, Ankurand
Abbas's Dharti Ke Lal (946) and Bimal Roy's Do Bigha Zameen Rajnigandha. The first named in the two sets (Bhuvan Shame and
(953) are the best known examples. Italian neo-realist cinema, seen Ankur) represent a continuation of the political realist tendency
in India for the first time in 1952, is said to have inspired some while Sara Akash and Rajnigandha belong to the genre of the
realist ventures, including Do Bigha Zameen, the story of a small middle-class cinema. The movement from Sen's film to Benegal's is
peasant family driven to the city in an unsuccessful effort to save paralleled by the movement from Basu Chatterji's first film to his
their little piece of land from the landlord's greed. While Dharti Ke first major commercial success. These continuities are reinforced by
Lal, made under the left-wing Indian People's Theatre Association another feature: while Sen and Benegal set their narratives in rural
(IPTA) banner, ended with the vision of a brighter future modelled India, Chatterji's films were about the urban middle class. One
on Soviet collective farming, Do Bigha Zameen ends without the invoked the image of the nation, while the other addressed itself to
slightest hint of hope for the peasant. Realism here signified a thematic a class. One invited the urban spectator to witness a world other
shift, focusing attention on the poor and the exploited but continued than its own but falling within the same political unit, while the
to feature a melodramatic narrative. other promised to create a world which the spectator could recognize
Satyajit Ray's work represented the other great strand of realism. as his/her own.
In an influential essay, Satish Bahadur hailed Pather Panchali as 'a While these two tendencies within the realist programme thus
film which reflected the Indian reality as no other film had done seemed to diverge in their thematic concerns and seemed to posit
before' (Bahadur 1982: 13). Ray was the exemplar of realism as an two different spectator positions, they were addressed to the same
artistic form which Bahadur in another essay defined as: audience. The audience is an empirical category, referring to the
an organic form in which all are in a state of interdependence;
actual individuals who frequent the cinema whereas the spectator is
it has no extraneous elements in its structure. The technique of 1It is also characteristic of the standard critical explanation that Sara Akash and
composition used in creating the form derives its logic from the themes the middle-class cinema that it prefigured should be defined in relation to the other
which the work expresses; in other words, what is being said is realist enterprise. In the comment Cited, the authors place Sara Akash in the exalted
achieved through the way it is said .... (Bahadur 1985: 71). neighbourhood of Bhuvan Shame. The latter is said to have 'ushered in' the new
cinema, thus suggesting that it was the more important historical landmark. The very
While progressive realism was political in its choice of themes, the next sentence refers to both as belonging to 'the same genre'. This ambiguity is
aesthetic project associated with Ray was political in the sense that symptomatic of the fact that middle-class realism had a subordinate position in the
project as a whole. The same authors, in their comment on Bhuvan Shame make no
it was related to the project of nation-building. The Nehruvian theme attempt to highlight its kinship with Sara Akash.
of the 'discovery of India' was seen to have found its cultural
162 • Ideology of the Hindi Film
Middle-Class Cinema • 163
a theoretical concept that stands for the viewing position ansmg establishing intimacy. In their ability to do so lies the value of the
from the text's strategies of representation. 2 As spectators the audience aesthetic: to wrest from the feudal space a couple who can be
of citizen-subjects were called upon to occupy two different positions. relocated in the space of modernity. In this task it is equally necessary
One corresponded to the citizen side of the entity and involved a to distance the feudal structure of the extended family as well as
frame of reading that included the perspective of the nation-state
foreground the couple as the object of our sympathy. A visit to the
while the other was addressed to the subject, the individual in society, cinema is an important moment in the film: the scene where the
faced with the struggle for existence, the locus of desires, fears and couple walk to the theatre, with the wife walking several steps behind
hopes. This chapter deals with the realist cinema of the subject, or the husband, heightens the pleasures of realism. On the one hand,
what is commonly known as the middle-class cinema. the ethnographic interest is aroused by the recognition of the image:
In Sara Akash (The Whole Sky', 1969) the urban middle-class who has not seen such a phenomenon- (The answer of course is:
world is treated with a solicitous detachment that was to disappear those who walk like that, in single file; but the pleasure of recognition
with the further development of the middle-class cinema. This mild that realism offers us is not diluted by such reminders of realism's
trace of ethnographic objectification is a sign that Chatterji had not institutional/class determination.) On the other hand, the narrative
as yet recognized the possibilities of a cinema of identification based proceeds to 'demonstrate' that the pOSSibility of closing the gap
on realist principles. The interventionist agenda of the FFC project between husband and wife depends on a of psychic, rather
and the freedom from considerations of marketability no doubt than social, reform.
contributed to this. The objectification effect in Sara Akash is achieved The middle-class cinema is predominantly characterized by an
through an emphasis on the characters' immersion in a feudal culture, emphasis on the extended familial network as the proper site of
although the joint family home in which the story unfolds is located production of nuclear couples. Even when, as in Rajnigandha, no
in an urban milieu. The potential for a cinema of identification was such common ground of kinship is suggested, the idea of endogamy
still concealed by the burden of ethnographic distancing which the is strongly inscribed in the narrative delineation of the class. This is
FFC's realist programme placed on the film-maker. As in Avtar Kaul's because middle-class narratives are confined to the world of the
27 Down, the story deals with the problem of modern individuals upper castes. These castes find themselves dispersed in an urban
still caught up in a network of feudal customs and mental habits. A world, and define themselves as the middle class in the language of
university student marries an educated woman but both are in the the modern state, while maintaining their endogamous identities. In
grip of family traditions which determine their lives. The marriage is deference to the semiotic prohibition which inaugurates the modern
arranged by the family. Unhappy with a relationship brought about state, the caste identity of this urban society is generally concealed
in this manner, the hero rejects the woman, while his family burdens behind the term 'middle class'. It is thus that the paradoxical thematics
her with all the housework. When she goes away to her parental of 'class endogamy' emerge as a narrative element in films like Guddi
home, the hero finds himself missing her company. A reconciliation and Rajnigandha.
is brought about when, after her return the wife becomes more The middle class, however, also carries the burden of national
assertive and rejects him. identity on its shoulders. While one sector of the middle-class cinema
While employing the imagery of feudalism to effect an represents a community hemmed in by the larger society and devoted
ethnographic distancing, the film does not undertake a critique of to its own reproduction, there is another that presents the class's
feudalism. Instead, it attributes the failure of the couple's union to national profile, its reformist role in the drama of class and religious
their shyness and immaturity. The film tries to produce a nuclear conflicts within the nation-state. Here the realist aesthetic draws
couple within the confines of an extended family. Since both upon the tradition of Gandhian melodrama, including Bimal Roy's
members are educated, there is a possibility of their overcoming the SUjata and Bandini, and the films of his pupil Hrishikesh Mukherjee
initial extraneous compulsion that brought them together and of from before the FFC era, such as Ashinvad and Satyakam.
2See Kuhn 09H7) for a discussion of the significance of this distinction. Thus, there are two broad sectors of the middle-class cinema, of
which one is oriented towards asserting the national role of the
164 • Ideology a/the Hindi Film Middle-Class Cinema • 165
class while the other is committed to the construction of an exclusive (without too much emphasis on realist detail) in the nineteenth or
space of class identity. While the first sector enjoyed a strong pre- early twentieth-century BengaI.3 It would be wrong to conclude, on
FFC history, in the post-FFC era it was redefined around the political this basis, that there was a demand for Bengali middle-class narratives.
pressures of the moment. Three significant films of this type are It would be more accurate to say that the industry found in those
Anand, Namak Haram (both by Hrishikesh Mukherjee) and Mere narratives a ready supply of 'difference' which could be re-"presented.
Apne (Guizar). All three take up the question of national and class Examples of films directly based on and iconographically faithful to
reconciliation in a period of political crisis. Bengali narratives were Ba/ika Badhu, Uphaar, Amar Prem, Chhoti
The second, sector, concerned with the consolidation of middle- Bahu and Swami. Others like Guddi, Anand and Kora Kagaz derived
class (upper caste) identity, can be further divided into three sub- part of their claim to difference from the fact that the characters had
types based on thematic differences. The first sub-type would include Bengali names and dressed like the Bengali middle class. In Kora
films like Guddi and Rajnigandha, both of which raise the question Kagaz, the final scene at the railway station, like a similar one in
of the threat to class identity posed by the lures of the outside Swami, has Bengali literary resonances. Yet others, like Rajnigandha
world, to which women in are susceptible. The second (based on a Hindi story), Abhiman and Aandhi were less specific in
sub-type includes Abhiman, Kora Kagaz and Aandhi where the their cultural allusions but reinforced the popular association of good
post-marital tensions of the middle-class family arise from the middle-class culture with Bengal if only because they were either
ambitions and individualistic tendencies of one or both the partners. directed by Bengalis or had Bengali actors in principal roles. (It is
Films of the first sub-type differ from the second mainly in that they difficult to think of Aandhi without being reminded of the historic
resolve the conflicts prior to marital union. The third sub-type includes 'return' of Suchitra Sen to the Hindi screen,) Of course, Bengali
films which take up the question of the space for middle-class narratives had been used in the Hindi film industry before, but in
existence, the dependence of middle-class life on the possibility of the seventies they served as the resource for a major thrust towards
privacy. While Piya ka Ghar deals with the problem of private space product differentiation and market segmentation. The FFC-sponsored
in a humorous fashion, Anubhav and in particular Dastak, in a films of 1969 played no small part in provoking this change. Let us
complex mode uncharacteristic of the middle-class cinema in general, now turn to a discussion of the sub-types of the middle-class cinema.
employs the thematic of private space to explore questions related
to the institution of cinema itself as well as the transition to class
society. Aandhi, included in the second sub-type, can also be Narratives of National Reconciliation
discussed in terms of the third sub-type.
National reconciliation acquired urgency in the context of the
disaggregation of the social already discussed. Martyrdom is the
The Dissemination of Bengal cleansing event which produces the possibilities of reconciliation in
all the three films in this category. In Mere Apne, the martyr is an old
The middle-class cinema is marked by an overwhelming dependence peasant woman. In Anand and Namak Haram, he is a middle-class
on Bengali culture for its narrative and iconographic material as individual (played by Rajesh Khanna) who rises above the conflicts
well as film-making talent. This cinema was founded on the twin that surround him and reunites a divided world by dying.
distinctions of primacy of narrative and the ordinariness and In Mere Apne ('My Dear Ones', Guizar, 1971), based on the Bengali
authenticity of the world represented. Bengali literature and cinema film Apanjan) an old woman is brought to the city by her relative
provided a ready source of such narrative material. Even a commercial who needs household help, while he and his wife go out to work.
film-maker like Shakti Samanta, after making films like An Evening
in Paris, Pagla Kahin ka, and the deftly plagiarized Aradhana, 3Some of the narrative clements ofAmar Prem can he recognized in the sociology
turned, for Amar Prem, to a Bengali middle-class narrative set of prostitution in nineteenth-century Calcutta. See, for instance, Sumanta Banerjee
(1993)
166 • Ideology of the Hindi Film
Middle-Class Cinema • 167
The woman is thrown out when she questions the exploitative motive
character that is completely negative. She colludes with the husband
behind the altruistic gesture, and finds refuge in an old ruined building
in exploiting relatives as unpaid servants and readily abandons her
where two orphans live. A student gang leader, estranged from his
child to the servant's care in order to enjoy the pleasures of the city.
family, also spends his nights there. In the midst of daily
Finally, part of the affect is also drawn from the star system. The
confrontations between two rival youth gangs, the woman's motherly
legendary actress Meena Kumari is cast as the peasant woman while
affection and innocent and upright behaviour win the hearts of the
young trainees of the Film Institute play the roles of the gang
gang members. At election time the two gangs are hired by rival
members. The nostalgia evoked by the presence of Meena Kumari,
candidates. In the explosion of campaign Violence, the woman is
combined with the emerging star identities of actors like Vinod
killed by a police bullet as she tries to stop the street fighting between
Khanna and Shatrughna Sinha, enabled a textual compromise
the gangs.
between old and new which reinforced the narrative drive towards
During a conversation with the gang members, the old widow
a resolution of present conflicts through the restoration of links with
recounts an event from her past which identifies her as a patriotic the past and the far away.
woman along the lines of the heroines of Bandini, Mother India
In Anand and Namak Haram, the martyr figure is male and
and the Tamil film A nda Naa/ (954). Set in pre-independence India,
clearly identified as belonging to the urban middle class. Nevertheless,
the flashback recounts the events of a night when the woman and
Anand, the eponymous hero of the first film, is clpser to the woman
her husband hid a freedom fighter, who was being pursued by the
in Mere Apne in being a figure of national reconciliation whereas
police, in their bedroom. This scene serves as a reminder of the
Namak Haram directly takes up the question of class struggle. The
sacrifices made in the past to produce the community which is now
story of Anand (Hrishikesh Mukherjee, 1970) is narrated by a doctor.
breaking apart.
The film opens in a literary gathering where Dr Banerji (Amitabh
A conversation between some gang members at the beginning
Bachchan), is being honoured for a novel based on his diary entries
establishes the film's reading of the contemporary world. Socialism
about a man who defied death by living life to the full and spreading
has become a mere collection of empty slogans which all parties,
happiness wherever he went. In his address to the assembly, the
including communal ones, use indiscriminately. On the other hand,
doctor recalls his own state of mind at the point of time when
the blood ties which united people in the past have become an
Anand (Rajesh Khanna) first came into his life. An idealist, Banerji
excuse for exploitation. The well-to-do extract free labour by using
had devoted himself to treating the poor who could not afford to
the rhetoric of kinship while the poor and the young find themselves
pay for his treatment or buy the medicines they needed to reCOver
helpless in a world in which parents and college principals do not
from their illnesses. His helplessness against the social 'diseases' of
understand their idealism or the frustrations of the unemployed.
poverty and unemployment had driven him to a state of utter
The woman functions as the agent of an infusion of binding affect
despondency. At this pOint a fellow doctor and friend who runs a
into a world divided by class and generational conflict.
small hospital informs him of the imminent arrival from Delhi of a
While the peasant woman is the textual agent of resolution, the
patient with a fatal illness. Anand arrives, a day early, and with his
affect deployed in the movement towards resolution is a complex charming ways, endears himself to all. He becomes a liVing enigma
one, combining values drawn from several sources. One such source for everyone around him. He knows that he does not have long to
is the village, which figures in the text as an 'elsewhere', untouched live but will not let that spoil his fun. Doctor Banerji feels angry with
by the conflicts that are tearing the urban community apart. Another himself for being unable to cure him. Moving into Banerji's house,
source is the past, the history of nationalist struggle, of which the Anand hides his own private anguish and involves himself in good
woman serves as a reminder. Thirdly, there is the maternal element deeds. He reunites the doctor with his girlfriend (Sumita Sanyal),
that the peasant woman brings to the urban scene. The hero's whom he had neglected in his idealist pursuits. He adopts doctor
disaffection with the world is partly attributed to the fact that his Prakash's wife as his sister, the matron in the hospital, Sister D'Souza
mother died early. The only urban moth(lf in the film is the wife of (Lalita Pawar), as his mother, and a theatre owner, Isabhai Qohny
the peasant woman's relative. She is a working woman with a
Walker), as a friend. Hindu, Christian and Muslim pray to their
168 • Ideology of the Hindi Film Middle-Class Cinema • 169
respective gods for the health of Anand. On his death-bed Anand moment ago, there now appears a mystel)'. The paralysing effect of
asks for a tape of Banerji's poetl)' reading to be played and he dies intellectual clarity is reduced as the enigma re-activates the emotions.
as the poem ends. When Banerji, who was away, returns with some The centripetal force of the enigma effects a displacement so that
medicine, Anand's and his laughter, taped inadvertently, bursts forth the spectator can participate in a surrogate resolution for the world's
to break the spell of grief. The last words in the film, spoken by problems.
Banerji, are 'Anand is not dead, anand (joy) does not die'. In Namak Haram ('Traitor', Hrishikesh Mukherjee 1973), the
In Anand as in Mere Apne, the central character comes from martyr is explicitly named as a member of the middle class. The film
elsewhere and 'brings purpose and meaning into the lives of those is roughly modelled on the Richard Burton and Peter O'Toole starrer
who were drifting apart and sinking into despondency. Anand Beckett. Somu (Rajesh Khanna), a middle-class youth, and Vijay
functions as a focus for the scattered, free-floating affect of his (Amitabh Bachchan), a big industrialist's son, are close friends. When
acquaintances. Failing in their commitment to social causes, they Vijay takes over the running of a factol)', he refuses to concede a
take him up as a surrogate cause. He is an exemplal)' figure who legitimate demand for compensation and abuses the trade union
teaches the despondent to value all that life offers. In contrast, Dr. leader (AK. Hangal). Faced with a strike, he is forced to apologize
Banerji's clear and unambiguous perception of the evils of society to the union leader. Swearing vengeance, he recounts the whole
makes him despair. As a doctor he rejects the path taken by his affair to Somu. The latter offers to help him. Joining the factol)' as a
friend Prakash (Ramesh Deo) who thrives on the anxieties of his worker, Somu (now called Chander), with the help of Vijay, scores
rich patients. On the other hand, he perceives that society is plagued a couple of successes as a self-proclaimed workers' leader. His
by evils that are for the most part beyond the healing power of popularity grows as the workers find that his confrontationist ways
medicine. His clarity of vision makes him anxious. The arrival of pay qUicker dividends than the old union leader's slow, rule-bound
Anand serves as a distraction from this anxiety. Anand is an enigma. methods. He defeats the old leader in the union elections. Having
In a world whose reality had seemed so transparent to Banerji a had his revenge, Vijay wants Somu to leave the job and go back to
his old life. But Somu, having lived in the workers' colony and
become acquainted with their misel)', has had a change of heart.
Vijay's father (Om ShivpurO, who believes in the policy of divide
and rule, realizes the threat posed by a middle-class man whose
conscience has been awakened. He deliberately exposes Somu's
real identity before the workers. When the workers turn against
him, it is the old trade union leader, who has recognized Somu's
change of heart, who defends him. Vijay goes to the slum to bring
his friend back but Somu declares his intention of staying on with
the workers. Rejected, Vijay prepares to fly to another part of the
countl)' where his father is setting up a factoI)'. In his absence, the
father hires some criminals to get rid of Somu. Vijay misses his
flight, and on returning home, learns about the plot. He arrives too
late to save his friend, who is run over by a lorl)'. Knowing that his
father is too powerful to be convicted of a crime, Vijay takes the
blame for the murder on himself and goes to prison. On his release
from prison, he is met by the old trade union leader, his girlfriend
(Simi), and the mother and sister of Somu.
Amitabh Bachchan and Rajesh Khanna in Anand CHrishikesh Mukherjee At the heart of the film is a long speech by the industrialist who
1972). Courtesy National Film Archives of India, Pune. tells his son about the unreliability of the middle class. They are
1 70 • Ideology of the Hindi Film Middle-Class Cinema • 171
usually pliable and can be useful, but every now and then, when charming school girl who is obsessed with the film star Dharmendra,
their conscience is aroused, one of them decides to aspire for who plays himself in the film. A chance meeting with the star turns
greatness. Somu, fulfilling this prophecy, becomes a martyr to the this fan's admiration into a serious sublimated love for him which is
cause of working-class rights. But in the process he also unites the modelled on the medieval saint Meera's love for the god Krishna, a
classes: Vijay rejects his father's divide-and-rule strategy as anti- love that is unrequitable but eternal. The change is registered by
national and pledges to continue Somu's struggle. In terms of the means of a linguistic shift, with Kusum adopting the grandiose prose
film this does not mean Vijay's transformation into a trade union of pbpular film dialogue. This love threatens the endogamous
leader but a process of reform whereby capitalists abandon their network within which she has been marked out as the future wife
loyalty to British values and enter into a mutually beneficial pact of Navin (Samit Bhanja), her brother-in-law, an engineer from
with workers. The virtues of socialism are proclaimed in the film by Bombay who is in search of a job. A visit to Bombay provides an
Vijay's girlfriend, daughter of another industrialist. The camp of opportunity for visiting the studios, where her uncle (Utpal Dutt),
capitalists is thus shown to be internally divided and containing the entering into a secret pact with the star, introduces Kusum to the
seeds of a self-transformation. The middle-class martyr functions as 'reality' behind the images seen on the screen: the lowpaid workers,
a catalyst of reform, cleansing the capitalist class of its colonial habits. the screen villains who are kind souls in real life, the stuntmen who
In these narratives political conflicts are resolved by aesthetic substitute for the stars in fight sequences, etc. She. also discovers her
and affective infusions mediated by disinterested subjects whose friend's brother (Asrani), who had run away to Bombay to be a film
power lies in their ability to serve as distractions. Gandhi is the star, working as an extra and struggling to stay alive. These revelations
prototype for this magnetic point, whose charismatic power draws apart, the star and the uncle, in a patriarchal plot to direct the girl's
the spectator into the fiction of a surrogate resolution and liberates desire towards the legitimate object, provide opportunities for Navin's
her/him temporarily from the obligation of decisive action imposed courage and masculinity to be revealed in a dramatic form. Kusum's
by intellectual clarity. These narratives thus propose a non-political education, a two-pronged process of demystification of the cinematic
resolution of political conflicts as the middle class's contribution to image and a remystification of the legitimate male's image and the
national cohesion. They assert the role of the middle class as a patriarchal system, is complete when she expresses her love for
depoliticizing influence, as a repository of affect that absorbs and Navin of her own will.
neutralizes class conflict. Hrishikesh Mukherjee, the maker of Guddi, was one of the people
The second type of middle-class narrative, on the other hand, involved in the implementation of the new FFC policy. He also
attempts to represent the class as struggling to maintain its unity played an important role in transferring the realist aesthetic to the
and identity in the face of disruptive intrusions and external pressures. commercial sector. In this context, Guddi can be read as an ingenious
Hrishikesh Mukherjee bridges these two segments. Firmly committed allegorical representation of the construction of a constituency for
initially to Gandhian melodrama, which portrayed the middle class the realist sub-sector of the commercial cinema. The subject who is
as the force of national reconciliation and reform, Mukherjee turned, liberated from the spell of commercial cinema in the film, is also the
with Guddi, to the new aesthetic of identity in which middle-class subject who is addressed by the film. As we watch Guddi maturing
isolationism was the primary theme. The two forces that threaten into responsible middle-class womanhood, we too go through a
middle-class identity in these films are sexuality and politics. process of maturation at the end of which we, and Guddi with us,
become rational, intelligent film-goers. Through our privileged access
to the machinations of the well-intentioned men who undertake to
The Middle Class as Endogamous Unit educate Guddi, we become partners in an operation to reclaim the
middle-class woman from her captivity to an irrational obsession.
In Guddi (Hrishikesh Mukherjee 1971), the sexual economy of a The film deploys images of authenticity and realism as a point of
middle class upper caste extended family is disrupted by the lure of contrast to the illusions of popular cinema. Here it would be
the cinema. Guddi is the pet name of Kusum (Jaya Bhaduri), a appropriate to mention the role of the press in promoting the aesthetic
172 • Ideology of the Hindi Film Middle-Class Cinema • 1 73
value of authenticity and narrative integrity. Filmfare played a
pioneering role in this regard. In its pages the necessity of short,
integrated, linear narratives was emphasized relentlessly. Read
primarily by the English-speaking middle class, the magazine served
as a vehicle for the creation of a demand for a realist cinema.
One of the most popular columns in the magazine was called
'Readers Don't Digest', under which were printed entries from readers
pointing out errors and inconsistencies in popular films. In
Budtameez, a reader pointed out, the hero and heroine covered
'four miles on foot in the space of a three-minute song'.4 Here the
objection is to what more charitable critics have described as a non-
linear conception of time that is characteristic of Hindi film narratives.
Another reader observed the Hindi film-maker's indifference to
historical accuracy: in Baharen Phir Bhi Ayengi, the Chinese war of
1962 is shown but a character refers to the narrative present as
1965. Sociological accuracy was also demanded: 'Funny that
Dharmendra becomes a News Editor and still stays in a hut.'s Other
readers pointed out formal inconsistencies: in Vaasna, 'Surprising Guddi swallows her disappointment at not being able to go to the cinema
that Padmini, narrating the past to her son, remembers the comedy and sings a 'classical' song for her suitor's benefit, surrounded by India's
artistic heritage. ]aya Bhaduri and Samit Bhanja in Guddi (Hrishikcsh
sequences in which she didn't figure.'6 More commonly, failures of
Mukherjee 1971). Courtesy National Film Archive of India, Pune.
continuity like a character's clothes changing within the same scene
were detected by the dozen. As a pedagogical tool, this column was
instrumental in training the readership to anticipate a Hollywood- authenticity, inviting spectator identification. At the same time it
style realism. It also provided opportunities for a kind of disdainful softens the critique of popular cinema through a 'disclosure' of the
engagement with the popular which sustained the existing industry human world behind the illusion. The film industry emerges from
by making available the supplementary pleasures of readerly the process unscathed, with the stars absolved of any blame for the
fantasies the industry puts into circulation. One of the devices
superiority.7
Guddi combines both these pleasures in its representational employed to produce a 'realist' effect in the film is that of 'not going
strategy. It offers a narrative suffused with iconic and situational to the cinema'. Guddi and Navin set out to go to the cinema but
Navin changes plans and takes her to an archaeological site. This
deflection or re-routing of the characters gives what follows a realist
4 Film/are, 5 August 1966, p. 45.
significance. Taking shelter from the rain in a cave at the site, Guddi
5Both in Film/are, 19 August 1966, p. 45.
6 Film/are, 28 February 1969, p. 33.
offers to sing a film song but is persuaded to sing a 'classical' song
7Another feature that enhanced the pleasures of disdainful engagement was the instead, reinforcing the withdrawal from cinematic fantasy. At this
film review. Baburdo Patel, editor of Fllmindia and later Mother India, was a pioneer stage in the film, Guddi's obsession with films is contrasted with
in this regard but it was S.j. Banaji of Film/are who liberated the review from the Navin's complete dislike for them. In the concluding segment, at a
referential relation that it bore to the film. Banaji, whose byline began to appear in
1969, developed the review into an independent prose form which qUickly abandoned
party to celebrate her birthday, Guddi sings a film song. But this
the responsibility of commentary. Although the stories of the films were recounted, time the song, 'Aa ja re pardesi' has been wrested from the fantasy
the main source of enjoyment was the style, which was copied by reviewers world of film and redeployed as an external aid to the resolution of
everywhere. When Film/are started a column for readers' reviews, it was the Banaji a 'real' narrative (Its difference is also guaranteed by the fact that it
clones who won the prizes for best reviews. is from a film-Madhumati-made by Bimal Roy, one of the revered
1 74 • Ideology of the Hindi Film Middle-Class Cinema • 175
precursors of the middle-class cinema.) The song, whose meaning another way too: Navin, the man who never goes to the movies,
is appropriate to the context (while Guddi is singing, Navin is absent however finds a good friend in Dharmendra. The industl)', as an
and thus becomes the addressee of the song), serves as an illustration economic enterprise, is thus represented as redeemable even as its
of the ideal attitude to adopt towards cinema. This attitude consists product, the screen image, is rejected. The logic of this is not difficult
of a detached indulgence, a knowing and provisional surrendt. to to see. In the first place, the rejection is only partial: cinema as a
its pleasures. The subject must be able to draw affective material source of discursive devices for use in the real world is approved.
from the cinema for the narratives of real life without being sucked What is criticized is the absorption of real subjects into the screen
into its iIIusol)" world. The middle-class cinema thus provokes a image, the displacing, ungrounding of the spectator from his/her
disidentification with the mainstream only to open up the possibility true being. Besides, by endorsing the industl)' and the entrepreneurial
of a reidentification based on a compromise. spirit behind it, the film is more firmly restricting its audience
The carefully produced authenticity-effect is the source of the membership, for it does not dispute the suitability of the fantasy
screen image for another kind of person, another class of people. It
positive counter-popular valence that is assigned to this cinema. Its
situates its audience on the other side of the camera as potential
ideological function differs from that of the New Cinema in that its
participants in the economy of film-making, which effectively renders
site of intervention is not only a 'real' in which new subject positions,
the top strata of film personnel the class allies of the real world
allied to a shared political anxiety need to be produced; further,
characters as well as the implied audience, thus distancing itself
rather than a representation of an alternative reality in its distinction from those whose only access to the film world is through the image
from the reality represented in the popular cinema, the middle-class on the screen.
cinema confronts the popular cinematic image and exposes its Basu Chatterji's RajniR,andha ('Tuberoses', 1974) also includes,
falsehood, its unworthiness as an object of emulation. At the same at the vel)' beginning, a scene of not going to the cinema. The scene
time, by means of the vel)' cinematic devices which conceal the begins with the heroine-waiting in front of a theatre. Her boyfriend
realities of the industl)', it renders the 'real' world of the endogamous arrives, but has forgotten to bring the tickets. She is disappointed
petty bourgeoisie desirable in itself. The new screen image is not a but agrees to go to a restaurant. This initial turn away from the
fantasy creation with no basis in reality, it is coded as the spectator's cinema, which in Guddi occurred a little way into the narrative, is
own image reflected back to him/herself. The mirror is adjusted to even more effective in establishing the authenticity of the rest of the
remove the look of surprise from its face. narrative as a representation of the real world. The stol)' centres
In this world, endogamy-the signifier of class solidarity-has to round Deepa (Vidya Sinha), who is writing her Ph.D. thesis and
be enforced in order to maintain that solidarity, which rests on the looking for a teaching position, and her boyfriend Sanjay (Amol
affirmation of patriarchal authority. Meera Bai, the bhakti poet and Palekar), who is a clerk awaiting a promotion as officer. Sanjay's
devotee of the god Krishna, whose example Kusum wishes to initial indifference to the movies is a character trait-when he does
emulate, is an instance of the disruptive power of a love that go, he eats constantly, disturbs his neighbours and goes out for a
transgresses the rules of endogamy: Meera was a princess who stroll whenever a song begins. His eyes are never fixed on the
abandoned her royal family for a life of spiritual love and devotion. screen like the others' in the theatre.
Woman is the displaced site of the struggle over the re-integration Sanjay's promotion faces two hurdles--one, a rival in the office
and re-identification of the class which hitherto shared the who has the advantage of being from the same region as the boss,
spectatorship of the popular cinema with the lower classes. If Kusum a strain of mild social satire which provides some gentle humour.
is not cured of her spiritual love, Navin would have to go to his new The second hurdle is Deepa herself and her conflicting desires: the
posting alone, increasing the potential for the breakdown of the impending Ph.D. which signifies her independent ambition, her job
network. The reconciliation between the cured Kusum and the search, which threatens to take her away from Delhi (where they
engineer takes place in the nick of time, a few hours before his live), and Navin, a college boyfriend whom she has almost, but not
departure to his posting. quite, forgotten. The possible negative outcome of her transgressive
The film rescues the popular cinema from its own critique in desires is prefigured in a nightmare, with which the film opens. An
1 74 • Ideology of the Hindi Film Middle-Class Cinema • 175
precursors of the middle-class cinema.) The song, whose meaning another way too: Navin, the man who never goes to the movies,
is appropriate to the context (while Guddi is singing, Navin is absent however finds a good friend in Dharmendra. The industry, as an
and thus becomes the addressee of the song), serves as an illustration economic enterprise, is thus represented as redeemable even as its
of the ideal attitude to adopt towards cinema. This attitude consists product, the screen image, is rejected. The logic of this is not difficult
of a detached indulgence, a knowing and provisional surrendt. to to see. In the first place, the rejection is only partial: cinema as a
its pleasures. The subject must be able to draw affective material source of discursive devices for use in the real world is approved.
from the cinema for the narratives of real life without being sucked What is criticized is the absorption of real subjects into the screen
into its illusory' world. The middle-class cinema thus provokes a image, the displacing, ungrounding of the spectator from his/her
disidentification with the mainstream only to open up the possibility true being. Besides, by endorsing the industry and the entrepreneurial
spirit behind it, the film is more firmly restricting its audience
of a reidentification based on a compromise.
The carefully produced authenticity-effect is the source of the membership, for it does not dispute the suitability of the fantasy
screen image for another kind of person, another class of people. It
positive counter-popular valence that is assigned to this cinema. Its
situates its audience on the other side of the camera as potential
ideological function differs from that of the New Cinema in that its
participants in the economy of film-making, which effectively renders
site of intervention is not only a 'real' in which new subject positions,
the top strata of film personnel the class allies of the real world
allied to a shared political anxiety need to be produced; further,
characters as well as the implied audience, thus distancing itself
rather than a representation of an alternative reality in its distinction from those whose only access to the film world is through the image
from the reality represented in the popular cinema, the middle-class on the screen.
cinema confronts the popular cinematic image and exposes its Basu Chatterji's Rajnigandha (Tuberoses', 1974) also includes,
falsehood, its unworthiness as an object of emulation. At the same at the very beginning, a scene of not going to the cinema. The scene
time, by means of the very cinematic devices which conceal the begins with the heroine-waiting in front of a theatre. Her boyfriend
realities of the industry, it renders the 'real' world of the endogamous arrives, but has forgotten to bring the tickets. She is disappointed
petty bourgeoisie desirable in itself. The new screen image is not a but agrees to go to a restaurant. This initial turn away from the
fantasy creation with no basis in reality, it is coded as the spectator's cinema, which in Gudlii occurred a little way into the narrative, is
own image reflected back to him/herself. The mirror is adjusted to even more effective in establishing the authenticity of the rest of the
remove the look of surprise from its face. narrative as a representation of the real world. The story centres
In this world, endogamy-the signifier of class solidarity-has to round Deepa (Vidya Sinha), who is writing her Ph.D. thesis and
be enforced in order to maintain that solidarity, which rests on the looking for a teaching position, and her boyfriend Sanjay (Amol
affirmation of patriarchal authority. Meera Bai, the bhakti poet and Palekar), who is a clerk awaiting a promotion as officer. Sanjay's
devotee of the god Krishna, whose example Kusum wishes to initial indifference to the movies is a character trait-when he does
emulate, is an instance of the disruptive power of a love that go, he eats constantly, disturbs his neighbours and goes out for a
tro.nsgresses the rules of endogamy: Meera was a princess who stroll whenever a song begins. His eyes are never fixed on the
abandoned her royal family for a life of spiritual love and devotion. screen like the others' in the theatre.
Woman is the displaced site of the struggle over the re-integration Sanjay's promotion faces two hurdles--one, a rival in the office
and re-identification of the class which hitherto shared the who has the advantage of being from the same region as the boss,
spectatorship of the popular cinema with the lower classes. If Kusum a strain of mild social satire which provides some gentle humour.
is not cured of her spiritual love, Navin would have to go to his new The second hurdle is Deepa herself and her conflicting desires: the
posting alone, increasing the potential for the breakdown of the impending Ph.D. which signifies her independent ambition, her job
network. The reconciliation between the cured Kusum and the search, which threatens to take her away from Delhi (where they
engineer takes place in the nick of time, a few hours before his live), and Navin, a college boyfriend whom she has almost, but not
departure to his posting. quite, forgotten. The possible negative outcome of her transgressive
The film rescues the popular cinema from its own critique in desires is prefigured in a nightmare, with which the film opens. An
 Middle-Class Cinema • 1 77
176 • Ideology of the Hindi Film
her, she suggests, 'Why don't you start a strike?' Her indifference to
the strikes that preoccupy the young Navin and the promotion-
hungry Sanjay is a repudiation of politics. But while Navin's radical
politics is as threatening to middle-class integrity as his later ad-
world life-style, Sanjay's trade-unionism, restricted to economic
demands, is not subjected to any critique-it is presented with
humour and equanimity as an unavoidable means to upward mobility.
Deepa's forgotten fascination for Navin resurfaces almost instantly.
Ira tries to encourage her and Navin to rediscover their old passion.
Navin, taking a keen interest in her job search, makes phone calls to
fix a favourable impression prior to the interview while Deepa
wonders expectantly about the significance of his interest in her
welfare. Deepa faces the interview board and spends her free time
going around Bombay with Navin.
On one of these outings Navin takes her to seG his ad film unit in
action, filming a beach scene. Watching the two models come running
out of the water, Deepa fantasizes herself and Navin in the same
roles. This fantasy transforms her revived emotions into a consuming
Waiting to go to the movies: Vidya Sinha in Rajnigandha (Basu Chatterji
1974). Courtesy National Film Archive of India, Pune.
desire to hear Navin speak the words of love that she is sure are on
the tip of his tongue.
The recurring image of Navin with sunglasses (Deepa too begins
interview call from a college in Bombay is the occasion for the
to wear them in the course of her outings with Navin), like the
surfacing of the anxieties over these potential threats to their stable
images of the cinema, is irresistible. Sometimes the image is
life. Sanjay jokes about the imbalance that her Ph.D. will cause and
interrupted by that of Sanjay, but reasserts itself. The transgression,
the equalizing potential of his promotion. He does not object to
thus, is located in the obsessive return of a cinematic ima'ge of
Deepa's desire to go to Bombay for a job, and even talks of taking
Navin which, like Kusum's absorption in the screen image, is a form
a transfer in order to be with her. In response to her anxieties about
of possession, a capture by an alien force which portends a ruinous
getting around in Bombay, Sanjay jokingly drops the name of Navin,
loss for the endogamous sexual economy. Navin is not blamed (any
which Deepa has forbidden. Bombay itself (as in Guddi) is a possible
more than the film-makers are in Guddi) for causing this obsession.
threat, the city of disruptive fantasies.
On the other hand, Navin's use of his connections to fix Deepa's
Arriving in Bombay alone, Deepa is met by Navin (Dinesh Thakur),
interview is presented with no moral overlays. At once (economically)
who has been sent by Ira, Deepa's host and former college friend
useful and (sexually) dangerous, the figure of Navin is invested
who couldn't come herself. Navin is wearing sunglasses and khadi
with both the fears and desires of the class.
clothes-the sole mark of continuity between his college days, when
Returning to Delhi and awaiting news of her interview
he was a student radical, and his current life as an ad film-maker
Deepa continues to be haunted by Navin's image. Sanjay, who has
with high connections. In a flashback that followed Sanjay's mention
meanwhile been regularly bringing a bunch of tuberoses to replace
of Navin we have already seen him and Deepa as students, at the
the old ones in the vase, has had to go away on duty and is absent
moment when they break up because of a difference of opinion
in this period of continued fascination with the scteen image. When
over a strike. Deepa insists on breaking the strike and going to
Navin's letter arrives, it proves to be quite formal, informing her 'c)f
classes, which leads to an argument and Navin's words of rejection.
her success in the interview, wishing her well, but with no hint of
Deepa's apolitical subjectivity is shown on one more occasion when,
any other emotion. The image finally fades and at that very instant,
trying to persuade Sanjay to leave his urgent office work and meet
178 • Ideology of the Hindi Film Middle-Class Cinema • 179
as she is still holding the letter in her hand, Sanjay reappears at the point of view because its narrative of domestic conflict is intermeshed
door with a bunch of tuberoses, smiling-the image is repeated, with certain cultural questions important to the middle-class cinema's
lingered over, till it suffuses her lately evacuated being. Sanjay has identity. Subir Kumar (Amitabh Bachchan), a popular singer, marries
got his promotion, Deepa decides (on the spot) not to take the job Uma (Jaya Bhaduri), daughter of a traditional brahmanical scholar
in Bombay. and herself a singer in the classical style, although she only sings for
While in Guddi the endogamous group was still represented as her own pleasure. After marriage they decide to sing together (and
a natural (blood-related) one, Rajnigandha takes the logical step only together) in public. popularity soars and recording
forward by introducing a stranger into Deepa's Iife-a stranger who companies ask her to sing solos. She resists but Subir persuades her
is familiar, instantly recognizable, trustworthy. They meet one rainy to break their pledge and accept the offer. Subir is consumed by
day when Sanjay invites her to share his umbrella on the way to envy and the suspicion that she is a better singer. In an attempt to
college. He qUickly becomes a member of the family and endears save the marriage Uma gives up her career, but as the relationship
himself to all with his wit and charm. He talks non-stop about his deteriorates, she goes back to her father's house. She has a miscarriage
job, the union, his rival for promotion, the coming strike, and cannot and enters into a state of deep shock. Subir, now repentant and
be persuaded to act romantically. The familiar grammar of romance trying to save his wife, agrees to a plan that is aimed at making her
which everybody has learnt from the movies is foreign to Sanjay but cry and break out of the state of shock. At a pubUc gathering, Subir
we are assured that a more genuine love lurks behind the clerical sings a song which he had written in happier days, expressing their
facade, signified by the constant supply of tuberoses that he brings longing for a child. Uma breaks down and sings with him.
to Deepa. The title song, which is heard as Deepa paces her home The contrast between the ordinariness of popular music and the
and arranges the flowers, speaks of her longing for the man's love superior skills reqUired for classical singing is deployed in Abhiman
to flourish in her heart as the flowers do in the vase. When the song to proVide the affective aura within which domestic conflict is staged.
exclaims 'How enjoyable is this bondage', it speaks of the flowers The 'light classical' song was reinvented for the middle-class cinema
uncomplainingly standing in the vase in a corner as well as the with Vani Jayaram's 'Bol re papihara' in Guddi. Abhiman includes
woman who stays at home. Another song, played against Deepa some songs of this type. Unlike the popular song that Subir sings at
and Navin's wanderings in Bombay, tells of the mind's (natural) the beginning of the film, the 'classical' song is not presented as a
boundaries which it breaks on occasion and goes in search of spectacle, with the singer dancing on stage. Popular music is meant
'unfamiliar desires'. for others' pleasure, whereas Uma's singing is not addressed to any
In moments of crisis, thus, the spotlight is turned on woman, audience. Parallel to this theme of musical traditions in conflict, the
locating all threats to class identity in the transgressive nature of film also touches upon the question of the conflict between narrative
female desire, a desire that takes its own undiscriminating route to and spectacle. Domestic harmony is broken when, in his desire to
fulfilment, threatening to establish undesirable contact with the lower display Uma's talent to the world, Subir urges her to sing with him
classes (through the cinema) and disruptive political movements in public. Her singing thus acquires an addressee other than herself
(through declassed individuals like the student radical turned ad and the members of her family 8 In Abhiman the classical aura is
film-maker). The polymorphous sexuality of the Bombay woman, maintained by making Jaya a reluctant public singer. The disruptive
Ira, who whispers in Deepa's ear on her departure, that she will effect of her popularity is not her own fault because she did not
'miss her in bed' provides a glimpse into the future in store for want to sing in public.
Deepa if she were to abandon the security of Sanjay's love for the GuIzar's Aandhi (The Storm', 1975) however, does not 'protect'
exhilaration of a renewed affair with Navin. its heroine in this way. Political ambition is the factor that disturbs
The third set of middle-class films deal with post-marital conflicts
"The story of Ahhimatl has echoes of the real-life story of its leading actors,
arising from a variety of factors. In Abhiman and Kora Kagaz, the Amitahh Bachchan and Jaya Bhaduri (as does Si/si/a, a later film). Jaya Bhaduri gave
couples are torn apart by envy and pride. Of these Abhiman ('Pride', up acting after her marriage to Amirahh in a realization of rhe moral of the story of
Hrishikesh Mukherjee 1973) is the more significant film from our Ahhimatl.
180 • Ideology oj the Hindi Film Middle-Class Cinema • 181
domestic harmony in Aandhi. Arati Devi (Suchitra Sen), a popular class cinema the class continues to be identified with an enlarged
politician, goes to a town for campaigning and stays in the only and more diffuse traditional unit, the kinship network or the caste,
hotel there. It is owned by her husband (Sanjeev Kumar), from but the couple emerges into relative autonomy. The sources of conflict
whom she has been estranged for many years. The husband lives in shift from the economic and moral domains to the realm of the
the hotel with his trusted servant. After their encounter at the hotel, psychic, where envy, ambition, pride and other disruptive emotions
a series of flashbacks cover the previous history of their relationship. reside. With the middle-class cinema, women's subjectivity becomes
Arati's father (Rehman) is a man with great political ambitions for a cultural issue.
his daughter and is impatient with her for wasting time in romantic This brings us to the last sub-type of the middle-class cinema,
frolic instead of pursuing a political career. For a while Arati tries to which takes up the construction of a class space as a condition for
balance the two lives but ultimately decides to sacrifice family life the emergence of bourgeois subjectivity. (Anubhav, one of the films
for her political career. In the narrative present, Arati Devi's election
in this category, has already been discussed in Chapter 3.) Piya ka
campaign is jeopardized by gossip about her relationship with the
Ghar (Basu Chatterji 1972) narrates in a humorous mode a couple's
hotel owner. At a public meeting where her rival is exploiting the
trials in the city of Bombay as they search for a place to have sex. In
gossip for political gains, she makes a confession of her true
Rajinder Singh Bedi's Dastak (970), the housing question is
relationship with the hotel owner. After winning the election, she
combined with the thematics of conjugal intimacy in a complex
decides to subordinate her political career to her renewed domestic
narrative that foregrounds some of the central preoccupations of
life.
the middle-class cinema.
Indira Gandhi may have been a possible model for the character
of Arati Devi. Mainly for this reason, Aandhi was banned and then When it was first released, Dastak ('The Knock') achieved
allowed to be re-released with changes. There are references within notoriety for a single shot lasting no more than a couple of seconds
the film to Nehru and Indira Gandhi which leave us in no doubt as in which Rehana Sultan appears in the nude. This 'displacement' of
to the parallels being suggested. However, it is not a 'biopic' that audience attention, which in any case was encouraged by the
purports to be based on Indira Gandhi's life. The protagonist emulates publiCity, points to one of the central contradictions of middle-class
Indira Gandhi and brings suffering upon herself as a result. Arati ideology that the film tries to deal with but itself ultimately succumbs
feels suffocated by the dullness of domestic life and longs to return to. Hamid and Salma, a newly married couple, find an apartment in
to public life. The husband contributes to her rebellion against Bombay after a long search. After moving in, they realize that the
domesticity by his authoritarian ways. In the movement towards previous tenant had been a tawa!! (courtesan) called Shamshad
resolution, both have to acknowledge and atone for their sins. Begum. Her customers, unaware that she has moved, come and
Arati Devi's political career serves as a narrative device to knock on the door and disturb the young couple. The panwala in
symbolize a threat to the middle-class family. Arati is an idealist in front, who owns the apartment, expects to persuade or force the
politics, and is oblivious to the shady dealings of her own su pporters. young woman to become a tawaif. Two youth living in an opposite
She is thus represented as a pawn in the hands of male politicians, apartment watch Salma as she bathes and dresses. As if all these
who exploit her sincerity and honesty. The cinema, the world of signs of scrutiny motivated by voyeuristic interest were not enough,
glamour and advertising, politics: all these have the same function, Hamid finds a framed photograph of a stranger lying in the house
in the middle-class cinema, to signify a threat to the integrity of the and hangs it up on the wall. (This man is later discovered to have
family. With the change in enemies, however, there is also a change been a client of Shamshad Begum.) The mis-en-scene functions to
in the protected object itself. The family unitin these films is nuclear foreground a lack in the conjugal relationship. At first sight it appears
while its field of existence is the class. This is a significant step away to signify the absence of privacy, the difficulty of maintaining a
from the narratives of pre-crisis popular cinema, in which the threat zone of intimacy impervious to the prying eyes of the world. Soon
was directed at the khandan's property and honour, and where the we learn that there is more to it. When Hamid goes away to work,
couple's sexual and affective energies remained harnessed to the Salma is alone, and unaware that she is being watched by the men
furtherance of the khandan's splendour and enjoyment. In middle- across the street, enacts her fantasies. She plays cards with an
182 • Ideology of the Hindi Film Middle-Class Cinema • 183
imaginary partner, smokes a cigarette and dresses up as a man. Her repetition of the feudal one: in the new neighbourhood, he tries to
subjectivity is expressed in these enactments but it is only the intrusive erect a barrier between the world and his own domestic space. But i
eyes of the voyeurs (and, by extension, the spectator) that witness he does not realize initially that the intrusion is not purely external.
her self-expression. Hamid protects her from the world, and orders The photograph of the previous tenant's client, which he himself
her to stay indoors. A caged bird which he brings home for her hangs up in the apartment, clearly indicates that the voyeurs who
symbolizes her condition. When 5alma tells Hamid that it is a crime look in from outside are only external embodiments of a gaze that
to keep a bird in a cage, Hamid replies that the alternative is worse, is inside, haunting the domestic space. When a group of angry men
because the bird would be devoured by animals if it were set free. gathered outside try to force their way in and attack the couple,
Thus for 5alma, the attention of the outside world, while distasteful Hamid, in the midst of the panic, turns to 5alma and asks, 'Who are
at one level, is also a reminder of an aspect of herself that the you 5alma?' This question marks the beginning of the process of
protocols of domestic space prohibit. Listening to a song being sung internal scaffolding by which domestic unity will ultimately come to
by a tawaif in the neighbourhood, 5alma sings the same song to a be secured. It is by going through the role of a tawaif that 5alma
different tune, thereby indicating that the tawaif is also a part of her returns to Hamid as a wife. The film ends with a scene in which a
being, a part that Hamid will not acknowledge. When she finishes former client of 5hamshad Begum enters and before Hamid can
singing, Hamid appreciates the performance for its elevating artistic send him away, 5alma takes up the tanpura and begins to sing. The
qualities but does not hear the expression of desire. man stops to listen to the song. Hamid resolves to kill 5alma and
The middle-class home, whose boundaries are penetrated by positions himself behind her with a knife. At the end of the song,
the voyeuristic gaze of strange men, will achieve its closure only however, 5alma throws the tanpura at the man and turning to Hamid,
when the woman's desire is acknowledged by the husband. The asks for his forgiveness. Hamid declares that he too had 'fallen', and
porousness of the domestic boundaries represents the failure of vows to stay on in the house and fight to protect their home. 5alma
bourgeois subjectivity, whose closure must be achieved not by the whispers in his ear that she is pregnant.
forcible confinement of woman within the walls of the harem or On a visit to 5alma's parental home in the middle of the film, we
behind the veil but by an inter-subjective bond. By confining her in witness a feudal family in decline. 5alma's sister, whom the
the apartment, Hamid, like the strange men, treats 5alma as essentially impoverished family is unable to marry off, soon runs away from
a sexual object. He stands between her and the would-be clients. home. The sister thus falls into the gap between feudal honour and
The problem of the narrative is to constitute the bourgeois couple bourgeois domesticity, a gap created by the decline of the feudal
by achieving an adequation between the two spaces in which a order and the fragmentariness of the new bourgeois patriarchal order.
woman's sexuality is distributed: the home and the brothel. On the In Hamid's office, the Christian typist Maria represents another
one hand, a woman's sexuality is reduced to its reproductive function example of female subjectivity. Maria once types out a little love
and the repression of excess is achieved by the erection of note and leaves it in front of Hamid. When he looks up, she does
impenetrable walls. On the other, a woman is pure sexuality, her not return the look. 5he remains a sympathetic but silent colleague,
quarters open to all comers, but she is also an independent subject, coming to his aid but making no demands. For Hamid she represents
capable of self-expression. This arrangement of sexual relations female subjectivity, a person whose actions and words are not always
corresponds to a despotic political structure. The nuclear couple, reactive or response-seeking. It is precisely what he does not see in
disengaged from the reproductive sexual economy of the feudal 5alma that reveals itself in the form of the mysterious Maria.
home, has yet to find the erotic substance that will cement the Dastak deals with the middle-class Muslim family, whose
relationship and secure it against the feudal public space. (The feudal difficulties are doubled by the minority status of Muslims. The film's
public sphere is out of bounds for an honourable woman, which is conclusion reveals Hamid's resolve to fight for the transformation of
why any woman who shows herself in this space is automatically Muslim society to produce a habitat for the middle-class family. Another
identified as a prostitute.) The couple must produce its own habitat option, however, is explored only to expose the compromises it
through a struggle for domestic space. For Hamid this battle is a necessitates: at first the realization that they are living in a red-light
184 • Ideology of the Hindi Film
Middle-Class Cinema • 185

Symbolizing the lack of closure in the domestic scene, Hamid hangs up a

picture of a stranger found in the house. Sanjeev Kum.r and Rehana Sultan ... but try as they might, they cannot see the other person
in Dastak (Rajendra Singh Bedi 1971). Courtesy National Film Archive of
India, Pune.

The voyeurs can see Salma (Rehana Sultan) talking to someone ...
when the camera moves into the house, we see tInt the Other is
imaginary. Courtesy National Film Archive of India, Pune.
186 • Ideology of the Hindi Film Middle-Class Cinema • 187
district makes the couple decide to move to a better place. Hamid absorbing the libidinal excess of the polymorphous popular film
struggles to find money to pay for an apartment under construction. text. From the contracted voyeurism of the popular film text (and
When asked for his name, he hesitates and comes up with a Hindu the brothel), the middle-class cinema turned its audience towards a
name. The option thus translates into a fugitive existence in the 'realist' voyeurism in which sexuality occurred in the depths of screen
midst of a Hindu middle class. However, the problem of the divided space, as an attribute of subjectivity.
woman whose re-integration is one of the conditions of bourgeois In one of the most intriguing sequences in Dastak, the two voyeurs
subj.ectivity, is not exclusive to Muslim society but also affects Hindus, on the balcony opposite the apartment are seen looking through
as the other films in this category demonstrate. The message of the window at Salma. From where they stand, they can see her
Dastak, however, is that Muslim society must be reformed from only, holding a bunch of playing cards, but her actions suggest that
within by its educated members, instead of running in search of she has company. The two men try to look from various angles but
neutral spaces in which they can only survive by adopting a Hindu cannot catch Sight of Salma's companion. Leaving them behind with
identity. their frustrations, the camera takes the spectator into the room to
The middle-class film foregrounds the problem of bourgeois disclose the truth: Salma is alone and is playing with an imaginary
subjectivity through the exploration of the contradictions and conflicts Hamid. She follows up the card game with more playacting; she
of conjugality. Sometimes the continued hold of the parental family lights up a cigarette, chokes on it and then dresses up as a man. The
over the conjugal scene is the source of the conflict, as in Kora importance of this scene lies in its representation of the imaginary
Kagaz where the wife's rich family tries to compensate for the which startlingly draws our attention to the naive materialism of the
husband's meagre salary by providing modern amenities. In all cases, spectatorial gaze in the popular cinema. As long as we persist, like
however, the woman is at the centre of bourgeois narrative, the the spectator of the popular film and the voyeurs on the balcony, in
journey towards the recognition of woman's subjectivity stands as reading the image as a (partial) representation of objective reality,
proof of the arrival of bourgeois conjugality. our attention is fixed, with intense curiosity, on the point outside
For middle-class cinema as an institution, the thematics of female the frame where Salma's gaze is directed. By means of a leap through
subjectivity and the problem of domestic space form the basis of a the window, however, the camera rallies the spectator behind another
new aesthetic. Homologous to the problem of the domestic space strategy, which permits us to see that the other resides in Salma and
and its unresolved conflicts, the middle-class segment of the industry, is an expression of her subjectivity. The spectator is separated from
in its products, confronted the problem of its own cultural space. In the communal voyeurism of the men on the balcony (such voyeurism
the populist/socialist political climate, [he middle class, whose class is always collective), placed inside the room and made intensely
identity was intimately tied up with an upper-caste status, was more aware that he/she is alon(( with Salma and her fantasies. The
amenable to the exclusivist aesthetic enclosure produced by the bourgeois spectator is invented as a support for the institution of
narratives of domestic conflict than the national integrationist role the middle-class cinema.
delineated in the narratives of martyrdom. Dastak and Phir Bhi (971) belonged to a sub-genre which
The structure of the narrative of Dastak can be read in this context explored sexuality and the question of bourgeois (female) subjectivity.
as an allegory of the middle-class cinema's aesthetic aspirations. But Dastak in particular came to be identified with the sex films,
The gaze mobilized by the popular cinema is a national gaze which which briefly ruled the film scene in India. They were supplemented
reads the woman-in-public as a 'public woman' and thus denies her by the sex education films, another brief eruption in the early
subjectivity. The unity of middle-class cinema as an institution seventies, which represented cinema's taking over of certain develop-
however, depended on an ability to create an audience whose gaze mental functions, particularly the more lucrative Ones. In any case,
is responsive to the subjectivity of the protagonists, especially women. Dastak's attempt to forge an aesthetic predicated on individualized
As such the task that the film-makers undertook was not a voyeurism was negated by the reigning logic of collective voyeurism.
confrontation with the popular cinema but an education of their The bourgeois cultural revolution had to be postponed yet again.
audience in a narrative form which could retain its integrity while
 The Developmental Aesthetic • 189
and tradition, realism and formal experimentation: a multiplicity of
directions were being explored.
Nevertheless, about five years after Bhuvan Shame, when Shyam
Benegal's first film was released, it seemed to many that a 'New
8 Cinema' had just then arrived. Aruna Vasudev, for instance, explains
that before Ankur, 'new modes of perception and technique for both
film-makers and audience were still hazy and barely formulated. In
The Developmental Aesthetic the context of its time, Ankur was a major step' (Vasudev 1986: 40).
While Sen, Chatterji, Mani Kaul, Shahani, and others are hailed as
major figures of the New Cinema, there is also a teleological
perspective on the era which settles on Benegal as the moment of

T
he FFC's policy shift, as we have seen, is usually traced to arrival, after a preliminary phase of experimentation. It is as if his
1969, when Mrinal Sen's Bhuvan Shame was released, films contained the essence of the New Cinema.
heralding a new aesthetic turn. But it was initiated much earlier, Benegal was the first major figure not financed by the FFC to be
for it was in 1964 that Indira Gandhi, as Information and Broadcasting identified with this movement. His first two films were financed by
Minister, prompted a change in policy that was carried out by Blaze Advertising, the company for which he had been making
B.K. Karanjia. From 1964 until 1968, when Sen got the loan for commercials. The third, Manthan, was financed by collections from
Bhuvan Shame, though the new policy of encouraging low-budget the members of a milk co-operative in Gujarat. Vasudev regards the
'art' films had benefited Satyajit Ray and a few others, it had not entry of private financing as 'the signs of a widening of the base of
gathered momentum as a national aesthetic programme (Vasudev the means of production' (ibid: 40). Like many others who write on
1986: 33-4). The conditions for such a momentum emerged in the Indian cinema, Vasudev regards the New Cinema as a long-gestating,
late sixties, mainly in the form of a small, politicized audience, the aesthetic propensity nourished by the FFC project and coming into
arrival of new directors and actors from the Film Institute, and the its own with the entry of private finance. From the early 'gropings'
rise of a re-invigorated Congress socialism. In such conditions, what of KA Abbas, Bimal Roy and others, the 'genesis' in Ray, to the FFC
had until then been an isolated policy decision suddenly became project and its adoption by private finance, what Vasudev presents
the rallying point for a cultural movement, reminiscent of an earlier is an evolutionary history culminating in the emergence of the 'good
national cultural initiative by the left, the Indian People's Theatre film'. The changing conditions of production are thus explained as
Association. external constraints and contexts. As such, with the expansion of
The list of films made in the first few years after Bhuvan Shame the 'base of the means of production' the aesthetic undergoes
demonstrates the diversity of formal and thematic concerns, maturation and expands its sphere of influence but remains essentially
techniques and political positions that were emerging at the time: the same.
Basu Chatterji's Sara Akash, Kantilal Rathod's Kanku, Shivendra I am less interested in disputing the claim made on behalf of
Sinha's Phir Bhi, Mani Kaul's Uski Roti, Kumar Shahani's Maya Ankur than in investigating the reasons for the success of this aesthetic
Darpan, Avtar Kaul's 27 Down, Basu Bhattacharya's Anubhav, re-formulation in redrawing the map of the New Cinema movement
Chidanand Das Gupta's Bilet Pherat, Satyadev Dubey's Shantata, so as to place itself at the centre. It is equally important to return to
Court Chalu Ahe, Pattabhi Rama Reddy's Samskara, Girish Karnad and the texts of other film-makers and track the exploration of other
BV Karanth's Vamsa Vriksha, Kamad's Kaadu, Adoor Gopalakrishnan's significant aesthetic choices which may have had limited popular
Swayamvaram, M.T. Vasudevan Nair's Nirmalyam, Mrinal Sen's success but which demonstrate that the triumph of the 'realist'
Interview, Calcutta 71, Chorus. The travails of the urban middle- aesthetic was not a foregone conclusion. My concern here, however,
class, questions of women's agency and sexuality, social satire, agit- is less with an alternative Indian film history and more with the
prop, critiques of feudal power structures, conflicts of modernity
190 • Ideology of the Hindi Film The Developmental Aesthetic • 191
investigation of the cultural politics of the cinema and the dominant The State and the Nation
ideological tendencies.
Apart from the entry of private finance, the availability of
The basic stnJcture of this realist mode of representation can be
exhibition time in the foreign film theatres was an important
traced to Bhuvan Shame, a fact which is somewhat obscured by its
institutional factor in the growth of the New Cinema. The industry,
comic narrative. Shome, a stern and unbending bureaucrat, goes on
faced with scarcity and high cost of theatre rentals, had for some
a holiday to the western state of Gujarat after ordering the dismissal
time been demanding that the foreign film theatres should be made
of a ticket collector accused of taking a bribe. In the course of this
to reserve part of their exhibition time for Indian films. The FFC
holiday he is transformed into a more caring, slightly insane, human
programme increased the pressure for such reservation. In 1971,
being who sheds his stiff demeanour and even reinstates the ticket
when the five-year contract for import of Hollywood films came up
collector. The main agent of this transformation is a charming nJstic
for reconsideration, the government decided not to renew it. This
woman who, it turns out, is the wife of the ticket collector. She breaks
decision resulted in part from the United States' aggressive posturing
through his tough exterior and humanizes him with her innocence
on behalf of Pakistan during the recently-ended Bangladesh war.
and exuberance. The visual dimension of the transformation is the
The decision was also justified by making a case for more imports
shaking up and softening of the bureaucrat's body through subjection
from other film producing countries and breaking the monopoly of
to a series of unfamiliar movements. Utpal Dutt's brilliant acting is
Hollywood. This did happen to some extent. It was as a result of
thus of vital importance to the effects of the film. (Sen has
this policy that Indian audiences got to see films from France,
acknowledged Jacques Tati as an inspiration.) The buffalo chase is
Germany, Japan, Poland and other countries in commercial theatres.
one of the highlights of the film, where the comedy derives from
However, since these imports were canalized through a government
the contrast between the bureaucrat's customary stiffness and the
body, exhibition time was not monopolized by foreign distributors
transforming power of fear, helplessness and speed.
and remained available for the local product. But exhibition space
Sen has said that the details of the narrative were made up on
is not value-neutral. Only a certain kind of Indian cinema could be
the spot, and has even attributed some of the episodes to Utpal
exhibited in theatres which were associated in the public mind with
Dutt's imagination. The basic stnJcture, however, consists of a relation
the aesthetic modes of Hollywood.
between centre and margin, state and nation. Quite literally, here
Benegal forged a distinct aesthetic with elements drawn from
the bureaucrat encounters the nation in a remote corner of the state
various sources to fill this gap. While the realist tendency represented
and is humanized by the experience. Set in the late forties, this basic
by Ray was important to the formulation of the Benegal aesthetic,
stnJcture can be described as a national allegory, enacting the
the more proximate sources were the realist films made under the
realization of independence through a transformation of the relations
FFC aegis, in particular the energetic regional cinemas of Karnataka
between state and nation. It is the narrative of a bureaucracy,
and Kerala. Ray's had been a humanist realism, akin to the
preViously serving the colonial project of domination, which must
'documentary humanism' of the photographer Cartier-Bresson and
now establish a more intimate relation with the world over which it
perhaps to the cinema of Jean Renoir. Ray's Apu trilogy had already
nJles. It is the allegory of transition from colonial domination to
inaugurated the project of representing the nation, and charting the
independence, in which the object of transformation appears to be
emergence of India. However, his work retained an aura of individual
the bureaucracy, which represents the continuity between the colonial
artistic achievement. This is why critics referred to the FFC project
state and the independent one. This link with the past, which
rather than to the work of Ray as the beginning of the New Cinema
condemns it to a position of external domination, is broken by an
movement in India. Under the FFC aegis, realism became a national
immersion in the awkwardnesses of Indian everyday life. The film
political project. Bhuvan Shame represents this dimension of the
thus enacts the submission of the inherited and overarching power
project. It was a realism devoted to the mapping of the land,
of the state to a reworking that must go through the people.
producing the nation for the state, capturing the substance of the
While developing the basic structure of the realist mode, Sen's
state's boundaries.
 The Developmental Aesthetic • 193
192 • Ideology a/the Hindi Film
Kaadu (both 1973) are the best examples of this tendency. A village
politically radical move was to suggest that the consolidation of the temple is the site of the conflict in Nirmalyam, offering opportunities
nation-state's democratic structure could only come through a for spectacle such as the temple festival and the oracle's final frenzied
subjection of the metalanguage of the state to a process of 'corruption' dance and public suicide. With the erosion of the feudal system
by the languages of the indigenous population. The body's which sustained the temple, the villagers including the oracle's family
conventional, 'standardized' language is corrupted by the strange adapt to the changing situation while the oracle makes a defiant
'dialects' that it has never before spoken-running, twitching, exit, rejecting both the new order, as well as the one which betrayed
jumping, etc. Bhuvan Shame erects the realist edifice only to subvert him. The fascination of the feudal order in decline was also the
it through a narrative that critically comments upon the politics of source of the power of Kaadu. The climax of this film also features
realism. The celebration of the 'simple, charming and authentic' a village festival at which the tensions between two neighbouring
story by commentators misses the complexity of Sen's political vision. villages explode in a violent finale. The feudal landlord, played by
If the bureaucrat's body represents the metalanguage of realism, Amrish Puri, exudes a power that cast a spell on urban audiences
Sen's narrative undermines its position of eminence in relation to and led to a series of similar roles for Puri. The landlord's wife tries
the 'object language' of the nation's regional extremities and makes to win her husband back from a lover in the neighbouring village
it go through a reconstruction from below. The congealed definition by recourse to black magic while the entire narrative is anchored in
of corruption in the language of the bureaucracy is subjected to the innocent curiosity of the young son, who acts as a surrogate
change. It is not a question here of 'condoning' corruption but of intra-textual point of relay for the urban spectator's voyeuristic
making visible the gap between the language of the state and the pleasure in the contemplation of the 'distant' feudal order.
realities of everyday life, the contradictions arising from the In dealing with such feudal narratives it is tempting to regard the
formulation of legal codes without the participation of the people in use of a figure of relay, like the child in Kaadu, as a device to bring
the process. A film made under the aegis of an institution selVing a distant and strange world closer to the audience. However, the
the project of passive revolution, Bhuvan Shame inverts the relations realist project of representing feudalism in a society like India does
between state and nation assumed in that project and submits the not face the problem of a gap that must be bridged as much as a
state to a transformative process. proximity which requires to be negated by a process of distancing.
The result of this process of subversion of the realist hierarchy of This gives to the mediating figures a wholly different function. The
discourses is a conclusion in which the bureaucrat's craziness is feudal world is not already distant, and needs to be made distant by
matched by an editing pattern that Sen himself described as 'all the narrative. The familiarity of the feudal world and its proximity to
erratic and illogical' (Sen 1977: 40), disrupting the realist conventions the everyday world of the urban audience is a mark of the composite
and leaving the spectator with a sense of a world devoid of rationality. nature of the postcolonial society. The consolidation of the nation-
Sen's own commentary on the film seems to suggest his state thus requires the production of a distance and a hierarchy, not
embarassment at how it concludes, as it dwells too much on the the bridging of an already existing gap. True, there is an already
'mad kick' of the final sequence and detracts from its critical force existing hierarchy, but it is the continuing power of this existing
by tracing it to his own and Utpal Dutt's 'private experiences'. Perhaps order that must be counteracted by the establishment of a new
Sen is putting in an 'insanity plea' to escape charges of abetting hierarchy in which the old order is distanced in its entirety, as a
corruption' The corruption episode, however, is a critical challenge world. This process of institution of a new hierarchy based in the
to those who regard a top-down enforcement of the constitution as pre-eminence of the modern state is a continuation of the process
the way to achieve a socialist democracy. by which, during British colonial rule, a clarification of the existing
The subsequent development of the realist aesthetic retained the social order resulted in the production of a new patriarchal order as
basic structure of the relation between state and nation but discarded the point of departure for Indian nationalism. In pre-British India
the subversive commentary on it that distinguished Bhuvan Shame. the social order was a horizontal web in which patriarchally organized
The regional cinemas of Kerala and "Karnataka further elaborated communities existed side by side with matrilineal ones, as well as
the realist mode. M.T. Vasudevan Nair's Nirmalyam and Karnad's
 194 • Ideology of the Hindi Film The Developmental Aesthetic • 195
other patriarchal orders conflicting with each other. British rule, the undifferentiated social by a process of hierarchization, would be
through the identification of Brahminical Hinduism and Islam as the re-absorbed into a regional cultural formation. In India, regionalism
two patriarchal orders with nation-wide validity, inaugurated a is still associated with feudalism. The citizen-function could only
process of the construction of that validity. This internal distancing achieve stability (and function as the distinguishing mark of an
effect was crucial to the emergence of a national movement. aesthetic) if it could be inscribed in a more tangibly hierarchical
A similar strategy of internal distancing is at work in the realist discursive order. The regional cinema's realist efforts, in other words,
aesthetic of these representations of feudalism. Thus, the child who could not sustain the metalanguage of realism because their languages
relays the spectatorial gaze in Kaadu serves two functions: 0) the were themselves region-specific. The solution was to deploy Hindi
more obvious function of serving as a diegetic motivation for the as the metalanguage in relation to which the regions, their languages
voyeuristic gaze, a rationalization of the spectator's vantage; (2) the and cultures would automatically fall into place as the objective
production of a distance, a virtual, pan-textual depth-effect which is suhstance.
different from the cumulative effect of the employment of depth of Benegal's central importance to the realist programme derives
field in the representation of profilmic space. The effectivity of this from his successful construction of just this classic realist hierarchy.
distancing strategy is not to be gauged by the nature of the images A minor event in the career of the Benegal aesthetic helps explain
deriving from it but by the spectatorial position that is produced as the nature of the discursive hierarchy and its significance. Soon after
a consequence. This position is the manifestation within the field of the release of Ankur, Screen published a letter from Aziz Qaisi of
cinema of the citizen/state as a medium of cultural intelligibility. Hyderabad, who complained that his contribution to the film had
The use of sexuality as a site of exploration of the fascinations of not been properly acknowledged in the credits. He claimed that
feudal power is another recurring feature of the realist aesthetic that although he had written the dialogue for the film, Satyadev Dubey
is prefigured in Kaadu. The tension arising from the conflict between had been given credit for it, and his own name had appeared in a
the two Villages is heightened by the sense of danger and adventure subordinate function. (Qaisi is credited with 'dialect' and his name
involved in the narrative detail of the feudal lord's mistress being a is placed below that of Dubey, in smaller type.) In his reply, Benegal
resident of the other Village. The boy's curiosity about sex and the explained that Dubey had written both the script and the dialogue
wife's frustrations add to the centrality of the sexual thematics to the for the film. But since the film was set in rural Andhra Pradesh, it
feudal narrative. The film encodes the sexual scenes with suggestions was decided to use the Dakhani Urdu spoken in that region in
of savagery, primal physicality, innocence and erotic wilfulness. Right order to heighten the realism. Qaisi had been commissioned to
up to Govind Nihalani's Aakrosh (980), the power and fascination 'translate' the dialogue written by Dubey into this regional dialect.
of the feudal world was linked in realist cinema with images of the As such it was proper to give primary credit to Dubey and not to the
untamed sexuality of feudal lords, their mistresses and peasants. letter writer. 1
Although the regional cinema's strategies of distanciation We need not concern ourselves with the justness of this rationale.
produced a realist spectatorial position coinciding with that of the What interests us is the conception of the relations between
state, its regional-ness was still a hindrance to its national effectiVity. metalanguage and object language that lies at the heart of the
This is why the realist cinema of the regions, which arose at the formulation. For Benegal, the regional specificity achieved through
same time as its Hindi counterpart, is still relegated to a subordinate the use of a 'dialect' amounted to the enrichment of an already
role in the histories of the New Cinema. These films belonged to complete text. Qaisi's complaint is based on the perception that the
specific regional and linguistic formations whose cultural difference specificity of the film text derives from its regional setting and
conflicted with their ability to communicate the distancing effect therefore cannot be detached from its use of the regional language.
outside the regions where they were produced. In a multi-lingual But for the 'central producer', the abstract text of the realist narrative
state, this distancing effect needed a supplementary articulation that can be potentially filled by any regional content. Its meaning, for
would provide the aesthetic with a national ground for its operation,
otherwise there was a risk that the citizen-function, wrested from 1See Screen, 17 1975, p. 2.
196 • Ideology of the Hindi Film
the national spectator, is not 'Andhra' or 'Dakhani'. The regional
The DevelopmentalcAesthetic • 197
element is there simply to signify 'regional' as a means of establishing
the centre-margin relation as a frame of cultural intelligibility. If the
authentic representation of the regional were at issue, Ankurwould
be a bad example of it. The fact that the characters speak Dakhani
makes the spectacle authentic only from the point of view of the
subject who speaks a standardized Hindi/Hindustani. In reality, the
people of Andhra speak both Dakhani and Telugu and most of the
characters in A nkurand Nlsharzt could be expected to speak Telugu
'in real life'. Since 'region' in general (paradoxical as that may seem)
and not 'Andhra' in particular is the real signified of the representation,
this relation reminds us once again that the most important product
of this representational strategy is the viewer, not the viewed. By
inventing 'regionality' as a grid of intelligibility, the new cinema was
able to forge a new aesthetic of statist realism.
Beriegal's first three films do not deploy the realist mode of
representation in the same way. It is therefore necessary to examine
each of them in some detail to trace both the unique achievements
of each one and to assess their cumulative cultural significance. Or. A periscopic rda y of the look from the zamindar to the poor village woman
the latter question it can be said at the outset, in the form of a passes through the spectator: Shabana Azmi and Anant Nag in Ankur(Shyam
hypothesis, that the movement through the three films in question Benegal 1974). Courtesy National Rilm Archive of India, Pune.
is a movement towards the consolidation of a developmental aesthetic
allied to the contemporaneous stage of the passive revolution.
revolution, to admit, in other words, that the nation-state is not
yet governed by contract Thus the pastness of feudalism is a re-
presentational protocol which retroactively 'proves' the post-feudal,
Spectacles of Rebellion contractual nature of the present. No other purpose is served, for
instance, by setting the narrative of Nishant in '1945', and 'in a feudal
In Arzkurand Nlsharzt, the narratives of feudalism are set in the past, state'. The narrative itself contains little by way of historical detail
that tOG in a past doubly distanced from the present by the rupture which substantiates and justifies the precise dating, The date is simply
of independence. The pastness of feudalism is a necessary protocol a device of distanciation that enables the spectator to gain access to
of realist representation. Realism, as argued earlier, is a mode of the fascination and power of the spectacle of feudal oppression and
cultural production that is tied to the fiction of the social contract. rebellion without being reminded of its proximity in time and space,
The legal citizen-subject of the modern capitalist state is its only without undermining the realist spectatorial position.
possible addressee. In the post-colonial Indian state, the proclamation Arzkur(l974) tells the stOlY of an absentee zamindar's son Surya
of the social contract in 1950 did not put an end to the feudal order. (Anant l'iag), who having failed his examinations, is despatched to
In the early seventies, the audience for the New Cinema's narratives the village to look after the land. In a hut close to the zamindar's
of feudalism were well aware that the immediate provocation for house lives a woman Lakshmi (Shabana Azmi), who is employed in
this aesthetic venture was the post-independence peasant struggles the house as a servant with her mute husband Kishtayya (Sadhu
against feudalism, especially the rise of Naxalism. But to admit the Meher), who drives a cart and does other odd jobs for the master.
contemporaneity of feudalism would be to place the citizen-subject Accused of theft and shamed before the community by the zamindar's
addressee of realism at the hypothetical end-point of a still ongoing son. the husband runs away, Surya seduces Lakshmi and she begins
to live in the house as his mistress, After some time, the young
198 • Ideology of the Hindi Film The Developmental Aesthetic • 199
zamindar's wife, who had remained in her parents' home, comes to way of leading up to the climax. The motivation for the endmb
join him in the village, putting an end to the relationship with Lakshmi. derives from the representational dynamics of the preceding narrauve
The father arrives and restores water rights to' his mistress's family and the extra-textual 'demand' for the spectacle of peasant revolt
which the son had taken away. Kishtayya also returns one night that the film promised to satisfy.3 There was no question, then, of
and is pleased to see his wife pregnant. The next morning, telling not including in the text a glimpse of the violence of feudal oppression
Lakshmi that he will go and ask the zamindar for work, Kishtayya and revolt. The question was how to prepare the ground for it, how
sets out with a stick in hand. Striding purposefully, he walks along to frame it in such a way as to contain its potential for challenging
the ridges of the paddy field, with his arms stretched across the stick the citizen-figure's own position. It was not a question of building a
resting on his shoulders. The young zamindar, watching him naturalist case for the spectacle but of erecting a structure within
approach, grows anxious, suspecting that the man is coming to which rebellion could be produced as spectacle. The possibilities of
confront him. As his fear mounts, he runs into the house and comes manipulation lay not in the details of the narrative but the dynamic
back with a stick and when the smiling man approaches, starts in which the spectator was engaged with the figures of the
beating him. People gather, Kishtayya takes the blows without represented.
retaliating and Lakshmi comes running to save her husband. She Upto the point when the denouement begins to unfold, the text
curses the young zamindar, who goes back into the house and shuts functions through the deployment of two structures of relay, one
the door. A young boy, who had witnessed the beating, stands staring intellectual, the other libidinal. The three figures who form the three
at the house. The film ends as he picks up a stone and throws it at points of these paths of relay are the spectator, the urbanized
the house. zamindar and the object world of the feudal social order, represented
Ankur's ending generally evoked positive responses. It was seen by the figure of the servant woman. Their positions in the two
as a powerful moment which captured in miniscule the awakened relational paths can be represented as follows:
consciousness of the innocent oppressed peasant. The years had
not dulled the pain nor blunted the power of Ankur's climax', 1. The intellectual relay:
remarked the critic Maithili Rao in 1991, 17 years after its release. Spectator •Zamindar .. • Servant woman.
While this was the general opinion, Satyajit Ray, in his comments on 2. The libidinal relay:
the film soon after its release, raised the question of the credibility Zamindar • Spectator .. • Servant woman.
of the conclusion from a realist point of view. The whole denouement
The first path belongs to the ethnographic dimension of the
has the air of being conceived as a forced rounding-off of a stOll'
representation. The spectator's relation to the represented image
whose normal course would have led to an impasse' (Ray 1992:
here is one of curiosity about the inner workings of feudal society,
103). Ray's reading betrays his unfamiliarity with the context in which
the desire to gain knowledge about the 'unfamiliar' world of the
Benegal's film was made. Missing the strong evocation of 'feudalism'
feudal other. In realizing this wish, the zamindar's son functions as
in the film, he regards the hero as 'a rather trite symbol of urban
an intermediary. By having been a town-dweller, himself not very
pollution invading the pure air of the country' (ibid: 102-3)2
familiar with the village, he goes through a process of learning that
As a film promoted and received as an example of 'political
makes him an unwitting 'native infonnant'. At the same time, he is
cinema', the abrupt ending of Ankur was more important to the
not urbanized enough to consciously adopt an ethnographic apprOQch
effectivity of the text than a conclusion deriving from the 'natural'
to the field which would place him more in our space than in the
propensities of the narrative. Indeed, it can be said that it is the
space of the represented. It is important for him to be an unwilling
narrative preceding the denouement that had to be contrived as a
3Benegal himself anributed the success of the New Cinema to the exislence of
2Ray was later to try his hand at the New Cinema style of realism in Sadgati a demand. 'Political cinema will only emerge when there a need for such a
(981), a film made for television. In 1974, however, he refused to see a'nything new cinema,' he observed. 'We have to realise that whatever films are made can only be
in the FFC-inspired aesthetic or Senegal's reworking of il. shown if there i5 a need for such latent demand that is tapped' (Rizvi and
Amlad 1980: 7-8).
 The Developmental Aesthetic • 201
200 • Ideology of the Hindi Film
point of relay of our desire for knowledge. In one of the scenes at
the beginning, when we are still in the process of being led around
the place to familiarize ourselves with it, the zamindar's son asks
the servant woman if she has ever seen a film. She says yes and
names the Telugu film Balanagamma. This popular film from the
early forties helps to date the narrative or to indicate the distance
between the film-literate spectator and Lakshmi. But the scene is
also meant to enact the intermediary role of the zamindar's son. He
has no particular use for the bit of information which he has extracted
but we do. The zamindar's relay function must be 'unsolicited' because
otherwise he would be the conscious agent of our investigation.
Our detachment from him, on the other hand, assures us a position
of non-complicity with the feudal power and the objectivity of the
knowledge produced, while sustaining our sympathy with the
oppressed peasant as the overt justification of the exercise.
In the shadow of the intellectual relay structure, which provides
Tell me something about yourself. .. .' In an ethnographic relay, the
one logic of representation, and as a supplement to it, there functions
spectator's curiosity about the oppressed is satisfied through the unwitting
another, the libidinal relay structure. Here the spectator becomes the mediation of the YGung zaminda'i-. A scene from-i1nkur. Courtesy National
'unwitting'-though not unwilling-point of relay for the zamindar's Film Archive of India, Pune.
gaze directed towards the servant woman as well as her desire for
him. The material evidence for this lies both in the. narrative ordering,
conversation. The distribution of figures and spaces thus compels
as well as in a recurring shot composition in which the three points
the spectator to function as the point of relay, as the empty conduit
are arranged in such a way as to force the look to be relayed through
in a circuit, whose points of emanation and arrival are elsewhere.
the spectator. On the narrative plane, the spectator is first afforded a
The mediated depth produced by the intellectual relay is here negated
brief glimpse of Lakshmi, before cutting to Surya in the city. Lakshmi
by the spectator's direct access to the other as sexual object by
is praying for a child. Throughout the film, occasional glimpses of
virtue of the unwitting function of relay. Another scene, when Surya
Lakshmi as she ponders her situation enable a veiled relation between
encounters Lakshmi near the well in the backyard, shows the same
the two points. In these moments of solitude, Lakshmi discloses her
relational structure in lateral inversion. The same positions of the
own desire, revealing to us an intention that Surya is not aware of. two figures in the frame are maintained, woman in foreground and
Visually, there is a supplementary strategy of shot composition which man in the background. The look and its object similarly cannot
places the spectator at the node of a periscopic conveyance of the
meet without mediation, aithough they are 'intended' for each other.
gaze. Thus, in one of the scenes which develop their love relation,
In the process of serving as the point of relay, the spectator is afforded
Lakshmi is in the foregrounrl, facing camera, while Surya is sitting
a direct access to the image of the woman.
up in bed in the background, and looking through the open doors
Thus, during the film's middle segment in which the love relation
into the room where Lakshmi is standing. As she is positioned to
between the two unfolds, an intimacy between the spectator and
one side of the door, he cannot see her directly. His gaze is directed
the woman is established by means of the Iibi9inal relay structure.
straight at the camera but is coded as directed at her. Her look is
The middle section constitutes an interregnum, a restful pause in
directed downwards and to the ldt, crossing the open door and
the linear narrative during which the libidinal theme unfolds. During
settling on a point to screen right but outside the frame. Her look is this segment the spectator is drawn into an intimate complicity in
thus directed out of the relay structure, although it is also coded as
inclining towards the z3mindar, since they are engaged in
 202 • Ideology of tbe Hindi Film The Developmental Aesthetic • 203
the unfolding of the sexual relation between the zamindar and the walks towards the house is simply an expression of his innocent
servant woman. and energetic rural persona. The zamindar does not. This difference
After the erotics of feudalism, however, the spectator must in knowledge for the first time liberates us from the compact in
confront the reality of the exploitative relation in which he/she has which we were bound to the zamindar and places us in a position
been seduced into participating. How is the spectator to extricate of objective arbitration, as well as identification with the peasant..
himlherself from this complicity so as to be able to identify with the Had we not been in possession of this additional knowledge, our
oppressed? It is here that the dramatic climax of the film comes to speculations about the approaching Kishtayya's intentions might have
the spectator's rescue. TIle film has enacted a voyeurism that captures been closer to those of the zamindar, thus traumatically foregrounding
the ruraVprimordial in its field. The breaking of the voyeuristic nexus, our complicity and undermining our assumed position of objectiVity.
however, is so engineered as to spare the spectator and enable a However, erotic exploitation, in which the spectator is complicit,
last minute switch of loyalties. The spectator knows that the goes 'unpunished'. Instead, we witness the zamindar's beating of
voyeuristic interregnum will have to come to an end but he/she Kishtayya with a consciousness of its wrongness. When the little
does not anticipate the intensely pleasurable way in which this parting boy throws a stone at the house at the end, we are grateful for it, we
of ways with the zamindar will be staged. Our ability to switch are able to stand with him because we know that the stone is not
loyalties at this point depends on a supplement of knowledge. This directed at the sexual exploitation in which we were complicit. Had
is provided by two scenes: in the first, Kishtayya, finding Lakshmi the stone been motivated by a different revenge, we might have
pregnant, is happy and takes her to the temple, demonstrating that been at the receiving end of it.
he has no suspicions on that score; in the second, he indicates to his The 'power' of Arzkur's climax, which has provoked so much
wife his intention of going to the zamindar to ask for work. Armed comment, thus derives from the sense of relief and pleasant surprise
with this knowledge, we recognize that his aggressive stride as he that we feel when we are rescued from the merzage-a-trois and
placed on the side of the oppressed for the brief space of a stone-
throwing incident. Responding to the 'demand' for a political cinema,
Arzkur proVides the pleasures of voyeuristic contemplation of the
feudal world as well as the opportunity to vicariously participate in
the peasants' moment of awakening, without ever calling into
question the spectator's own position.
Muteness and innocence are the primary attributes of the
oppressed in this school of New Cinema. In Arzkur, Kishtayya is
literally mute. In Nisharzt (975), Benegal's second film, the peasants
suffer the landlord's injustices silently until they are awakened by
two leaders. In Arzkur, peasant rebellion was represented symbolically
in the form of a child's act of protest. In Nisharzt, a full-scale peasant
uprising, a spectacle of violence, explodes on the screen. While
some of the representational strategies from Artkurare carried over,
Nisharzt approaches a more explicit and direct representation of
feudal violence and retaliation. Of the three films, Nisharzt is the
least reassuring because in it the possibilities of a framed and
distanced presentation of the spectacle of peasant violence are
The revolt of the oppressed, shown here as a young boy throWing a stone strained to the point of rupture. It is not surprising that Nisharzt was
at the zamindar's house, is coded as spontaneous and innocent. A frame the least successful of the three films. All its representational strategies
from the last shot in Ankur. Courtesy National Film Archive of India, Pune. could not effectively contain the force of the spectacle of peasant
204 • Ideology oj the Hindi Film The Developmental Aesthetic • 205
violence. The struggle for narrative control over spectacle is clearly with a mysterious fascination. Catching him looking, one of the
lost at the end. By its evocation of anarchy, the film hinted that the older brothers discovers his desire and together they kidnap Susheela
position of the sympathetic consumer that the spectator was able to and take her home. She is raped by the brothers and confined to a
occupy in Ankurwas in fact not available, that peasant unrest was room in the house. The schoolmaster, having failed to mobilize the
capable of breaking through the barriers erected by the leadership villagers behind him (although they had witnessed the kidnapping),
as well as the representational grids put in place by artists, and bangs on the door of the manor but to no avail. The next day, he
gathering a momentum all its own. tries in vain to get the police, a lawyer and the district collector to
Nishant tells the story of a village ruled over by a family of help him fight the iniustice. Meanwhile, Susheela becomes a part of
brothers who exploit the villagers economically and sexually. The the feudal household, living there as a mistress and attended by
unmarried head of the family is Anna (it is only the Telugu word for Pochamma, the maid. The schoolmaster, driven to extremes of despair
'brother' but this is how he is addressed) who rules over the village and frustration, leaves his job and sits in the temple. Susheela,
and his manor with a brutal hand. Of his three younger brothers, meanwhile, becomes more and more entrenched in the feudal
the first two (Anant Nag and Mohan Agashe) are brutal womanizers. household.
The wife of one escaped to her parents' home and never returned Meeting her husband at the temple one day, Susheela accuses
while the other committed suicide. The youngest is the timid Viswam him of lacking the manliness to confront the oppressor and liberate
(Naseeruddin Shah) who disapproves of his brothers' activities but her from his clutches. Resolving to fight, the schoolmaster, with the
does not heed his wife's (Smita Pati\) advice to stay away from assistance of the priest, begins to campaign among the villagers,
them. urging them to rise up against the oppression. The mobilization of
The film begins with the p.' discovering early one morning the villagers begins at a buffalo fight where the villagers are gathered
that the temple jewels have Leen stolen. In the pit where the jewels and continues through a series of meetings and a final gathering for
were kept the priest finds a locket. With a close-up of Viswam's a street play based on the Ramayana, where the priest reminds the
worried face, we enter the feudal manor and we learn, through the villagers that suffering oppression silently is as sinful as oppression
conversation between him and his wife as well as a later scene, that itself. On the day of final confrontation, the residents of the feudal
the brothers had stolen the jewels. Meanwhile Shams uddin manor awake to find that none of the servants have come to work.
(Kulbhushan Kharbanda), the policeman stationed in the Village, As they cope with the situation, distant sounds announce the
arrives to document the theft and the homeless man who was seen beginning of the temple procession. The procession stops before
sleeping 01) the temple steps in the beginning is jokingly accused manor and the eldest brother goes to the temple car to make his
by another villager of having stolen the jewels. An oracle, dancing offerings. The schoolmaster makes the first move, and soon the
and singing, identifies the thief as a man of strength, unmarried and landlord is beaten to death. The peasants enter the manor and a
a drunkard. The homeless man, fearing that suspicion will fall on battle ensues. Meanwhile, Viswam grabs Susheela and leaving his
him, begins to retreat from the crowd and is caught and accused of wife Rukmini behind, escapes from the house to the hills. After
the crime. Anna Jeats him with a stick and he is taken away by the killing the rest of the family, the peasants run towards the hills to
police. Anna talks to the priest about renovating the temple and capture the runaway couple, with the wounded schoolmaster running
replacing the jewels and 'persuades' the priest to return Viswam's behind them. Entering the manor, a little boy surveys the devastation.
locket. He comes upon the priest, sitting on the floor, paralysed by the
The new schoolmaster (Girish Karnad), his wife Susheela (Shabana violent spectacle he has witnessed. As the boy runs away, the priest
Azmi) and their young son arrive in a horse-cart and take up residence rises and covers the body of the dead Rukmini with his shawl.
in the small house allotted to them in the school compound. Their Outside, the boy is still running and in the last shot the rest of the
domestic life is settled and happy except for Susheela's longing :or children are seen huddled together in the safety of the temple.
a big mirror which hints at a disruptive narcissism. Curious and Nishant offers the spectator a considerably less secure position
free-spirited, she attracts the attention of Viswam who stares at her of contemplation than Ankur. Vijay Tendulkar's script includes many
206 • Ideology of the Hindi Film The Developmental Aesthetic • 207
brutal scenes of feudal violence and the fascinating power of the the peasant uprising. Here the realist narrative is overlaid with an
big brother is counteracted by the obscene, thoughtless viciousness epic structure that enables the transformation of feudalism into
of the brothers Anjaiah and Prasad. In the scene where these two spectacle. Her repeated demands for a big mirror and new clothes
brothers tell a poor peasant to send his wife to them at night, the indicate a narcissistic preoccupation with looks. Soon after their
camera shifts to a perspective from behind the woman, seeming for arrival in the village, the schoolmaster stops to talk to the tWo brothers
a disturbing moment to share in her mute suffering, unsettling the who have parked their car outside the school and are chatting with
voyeuristic economy of feudalism-as-spectacle. There and later in the policeman about filling up a pit in front of the school. Seeing his
the feudal manor, her mute submission is emphasized as the brothers wife looking out at them through the window, he gestures to her
refer to her and other women as cows. But at the same time the film surreptitiously to withdraw. She fails to understand. Back in the
is unable to ground the rebellion in the peasants' understanding of house, he rebukes her for not behaving as befits a schoolmaster's
their condition. It is only through the intervention of a man motivated wife. A little later Susheela comes out of the house dressed carelessly
by his own need for revenge that they are mobilized for a battle and walks unselfconsciously to a shop where she is seen by Viswam
with the oppressor. who stares at her. A third scene follows in which her unwitting
Like the young zamindar in Ankur, the schoolmaster is an seduction of Viswam is csrried a step further. Passing by a high wall
intermediary who is neither organically a part of the represented behind which a peasant who did not pay his dues to the landlord is
world not completely alienated from it. As a studious and responsible being eVicted, she stops and peers over the wall at the scene. Viswam,
schoolmaster who comes from the town on a transfer, he brings who is standing there, stares at her again and is caught doing so by
values which are alien to the feudal order that reigns in the Village. Prasad. That night, teasing him for keeping his desire a secret, they
But at the same time he is not a conscious modernizer, and is himself offer to bring her home for him. As the schoolmaster's family sit
mindful of feudal compulsions. His teaching is traditional and he down to supper, there is a knock on the door and Susheela, who
expects his wife to stay indoors and away from the eyes of strangers. answers, is taken away.
More importantly, we are not dependent on him as a point of The realist representation is thus channeled into an epic narrative.
intellectual relay because he arrives after we have been introduced From the point when the schoolmaster's family arrives in the village,
to the village and its power relations. His function is to bring to the the film's narrative unfolds roughly along the lines of a part of the
village a catalytic element which upsets the equilibrium of oppression Ramayana. Beginning with the transfer to the remote village which
and suffering. He is also an individual sufferer, who enables a Susheela resents and which parallels Rama's banishment to the forest,
narrative movement that the collective nature of peasant struggle her abduction, like Sita's, results from a transgressive desire. Her
cannot provide. The peasants have the experience of suffering but confinement in the feudal manor, the mobilization of the peasant
not a consciousness of it. army and the assault on the manor to rescue her complete the
The film presents us with an image of feudalism in which the parallels with the epic. This combination of a realist representation
landlord stands all alone on one side while everyone else is ranged of a feudal structure and an epic narrative of one man's battle with
against him, except the policeman who vacillates between the two the forces of evil gives rise to contradictions that the text is unable
positions. The opening scene centred around the temple theft enables to deal with. The problem of the narrativization of feudal oppression
this demarcation. As the poor man is falsely accused and beaten up, is primarily a problem of the identification of the agencies of struggle
the two figures who wield an independent authority in the village and resistance. The statist realism of the Benegal aesthetic does not
(deriving from the state and god) both submit to the might of the allow for the elaboration of the complex processes through which
landlord. The priest meekly hands over the incriminating locket movements of resistance are organized by the peasants, nor can it
when the landlord asks for it. The policeman is more actively servile. explicitly represent a modern political force entering the peasant
The schoolmaster observes the arrogant behaviour of the world and organizing them on the basis of a programme of resistance
landlord's brothers but stays out of trouble. It is his wife Susheela's and opposition. Instead, it increases the temporal distance (the action
transgressions that generate the new conflict which culminates in is supposed to take place in 1945) by a few thousand years and
208 • Ideology of the Hindi Film
The Developmental Aesthetic • 209
inscribes peasant revolt in the timeless overarching epic narrative of
conflict between elite groups. the leadership, it comes to be equated with feudal lawlessness.
As a result when the priest and the schoolmaster begin to mobilize In the end the tension between narrative and spectacle is resolved
the peasants, we only hear a few sentences about the need to fight in favour of the latter. Rebellion can be staged as spectacle only in
oppression. The rest is elided as images of meetings with peasants the absence of mediation, that is, in the absence of a purposive,
are accompanied by loud music which drowns out the content of goal-oriented programme. Nishant demonstrated that the game of
the conversations. In order to remain faithful to its contemporary observing the feudal spectacle from a distance was fraught with
project of depicting feudalism, the film must indicate that the peasants risks. Taken to its extremes, the spectacle of rebellion reminded the
were mobilized on the basis of a manifesto. But this manifesto cannot spectator that its consequence was an anarchy that would undermine
be made explicit because the mobilization of peasants as an obedient his/her own position of objective contemplation. By representing
army would be disrupted by it. Tellingly, in one of the few lines the peasant in revolt as a figure of complete anarchy, it raised the
spoken in this sequence, a peasant declares that they would do question of leadership. The image of the schoolmaster running behind
exactly as the schoolmaster and the priest tell them to. the crowd demonstrated the trauma of the loss of leadership. For the
But, in the contradictory space determined by the conflicting co- urban middle-class audience, lured by the promise of a safe, thrilling
presence of two aesthetic projects, the epic narrative cannot outrun glimpse into the workings of feudalism, these were unexpected
the realist one without betraying itself. The epic's triumph is always lessons. Consciously or not, through its attempt to expand
the epic hero's triumph, the restoration of the epic couple. Nishant the spectacle of feudal violence, demonstrated the poverty and risks
cannot afford to move towards such a denouement because it would of the conception of 'political cinema' which consisted solely in a
negate the realist analysis at work in the understanding of feudal vicarious 'experience' of the political ferment in India's villages.
society. The spectacle of peasant violence would have to be The unsaid of the text is the historical truth about peasant struggles
subordinated to the restoration of some transcendent order. in Telengana, where the film is set. In the late forties, Telengana
Abandoning the epic parallel before the utopian moment, Nishant was the site of a communist-led armed struggle against the feudal
suddenly turns around and leaves us with the vision of a terrible, landlords and the Nizam. But the political cinema for which a demand
uncontrollable, anarchic explosion of mass anger in the midst of was being created was not one which could explicitly define peasant
which only the temple seems safe. Both the leaders of the rebellion revolt as a Communist programme. It was the peasant's 'instinctuality'
are left behind in the avalanche of peasant revenge, the priest reduced that provided this cinema with its ideological armour. As such only
to complete inertia, the schoolmaster running behind the crowd as a leadership that was 'national' in the sense of being derived from the
they climb up the hill and begin assaulting Viswam and Susheela consensual framework of national politics, could be acknowledged
who are hiding behind a rock. After the epic interregnum, we have as legitimate. In 1974, Benegal's film was unable to identify such a
a traumatic return of the real, the spectacle of violence we are waiting leadership. Its bleak and terrifying vision of rural anarchy is a reminder
for, but without the guarantees of a stable position from which to of the break-up of the national consensus.
contemplate it. The scared faces of the children as they sit inside the Unlike Ankurand Nishant, Manthan has a contempor<l1Y setting.
temple, which is aglow with a warm light, may well reflect the It was noted earlier that the realist aesthetiC, working through the
position of the spectator, caught up in a whirlwind of destruction figure of the citizen-subject, must represent feudalism as a thing of
and deprived of all secular support. the past How then does Manthan escape this rule?
While the rebellion must be provoked by the priest and the
schoolmaster as an act of conscience, it cannot be controlled by
them unless their leadership was based on a programme. In the The Bureaucracy in Arms
absence of a critical realist approach to feudalism, rebellion can
only be represented in voluntaristic terms as the result of an Manthan (976) acknowledges the contemporaneity of feudalism
incitement. Once the rebellion transgresses the boundaries set by because its narrative concerns the interventionist state. The citizen-
figure here is III obi lized in the service of a transformative polities.
210 • Ideology of the Hindi Film The Developmental Aesthetic • 211
The bureaucrat who undertakes a reformist social programme in
Manthan is a mobilized intellectual, the citizen as revolutionary.
This turn in the developmental aesthetic occurs in the context of a
mobilized state apparatus which, dUring the Emergency, intensified
the Congress programme of 'socialist' transformation. In her attempt
to break the traditional chain of power in which the traditional ruling
elites functioned as intermediaries, Indira Gandhi was aided by a
mobilized bureaucracy which implemented her government's socialist
programme. This combination of a Congress-left political alliance
and a mobilized bureaucracy disrupted the old stabilities and made
a bid to transform the social basis of the political order. The fight
against feudalism was one of the highlights of the new agenda. The
abolition of bonded labour and the cancellation of the privileges of
the princes, who had continued to enjoy the special status bestowed
on them by the British were two of the measures taken by the
government which indicated its will to complete the bourgeois
revolution. The actual achievements of this programme were of
course limited and were cancelled out by the atrocities committed 'Maa! kijtye, gadt ttme par aa gayt' -The local representatives' apology to
the bureaucrats for coming late to receive them, reminds us of the 'efficiency'
during the Emergency by the new ruling group and its implementation
of the Indira Gandhi government: A scene from Manthan (Shyam Benegal
machinery. But the mobilization-effect was very strong and produced
1976). Courtesy National Film Archive of India, Pune.
a sense of radical transformative possibilities.
Mamhan is an Emergency film, a film about the transformative
power of a mobilized bureaucracy. Emergency slogans are heard With the bureaucracy taking on the mantle of leadership, the film
throughout the film, on the radio. The film begins with a scene suggests that there is a reversal, with the state representative arriving
epitomizing the changed circumstances of a nation in transition. before the village has had time to prepare for his visit. The state is
The first shot is of a railway platform, where a train arrives and the ahead of the nation: the condition of passive revolution.
bureaucrat who is sent to start a milk co-operative in a Gujarat The narrative can be divided into three segments, corresponding
village gets off the train. He is met by a few men who apologize for to the stages of exposition, intervention and resolution. The first
turning up late, saying 'Sorry, the train came on time'. This humorous segment, beginning with the arrival of the bureaucrat, consists of a
incident establishes the mood of the film and places its narrative in process of getti'1g familiarized with the situation on the ground. The
the context of the Emergency period. One of the well-known existing power relations are mapped in a few deft strokes. The
achievements of the Emergency was the punctual operation of the bureaucrat, Manohar Rao (Girish Karnad), is a veterinary doctor
railways. The rhetoric of efficiency, which was circulated throughout employed by the Dairy Board and sent to the village to start a milk
the country in the form of posters, radio announcements and slogans co-operative with the help of two others from the board. He is
painted on lorries and buses ('Work more talk less', 'The nation is brought to the village by a man (Sadhu Meher) who is used to old
on the move', etc.) found its most visible illustration in the railways' ways and contrasts his experience with the newcomer's lack of it.
punctuality. In the opening scene, this reference to the alert and He is friendly with the local landlord, Gangan'lth Misra (Amrish
responsive state also establishes the changed relationship between Puri) to whom all the villagers sell their milk, and whose business is
bureaucracy and hinterland. In the past, political leaders arriving in threatened by the efforts to start a co-operative. Together they
remote parts of the country would be welcomed by local leaders represent the order which is traditional not in the 'timeless' sense in
and people who sometimes gathered hours before the actual arrival. which that word is usually employed, but in that they represent the
 The Developmental Aesthetic • 213
212 • Ideology of the Hindi Film
medical emergency arises in the village. 4 A villager asks Rao to save
intermediate leadership through which the older Congress maintained
his child. Deshmukh, one of the other members of the team objects
the national coalition. The new socialist agenda is intended to replace
to Rao, a veterinarian, treating a human patient but in the absence
this order. The two discuss the 'idealism' of youth and Misra, declaring
of a doctor, Rao decides to take the risk. It is crucial for the
that the country needs idealists, adds that idealism does not last
interventionist narrative that the demand for such a radical step
very long. Rao, going round the village collecting milk samples,
should arise from the field. This moment is decisive because it
encounters the hostility of the poor villagers towards urban intruders.
establishes the need for radical measures in a situation where a
Meeting Misra, he reminds him of the changing situation.
scrupulous adherence to the ethics of the professions is shown to
Acknowledging that in the past Misra's approach may have been
be counterproductive. Deshmukh represents a conservative approach
useful, he asserts that now new methods were in order. The reformist
to the reformist work of the bureaucracy. While Deshmukh keeps
goal is specified: not to merely transfer the control of the milk trade
reminding him that they must try to accomplish their task without
to a new agency but to ensure that the producers get their proper
upsetting the existing order, Rao extends his interventionist methods
returns. Misra wants him to concentrate on health and family planning
to the political structure of the village and actively campaigns among
and leave the local economy, which he claims he built up, to him
the dalits to raise their consciousness and make them active
At a public meeting where the co-operative idea is explained, further
participants in the development project.
obstacles a:-e revealed. The smpanch, a traditional village leader, is
The poor villagers are won over by Rao's unorthodox intervention
opposed to the dilution of his authority by the introduction of
in the medical emergency and the co-operative gets going. When a
elections and equal say to all members. The dalits support the co-
film show on the milk co-operative movement is disrupted by stone-
operative only if they can get credit and one of them, Bhola
throWing, Bhola is arrested. Rao gets him released and realiZing that
(Na;eeruddin Shah), is suspicious of all city folk.
Bhola is the key to getting untouchables to participate, gradually
The opportunity for an interventionist move comes when a
breaks through his hostility and gets him to become a supporter.
Bindu (Smita Patii), a dalit woman who, after initial hostility, comes
to appreciate the good intentions of the bureaucrats, helps in this
task. Resisting the sarpanch's attempts to maintain caste divisions
and traditional modes of power, Rao urges the dalits to contest the
election. Emboldened, the dalits enter a nomination, and when the
votes are equally divided between Moti, the dalit candidate and the
sarpanch, Moti is elected by a draw of lots. Humiliated, the sarpanch
transfers his loyalties to Misra, inaugurating the moment of conflict
and resolution.
4-rhe fact that Khotey Sikkey, an indigenized 'cowboy' film of the Sholay type,
employs the same structure is no accident. In the Indira Gandhi era, the two armies
of reform were the hureaucrdcy and the lumpen Youth Congress led by Sanjay Gandhi.
The urban perry criminals who are recruited to protect the village in Khotey Sikkay
are agents of reform hut unlike the hureaucrdts in Manthan, they do not hold the
position of authority. They relate to the village as a place of their salvation. But
otherwise the relations hetween the intervening urban team and the village unfold
with remarkable similarity. Thus, in hoth Khotey Sikkay and Manthan the first
opportunity for the intruders to demonstrdte their usefulneS6 comes in the form of a
}/,fIIIIt, medical emergency, which requires the presence of a doctor. In Khotey Sikkay, the
In a medical emergency, Dr. Rao (Girish Karnad), breaches professional uneducated lumpen reformers hijack a bus and hring a doctor from the town to the
ethics hy treating a human patient, even as his colleague (Mohan Agashe) village by force. In Manthan, Dr Rao, a veterinarian, transgresses the ethics of his
protests, in Manrhan. Courtesy National Film Archive of India, Pune. profession hy treating a human patient.
214 • Ideology of the Hindi Film The Developmental Aesthetic • 215
Misra if it is the last thing he does. This anger is dissipated by the
external agency of the transfer notice, but it stands as an expression
of the resolve of the bureaucracy to crush the feudal order.
After his departure, the disappointed Bhola gathers a few people
around him and revives the co-operative, determined to keep the
development project going. The intervention thus has left behind
an organic intellectual, who, fired by the developmental ideology,
feels empowered to take charge. Thus, the film affirms the positive
transformative power of the government's agenda.
The single most important difference between Nishant and
Manthan is that in the former rebellion was a spectacle of anarchy,
whereas the latter represents the rebellion of the oppressed as the
result of a calculated intervention from above by a militant
bureaucracy. The Indira Gandhi government's populist reprise of
the momentum of peasant revolt results in a developmental aesthetic
built around a reformist ideal. Unlike the traditional, 'mythical'
leadership of the peasant revolt in Nishant who are left behind by
A bond of affection develops between Dr. Rao and a daHt woman (Smita the tide of vengeance they unleashed, the mobilized bureaucracy in
Patil): Ascene from .M.tInthan. Courtesy National Film Archive of India, Pune. Manthan produces an organic leadership which takes over the
struggle and conducts it in a rational manner. The structure of the
passive revolution remains intact.
The sarpanch and Misra plot to destroy the co-operative
Mantban is relatively free from the spectacle of feudal sexuality
movement. While the sarpanch goes to the city to use his influence
that was so important to Ankur and Nishant, as well as Bhumika
and get Rao transferred, Misra gets Bindu to sign a paper accusing
which came after Manthan. Instead, an erotic supplement to the
Rao of molestation, which he uses to blackmail Rao. Misra and the
developmentalist project is included in the relationship between
sarpanch also set fire to the dalits' huts and Misra then wins them
Rao and Bindu, the dalit woman. Hostile at first, Bindu soon becomes
over with charity. He gets the dalits out on bail when they are
attracted to Rao and remains a reliable ally of the co-operative project.
arrested after the fire. While Bhola remains firm in his commitment
A song sung by a female voice, which recurs through the film, is
to the co-operative, the others are lured by Misra's promise of
first played when Rao arrives in the village, establishing the village's
restoration of the old ties of trust and paternal protection. demand for a pardesi' (outsider) reformer. This song comes to be
The resolution is marked by an escalation of class struggle on associated in the course of the film with Bindu's unexpressed feelings
the one hand and the withdrawal of the interventionist bureaucrat, for Rao. Rao's wife, who joins him in the village, represents the
who is transferred out of the village. Rao's Wife, who joined him personal limitation which Rao has to overcome in order to function
half-way through the film, is bed-ridden with typhoid and wants to as a militant bureaucrat. When he is called out to the village at night
go back to the city. Her presence is represented as a private obstacle when the huts are burning, Rao leaves his sick wife in bed and
to Rao's political idealism. As he informs her of the transfer, a popular pleads with her to go to sleep. At this moment her presence is
love song 'tum)o hue mere hamsafar raste badal gaye' plays on the clearly coded as a hindrance. The film is unable to deal with the
soundtrack, ironically commenting upon the anti-climactic end to bureaucrat's private world except as a tool for narrative resolution.
his hopes. The song is followed by an Emergency slogan which The middle-class cinema dealt with similar bureaucrats and
declares that with courage and legislative initiative the nation is professionals struggling with the difficulty of securing their domestic
being transformed. Before this, we see Misra's lawyer attempting to arrangements (Guddi). The bureaucrat-as-militant, however is
bribe Rao, provoking the latter to explode in anger, vowing to destroy
 216 • Ideology ofthe Hindi Film
constructed as a free-roaming figure who is lonely in his idealism
and has to break his world up into two incommensurable segments.
While the unspoken intimacy with Bindu makes the developmental
aesthetic attractive to audiences (without it the film might have
become indistinguishable from Films Division documentaries), the
episode with Chandavarkar's (Anant Nag) sexual escapades
emphasizes that the militant bureaucrat must put aside all emotional 9
attachments in order to function effectively.
Thus, from Ankur to Manthan we move from a consumerist
evocation of rebellion to a depiction of the initiation of class struggle
Towards Real Subsumption?:
by the mobilized state apparatus. The return of feudal sexuality, Signs of Ideological Reform in
epic narratives and other features in Benegal's later films suggests
that Manthan s difference owes a great deal to the pressures of the Two Recent Films
era in which it was made, as well as the moderniZing ideology that
the milk co-operatives stood for. V. Kurien, one of the architects of
the 'white revolution', as the milk cooperative movement is known,
is credited with the story idea for the film, along with Benegal.

T
he present moment in the history of Indian cinema is, as
Govind Nihalani, Benegal's cinematographer, made a documentary suggested earlier, a moment of transformation. In the midst
on 'The White Revolution' during this period, no doubt a by-product of the ongoing 'liberalization' campaign, cinema is acquiring
of the Manthan venture. The film was thus something of a state
new skills and technologies, new ideological tasks, and facing new
project, meant to serve as propaganda for the developmentalist efforts
challenges to its established modes of representation. Some cracks
of the Congress government. Critics have generally avoided comment
in the consensual ideology of the Bombay film are widening and
on the emergency references of the film, no doubt because of the
new entrants into the field are bringing new skills and ambitions
embarrassment it entails, although it is simplistic to equate the Indira
into play. One of the signs of this changing field of force is the
Gandhi era as a whole with the atrocities committed during the
emergency. After Manthan Benegal did return to the developmentalist sudden vanguard position achieved by one or two southern film-
aesthetic in films like Susman (988), which was made with the makers who, unlike their predecessors, have become nationally
assistance of a handloom co-operative. But such ventures were popular without making films directly in Hindi. A new capital base,
determined by their conditions of production and should not be the adoption of management techniques, Hollywood styles, and
submitted to a purely auteurist reading. new aesthetic strategies have played a part in this transformation.
The reformist narrative of the film reqUires the removal of the This emerging segment of the industry (focussed around Mani Ratnam
bureaucrat from the scene. Any deeper involvement in the class in Madras but also, nationally, consolidating its position slowly
struggle that he has contributed to intenSifying, would cancel his through the activities of the Amitabh Bachchan Corporation and
bureaucratic identity and turn him into a revolutionary. The reformist other players) promises (or threatens, depending on your viewpoint)
bureaucracy whose worldview is represented in the film was to establish the industry on a new basis. A nexus between directors
committed to the passive revolution and not to a radical challenge of repute, cultural corporations, managers and other agents is emerging
to the political order itself. As such the brief vision of a reformist to shore up the achievements of the last few years.
utopia at the end is a reassurance to the spectator that the reformist Although behind the new developments, the vast majority of
impulse has been communicated to the bottom rung and that a films continue to be made in the old style, the emerging formation
slow developmentalist trajectory has been put in place. The panic is growing in strength and has achieved national Visibility. It is bound
created by the vision of anarchy in Nishant is assuaged here by the to have a central role in shaping the future of the industry nationally.
assurance that everything is under control. From this complex, multi-faceted, changing field, two films from
the early nineties are considered in this chapter, as instances of an
 Towards Real Subsumption? • 219
218 • Ideology of the Hindi Film
transformation. After much groping and fumbling, a new dominant
ideological shift attempted by the emerging formation as a
form emerged (Chapters 5 and 6), in which the law was no longer a
complement to its still evolving mode of production. They are
supplement but the most important stake of narrative conflict and
subjected here to a symptomatic reading, to reveal processes of
resolution. Whether as agents of the law or as its enemies, the
ideological reform undelWay in contemporary Indian cinema. The
characters around whom these narratives turned were initially defined
change in question is not in content, but in form, or the content of
by their expulsion from the familial utopia of the earlier dominant
the form. The intention is not to suggest that the work of re-form in
form. Disinherited, marginalized, and thrown into the world of law
these two films is emblematic of the current transition. They represent
and criminality, their stories brought the state to the centre of the
only one of several different directions taken by the current flurry of
narrative, and while not eliminating the feudal family romance,
experimentation in Indian commercial cinema. 1 However, they are
relegated it to a subordinate status, where it sometimes served as an
of special interest in the context of the preceding analysis in that
object of nostalgia, a lost object, the desire for whose repossession
they try to constitute a new representational space which includes
is the driving force behind the action. In spite of the dramatic entry
and overcomes the dominant form. As such they provide a glimpse
and consolidation of this new form, however, there was no decisive
into a process of transformation that, instead of coming in with
turn away from the previous form. Rather, they co-existed as
alternative modes, and trying to establish parallel, competing
irreconcilable or very weakly reconciled forms.
segments, works on and appropriates the existing mode, bidding to
We will have occasion to return to these instances later on, but
replace the dominant rather than to wrest a space beside it.
for the time being the point of this brief recounting is to call attention
We have noted (Chapter 4) how a redundancy of resolutions i:1
to the existence of a problematic of form that is at least tendentially
the feudal family romance can be read as a symptom of the ideology
independent of the particular narrative content of individual texts. It
of formal subsumption at work. To recapitulate, in the 'classical'
is now time to turn to the two films in question, to see what kind of
Hindi film, two resolutions to the narrative crisis would follow in
work of narrative re-formation they undertake. What follows is not
quick succession, one enforced by the traditionally given authority
meant to be taken as suggesting some kind of unique and irreversible
of the exemplary subject(s) of the narrative; the other, folloWing
turn. Indeed, it is possible to identify, throughout the history of
immediately after, and comically redundant in appearance, enforced
post-independence cinema, similar instances of formal innovation
by the agents of modern law. The laughter evoked by this redundancy
which mayor may not have proved to be significant. My purpose is
should not distract us from the ideological necessity of this doubling.
to make a case for the existence of the formal problematic as a real
If the first resolution was dictated by long-established narrative
and significant issue and to demonstrate that the critique of the
conventions, which emerged in a different social context than ours,
ideology of form can give us insights into cultural processes that
the second one was necessary in order to assert the final (though
not pre-eminent) authority of the law. Here the law has the 'last might othelWise go unnoticed.
Fredric Jameson and, more recently, Slavoj Zizek are among the
word' but this is as yet only a formality, an observance of form. The
few critics who have dealt with the question of the ideology of
terms and relations of the preceding narrative are not reconstructed
form. Jameson (981), in his book on the 'political unconscious' has
in anticipation of the finality of the word of the law; rather, the
offered one of the most comprehensive accounts of the possibilities
terms and relations and their modes of combination as already
held out by Marxist cultural analysis. His theory of interpretation
established are merely supplemented by the law's gesture of
distinguishes between three related horizons or 'concentric
recognition.
frameworks' of textual analysis, each with its own specific object.
This relationship of complicitous supplementarity was seriously
These three horizons are identified by reference to their field of
disrupted in the early 1970s when, in the midst of a national crisis,
pertinence, the ground in which the interpretive act specific to these
the cultural economy of cinema underwent something of a
horizons places the textual object. The first, and narrowest, is the
ground of political history. the yearly turnover of events; the second
l<\n r )tlwr significant treno has heen disclIssed in Dhareshwar and Niranjana
(IA j 1 0t),'} ) horizon is society, in its appearance as 'a constitutive tension and
 220 • Ideology ofthe Hindi Film
Towards Real Subsumption? • 221
struggle between social classes'; and the third, and most comprehen-
production becomes visibly antagonistic, their contradictions moving
sive, is the ground of histOlY, 'conceived in its vastest sense of the
to the center of political, social, and historical life' (ibid: 95). However,
sequences of modes of production and the succession and destiny
the task of analysis under this programme will be the study not only
of the various human social formations' Oameson 1981: 75). These
of moments of crisis when contradictions attain visibility, but also
semantic horizons are not just different contexts in which 'the same'
the 'normal' time when such contradictions are dormant.
textual object is to be placed-they differ from each other in the
Having thus identified the horizon as consisting of the cultural
way they construe or reconstruct their object, the text.
revolution, the next step involves specification of the 'textual object',
Of these the third-historical-horizon, is where the idea of the
the equivalent, in this horizon, of the 'symbolic act' in the first and
content of the form is elaborated. Transcending the other two
the 'ideologeme' in the second. The text here is conceived as 'a field
horizons, on the historical plane the analytical focus is on the
of force in which the dynamics of sign systems of several distinct
historicity of the unity-the appearance of coherence---effected by
modes of production can be registered and apprehended' and this
a master code whose terms determine the discursive form taken by
dynamics is termed 'the ideology of form' (ibid: 98). In this horizon,
ideological conflict. It is the concept of mode of production that
form itself undergoes a re-conceptualization, appearing not as the
provides the 'organizing unity' of this horizon. Jameson does not
bearer of content but as itself content. The formal processes, when
employ this concept in order to develop a typology of cultural forms
found in combination, can be understood as 'sedimented content'.
in which any text can be placed in one or another 'stage' of historical
The primacy of form has also been asserted by Slavoj Zizek
evolution. Such a permanent solution is ruled out by the fact that a
(1989) in his study of the discovery of the symptom by Marx and
mode of production is, strictly speaking, a theoretical rather than an
Freud. Parallel to the triple division of interpretive labour proposed
empirical object. In other words, any social formation, as Poulantzas
by Jameson, we find in Freud the distinction between three elements
(1978: 22) has argued, is characterized by the structured co-existence
of the dream: the manifest dream-text, the latent dream-content or
in specific combinations, of several modes of production.
thought, and unconscious desire. Of these, the third is the most
Thus, situating the textual object in the ground of mode of
difficult to discover because it is 'on the surface' rather than hidden
production need not result in a typology, since every social formation
from view, serving as the mode of articulation of the latent dream-
will have its own specific combination which will have to be
content into the manifest text: the work of the unconscious lies in
discovered, and every text will be 'crisscrossed and ili,ersected by a
'the form of the "dream" " (Zizek 1989: 13). Similarly, Marx goes
variety of impulses from contradictory modes of cultural production
beyond the classical political economists when he focusses not on
all at once' Oameson 1981: 95). The same combination of modes
some 'secret' hidden behind the commodity form but on 'the secret
also argues against the assumption of a homogeneous synchronicity
of this form itself (ibid: 15). However, Zizek's understanding of the
cr the permanence of the features of a social formation since the
relation between social reality and what he calls the 'ideological
interaction of the elements of the combination is always open to
fantasy' differs from Jameson's in one important respect. On his
change. This point finds support in the Althusserian argument against
reading, it is the fantasy that supports and organizes social reality
the empiricist notion of the synchronicity of the present and in favour
and gives it coherence. Structured in this way by ideological fantasy,
of a structure where time is itself divided up into a combination of
reality itself is a shield against any direct encounter with the Real-
temporalities with a distinct and changeable character of its (the
combination:» own. the antagonism that resists symbolization. The different social
formations, the modes of production, etc. are on this reading, so
What would be the object of study in such a horizon? In the
many ways of organiZing reality against the threat of the Real-the
second horizon, class contradiction was the object, understood in
fundamental, irresolvable antagonism.
its relational aspect and not class as a group. Here, similarly, we
It is against this horizon that I propose to situate the follOWing
cannot take any particular mode of production as the object. Jameson
analysis of two recent films, Rajkumar Santoshi's Damini (1993) and
then proposes 'cultural revolution' as the object and defines it as
Mani Ratnam's Raja (1992). It stands to reason that these texts can
'that moment in which the co-existence of various modes of
also be reconstituted as objects within the other two horizons, or
222 • Ideology of the Hindi Film Towards Real Subsumption? • 223
even, indeed, approached through a combination of these and other units of film language in his search for the master code of cinematic
theoretical tools. In fact one of them, Roja, has been the object of a narration, as well as its variants, notably that of Raymond Bellour
number of interpretations which can be construed as employing, (Bellour 1986). The Metzian segmentation is intended to provide a
either separately or in conjunction, approaches specific to the first general table of all possible units of filmic narration. As such, beyond
two horizons. 2 The ideological analysis I undertake here takes the the basic filmic unit of the shot (recognized by the cut that separates
'content of the form' as its primary focus. The aim is to discover a one shot from another), the identification of syntagma depends upon
new object, a different level of semiosis, with very different, and the coincidence of shot changes with other indications of shifts in
perhaps more durable, cultural consequences. time, space, motif, theme, etc. that form part of the narrative content.
The reason for bringing together these films, from two traditions As Metz himself put it, 'all the units I have isolated are located in the
of film-making (Hindi and Tamil) which, while sharing a common film but in relation to the plot' (Metz 1986: 58). In our examples,
history, have also developed along fairly independent trajectories, however, the segmentation is discovered not by scanning the units
is simply that they both manifest the same global formal construction of narration from the smallest upwards or the other way round, but
which can be represented as follows: through a narrative device whose function is to signal the division.
As such it has an ideological function that far exceeds its convenience
/--/ / / as a way of breaking up the narrative. The segments discovered
.fB A B here signal a formal break, the insertion of an 'alien' body into the
larger body of the film text, rather than a categorical separation or
where A and B represent the two principal narrative segments, and grammatical punctuation.
jB a fragment that is metonymically linked to B but separated from As mentioned above, the fragment serves as a warning about the
it by segment A; or, to put it differently, segment A is sandwiched future and enables us to identify the second break. But its narrative
between segment B and its brief, enigmatic premonition. function is not limited to these two effects. This becomes clear if we
What are produced by this formal organization of the speculate for a moment about the change that might come about if
text! the initial fragment is removed altogether. In terms of narrative
Let us note, first of all, that the transition fromjB to A comes as content, hardly anything is lost since in both cases, the informational
a rupture, a sharp discursive break which leaves something content of the fragment is (i.e., will be) already contained in B.
unexplained until segment B retroactively absorbs the enigmatic What will be lost, however, is the masking effect that conceals the
fragment into its order of narration and thereby infuses it with break between two narrative trajectories that each have their own
meaning. Secondly, it is only because of the isolation of fragment B resolution. At the threshold that separates A from B, there is every
from its proper narrative habitat that we are at all able to identify a possibility that the spectator will perceive, not the transition to a
second break in the narrative, since the transition from A to B is new stage of the same narrative, but the cessation of one plot and
relatively smoother. Thus the fragment serves, in the overall the beginning of another, entirely different one. Two stories instead
organization of narrative flow, as (1) an enigma which hovers over of one, which would mean a fragmentation of the narrative. But the
the action of segment A, a premonition of things to come, of which fragment, whose meaning remains a mystery until the beginning of
the figures of the narrative are themselves blissfully ignorant; and B, has already served to re-define the action in segment A as a
(2) a cue which enables us to identify the second break. prolof!,ue to what will follow. It has already served to subordinate
It should be obvious by now that this segmental analysis bears the action in segment A to that of segment B.
little resemblance to the more famous one that is associated with Thus (3), the organization of the textual sequence, while enabling
Christian Metz's construction of the 'grande syntagmatique' of the the recognition of the break, also serves to mask the fragmentation
that this would imply. It would then appear that B is the dominant
2See Niranjana 0(94), Chakravarthy and Pandian 0(94), Bharucha 09(4), and segment. the main concern of these films (this is confirmed by the
Vasudevan 0(94). primacy accorded to segment B in discussions of Raja), but that
 224 • Ideology ofthe Hindi Film
Towards Real Subsumption? • 225
camera. For a moment it looks as if we in the audience are the
they are nevertheless dependent on the subordinate segment A for
collective Interrogator. The tension created by the invisibility of the
... what? Why do these texts reject the easier solution for achieving
interrogator approaches breaking point before we get relief in the
unity, that is to say the exclusive concentration on the action of form of a reverse shot of the doctor, who now looks benign, and
segment B, or even the subsumption of all narrative elements into appears to be doing no more than his duty. When the next cut
the spatio-temporal framework of narrative IP. (Mani Ratnam has brings the woman back into the frame, her terror has already been
been asked this question, in a slightly different form, by an redefined as the result of her own unstable mental condition, a
interviewer.) Why, instead, do they put the very possibility of narrative hallucination. Our spontaneous identification with her has been
unity at risk and then try to re-unify the text by deploying jB as a deprived of its rationality. The transition from this fragment to segment
sort of 'secret agent?
A is startling: from paranoid hallucination and terror we cut to a
On first glance this textual organization may seem no different close-up of the same woman's face whence the camera pulls back
from other familiar instances where a part or all of the narrative is to reveal a stage on which she is dancing. From madness to the
recollected in flashback. But in those instances, continuity is innocence and romance of youth. The mise-en-scene in particular
established by the flashback device itself, with an individual conveys a strong suggestion that the whole sequence jB is a
character's memory serving as the link. In the two films in question, nightmare, in which case it would fall within the diegetic framework
the juxtaposition of segments, lacking any such diegetic motivation, of the narrative delineation of character psychology. Such an instance
brings into play an authorial intention, an act of deliberate separation can be found in Rajnigandha where the heroine has a nightmare in
and reorganization of segments that produces effects beyond those which she dreams of being 'left behind'. However, the difference
deriving from the plot itself. This is important not because authorial between these two sequences is that in the latter, we see the dreamer
intention is itself new or unprecedented but because it makes visible wake up and acknowledge the preceding sequence as an element
the absence of such a disjuncture, such a supplementary work of of her own subjectivity, whereas in Damini the contrast between
signification, in the dominant narrative film. Not only does it bring the woman's state of terror and the matter-of-fact look of the doctor
such absence into focus, it also indicates that that dominant form and other indications argue against the reading of the sequence as a
cannot be re-formed internally, through the substitution or nightmare. And in any case, subsequent events prove that the
supplementation of its content by a reflexive layer of meaning. Instead, fragment was not a representation of a psychic event. The change
the method adopted here can be described as an act of laying siege of scene also, in its abruptness, does not allow any scope for reading
to the dominant form, of harnessing its pleasures to another narrative a subjective link, since in A the woman is introduced to us in a
project and staging, in the process, an ideological rehabilitation of stylized space where her performance is emptied of subjectivity. In
its narrative elements. The delegation of a fragment to an outer both these films, the psychic dimension is far removed from the
zone, its separation from its proper metonymic chain, enables the 'psychological' approach of the middle-class cinema and is inscribed
constitution of a syntagmatic chain marked by arbitrary juxtaposition, in the objective formal features of the text.
which is its true function. Thus, the potentially metaphoric relation The same contrast between terror and innocence is conveyed by
between the two segments is pre-empted and the first segment is the parallel transition in Raja. Here, however, there is no scope for
integrated into a new syntagmatic order as a subordinate element. even the suspicion of a subjective link since the two scenes are
Let us take a closer look at the segments themselves. In Damini, completely different from each other in content, the only link between
the opening fragment shows a woman in a state of absolute terror, them being that they (presumably) succeed each other in time, since
in a nightmarish sequence in which we see her running away from the dawn that breaks on the capture of the Kashmiri militant also
unseen pursuers and finding herself trapped. Her predicament is illuminates the Tamilnad countryside. Fragment B in Raja shows the
highlighted by the interrogation that a doctor conducts. At first the capture of the militant by troops combing the forests of Kashmir just
questions are hurled at her by a voice located somewhere behind before daybreak and cuts to the Tamilnad village, as the sun rises
the camera---the voice of the Other-while the terror-stricken woman on a beautiful landscape and the heroine is introduced, singing a
is trapped in a paralysed state in front of the camera, as if by the song about her 'small desires'.
 226 • Ideology of the Hindi Film Towards Real Subsumption? • 227
Beginning thus, with a conventional representation of feminine different route. Roja's marriage to Rishi Kumar (Arvind Swamy) in
innocence, suggestive of the anticipation of romance and conjugality, this segment occurs as a result of an unexpected hitch in an earlier
segment A reaches its own local (and of course, 'incomplete') plan by which Rishi was to marry Roja's sister. Rishi's declaration of
resolution well before the midway point in the text. In Damini, the his liking for Roja is received by the diegetic audience (except the
'hero' Shekhar (played by Rishi Kapoor) watches the eponymous sister) as a serious transgression and Roja is unforgiVing even after
heroine performing a dance number with Aamir Khan (playing she has moved to the city with her husband. But when he discloses
himself and serving as a reminder of the proximity of the 'romance' the fact that it was her sister who rejected him because she wanted
to follow to the conventions of the world of Bombay cinema) and to marry another man in order to bring about a reconciliation between
falls in love, this event witnessed, again in keeping with conventions their feuding families, Roja is finally reconciled to her marriage.
of film romance, by a male assistant/friend. He meets her again near To turn now briefly to the level of the 'latent content': In both
her home, when she is out shopping, in order to pursue the romance. films, the couple has already gone through two stages; first, a
Here we get a glimpse into the distinction of Damini's character: she conventional union, legitimate in the eyes of society but as yet lacking
is a compulsive truth-teller. A quotation from Gandhi which serves as its own internal unity; second, a moment of clearing of doubts and
the epigraph has prepared us to expect an 'experimenter with truth' exchange of assurances which seems to fill the vacuum. But even
but at this point in the narrative, Damini, after publicly announcing after this second moment, in spite of the appearance of fullness and
the dishonesty of a merchant, is shown talking aloud to herself, as harmony, something is left over, an excess that proVides the prinCipal
Shekhar follows her. This scene pathologizes the truth-telling subject, motivation for the continuation of the narrative drive. The movement
at least for the moment locating the origin of this compulsive honesty into segment B and its specific resolution can be described as a
in her hysteria. This is because while in segment B her honesty will movement from reconciliation (a local event) to rehabilitation or
acquire a central role in the movement of the narrative, in segment regrounding of the couple (a global change). To anticipate one of
A the independence of character that this implies would work against the conclusions of this analysis, the reconciliation is a sufficient
the requirements of the conventional family romance. As they walk resolution for the narrative movement of segment A but its
together, they encounter Damini's father. On the spot, Shekhar asks 'insufficiency' has been ensured in advance by the arbitrary-and
him for permission to marry his daughter, and Damini expresses once introduced, compelling, unsettling-glimpse of another world,
surprise but does not resist this abrupt torn. Shekhar leaves, to inform an alien threat, in fragment B.
his family of his decision. As segment B unfolds, however, it becomes clear that the very
Damini's family, consisting of parents and an elder sister, is in self-sufficiency of the narrative of segment A is a threat to something
crisis. Just before Shekhar's family arrives to 'see' Damini, her sister else, to the existence of another ground. The closure that 'comes
runs away with a boyfriend. In front of the guests, Damini, against naturally' to the romance narrative cannot be breached, cannot be
her parents' wishes, reveals this incident and wins Shekhar's father's opened up to the experience of an alien reality (i.e. a reality alien to
heart with her honesty. The wedding takes place quickly. In her its conventions, to its congealed ideological discourse) except through
husband's home, Damini resides in splendour, but as if in captivity the subterfuge of an unexpected juxtaposition which produces for
until a reconciliation takes place between her and Shekhar. The the spectator the effect of incompleteness that will justify the
segment concludes with the symbolic freeing of a caged bird, a prolongation of the narrative. The difficulty made visible here is a
present from Shekhar. What we get in segment A can be described measure of how deeply the conventions and ideology of the dominant
as a highly compressed version of the feudal family romance which film form are entrenched in culture. At the same time, we should
typically ends with the integration of the romantic pair into the remember that the aesthetic project of these films does not simply
politically autonomous order of the propertied joint family. encounter the resistance of the dominant form in the world at large
In Raja, the resolution of segment A is similar in so far as it also but itself produces the (foreshortened) image of that resistance and,
concerns the reconciliation of a couple bound together in matrimony in the interior of its own body, stages a confrontation with it. This is
in great haste, but the movement towards this conclusion takes a important to note because it is perfectly possible-and there are
228 • Ideology ojthe Hindi Film
Towards Real Subsumption? • 229
many instances of films that try to realize this possibility-to produce
a new aesthetic as an alternative, occupying another site, addressed succeeds in subverting and delegitimizing the moral-political authority
to another audience, where the conflict with the dominant is staged, of the state-within-the-state, the politically autonomous khandaan. 3
if at all, not inside the limits of the narrative but outside, in a segment Within this framework, the process of rehabilitation of the nuclear
of the industry. The desired result of this latter approach is a couple is also set in motion, which ends with the couple's relation
segmentation of audiences, since such films appeal to the audience's re-grounded in the state's range of vision, with Shekhar's public
desire for distinction, and promise a pleasure that only the discerning declaration of his love for his wife, under the aegis of the law. It is
can enjoy. only now that the relation achieves full closure and permanence.
In Damini, it is the Holi celebration scene that clearly marks the On the formal plane, this segment achieves its effects through a
beginning of segment B, while in Raja this is signalled by the transfer process of combination of filmic genres which ends in a new
of the Kashmir assignment to Rishi in the hospital scene. During the synthesis. In a Hegelian perspective, Damini can be read, on this
Holi celebrations, the hero's brother and his friends rape the servant- level, as a synthesis that subsumes the feudal family romance and
maid Urmi. Damini and later Shekhar are both witnesses to the rape the post-70s narratives of disidentification with the state. Through
but as an autonomous political unit, the feudal family resolves to the agency of the 'unhoused' female subject, the film breaks open
administer its own form of justice, which would consist of bailing the dosed economy of the feudal romance and invokes the state as
out the family member by compensating the victim and her family the sole legitimate authority. The state, however, is itself rotten, as
for the loss. Shekhar, in spite of being a witness, goes along with the films of the seventies showed time and again. Like the
this, but Damini refuses to hide the truth. She insists the law of innumerable rebels who walked out of the system, confronted it as
the Indian state alone has the legitimate power to render justice in criminals or militant transgressors of the code (in the service of the
the case. Although she goes along with the family's wishes for a code), the lawyer Govind (Sunny Deol) lives as a recluse, having
while when they falsely assure her that Urmi is well and being quit his profeSSion after the law failed to render justice in a case
looked after, this compromise is represented as a temporary relating to his wife's death. The casting also reflects the generic
suspension of her truth-telling character. Telling the truth thus acquires combination: Meenakshi Seshadri and Rishi Kapoor as the romantic
here a very precise definition. In the epigraph, Gandhi speaks of couple and Sunny Deol (known for his action-hero roles in the
the conscience as an authority that transcends all human laws. The genre inaugurated by the Bachchan films) as the disillusioned lawyer.
question underlying the truth-teller's dilemma is: tell the truth to In the seventies films, these heroes pursued their own desires,
whom? Who must listen in order for the truth to have been toid? If nostalgic for a lost harmony. Here Govind, who has abandoned all
honesty is merely a compulsion, then it would be satisfied by any his own battles, enters the picture as a disinterested agent through
telling, any declaration, anywhere, before anybody. The Gandhian whom the state will be reformed in order to produce the space
dictum is that the conscience is the authority that insists on the where the romantic couple can be rehabilitated. As such on his very
telling of the truth. But who is the addressee of the truth? Unless the first appearance, there is a complete transfer of agency from Damini
addressee is specified, the injunction loses all meaning. And if to Govind. Before this scene, Damini's honesty has led to a situation
conscience itself (or God as its objective form) is the addressee, the where she has been confined to a mental hospital by court order.
truth need never be declared in public. For the truth involved in Overhearing a plot to kill her, she runs from the hospital and is
Damini, however, the issue is clear: it will not have been told until pursued by the group of killers. The entire scene conveys an
it is told to the state. Damini's honesty is a hysterical symptom because overwhelming sense of helplessness, complete exhaustion, physical
the problem that it represents for the narrative will not have been as well as subjective, before the relay of agency to Govind is
solved until the Other who listens to her truth and the demand accomplished (and Visually represented) when Damini grabs him
implied in it, does not appear: 'what is hysteria if not precisely the by the shoulder and pleads for help. (As if to compensate in advance
effect and testimony of a failed interpellation?' (Zizek 1989: 113). It
is through the invocation of this larger entity that the narrative 3See Pathak and Sundar Hajan 0\>89) for a di5cus5ion of the state-within-the-
5tate as a 5tructural feature of modern India.
 Towards Real Subsumption? • 231
230 • Ideology ofthe Hindi Film
with the state and Rishi's with the militants. Finally, when the state
for this impending loss of agency, the chase is preceded by a dance- agrees, at the risk of losing its advantage in the fight against
again of ambiguous status: dream or extra-diegetic interpolation?- secessionist militancy, to submit to Roja's demand that her husband's
in which Damini is transformed into the all-powerful Kali.) freedom should be purchased by releasing the arrested militant,
Having invoked the Hegelian dialectic, we should note that the Rishi, in a parallel move, saves the state's honour by escaping from
synthesis accomplished here is not without remainder. At the end of captivity and, with the help of a reformed militant, returns to Roja,
the narrative, Govind remains excessive. At the same time this surplus
thus preventing the return of the captured leader.
leaves no trace of disruption in the closure achieved by the narrative. At the conclusion of the second segment, the couple has been
His role has been that of what Jameson calls the 'vanishing mediator' rehabilitated, rescued from a situation of terror and re-settled under
whose agency enables a transformation that destroys its own grounds the aegis of a new patriarchal authority, the state. In both the films,
for existence. the couples move out of a pastoral world-the Village and the genre
Turning to Raja, we find, not surprisingly, a similar narrative of family romance--only to encounter terror. From the perspective
movement. This film has come to be received by the public as a film of this overarching narrative, the perils of the outside world signify
'about Kashmiri separatism'. But this aspiration to 'about-ness', i.e. above all the acutely felt absence or suspension of Authority. In
an aesthetic of topicality, is still only tendential, subordinated to the Damini, before the moment of transfer of narrative agency to Govind
film's preoccupation with the allegory of transpatriarchal migration. the lawyer, the terror of the moment derives precisely from the
One of the stakes of the struggle in which the film is engaged is impending encounter with the trauma of what psychoanalysis terms
precisely to wrest a space for staging the present, to break out of the 'hole in the Symbolic' (Zizek, For They Know Not 1991), the
the timeless frame of conventional narrative. terrifying encounter with the truth that there is no Other guaranteeing
Unlike Damini, Raja does not stage its narrative within the terms the consistency of the Symbolic order and the meaningfullness of
and terrain of the history of film genres, although it is possible to the world. The image of the woman hounded by merciless killers
read the village segment as a reprise of narrative films set in the intensifies the anticipation of the traumatic glimpse into the Real
countryside, of wh1ch there is a steady output in the cinemas of the and then. at the very last moment of this intolerable tension, produces,
south, and which often reaffirm the autonomy and self-sufficiency (not out of nowhere but precisely from that one place where bodies
of the village as a social unit. 4 As we have seen, the village segment have pre-assigned meaning: the star system) a male Rescuer whose
ends with the reinforcement of the conventional union by a union provisional function is to fill the hole in the Symbolic until the law is
of hearts made possible by the late revelation of Rishi's innocence ready to take over. Indeed, the entire scene of the chase can be read
in the matter of Roja's sister's 'betrayal'. That some obstacle as a tendentially tableau-like representation of woman's state of in-
nevertheless remains is made clear in the scene following the betweenness, in a 'no-man's' land between the representatives of a
reconciliation when Rishi, as he prepares to leave for Kashmir, tells
discredited traditional phallic power and an emergent alternative,
Roja to go back to her village even as she insists on accompanying
the patriarchal authority of the modern state. Now the scene of
him.
Damini's apotheosis, when she assumes the form of the phallic
The story that unfolds subsequently is well-known: arriving in
mother-goddess, which preceded the chase, can be retrospectively
Kashmir, Rishi gets down to the work he has been sent there to do,
read, not only as a compensatory gesture to pave the way for the
deciphering the enemy's intercepted communications and, in his
transfer of narrative agency, but also as a forewarning of the
free time, showing Roja the sights of Kashmir. At the very moment
(terrifying) alternative prospect that might arise if the transfer of
when Roja is sending a message of thanks to her personal village phalliC authority from one patriarchy to another is not accomplished
deity through divine courier, her husband is kidnapped by militants.
SWiftly.
The plot then weaves together the parallel stories of Roja's encounter In Raja, such a glimpse into an unpleasant alternative to patriarchal
4See Ravichandr,m (1997) for a discussion of this genre, known in the industry authority is woven into the village segment itself. Apart from the
as 'nativity films'. hierarchical relation between two formally autonomous units of
 232 • Ideology of the Hindi Film
Towards Real Subsumption? • 233
narrative that is common to both these films, Raja is distinguished
by the repetition of key narrative and thematic features across the woman symbolizes the state's need to subordinate the village/region/
two segments. These two segments can in fact be read as mirror clan, in short the pre-modern, to itself) by imposing its own laws on
images of each other. A close reading of the first segment is required him-first by attempting to absorb him into its independent social
in order to reveal this parallelism. The comic episode of the man circuit, and again by trying to use him as an instrument for its own
who wanders through the village in search of his lost goats and is purposes. The women of the village are thus figured as castrating,
ridiculed by a group of women is linked, by the metonymic relay of as phalliC mothers who jealously guard their domain. Roja
the goats' cries, to the scene in which, haVing commandeered the demonstrates that she participates in this collective protection of
goats, Roja sets up an ambush at a spot that calls to mind similar phalliC authority when she stages the ambush.
scenes in dacoit films: a bend in the road, a cluster of rocks proViding From the detour, this film 'about Kashmir' equips itself with a
natural cover. The overt purpose of this trap is to catch a glimpse of 'voice'. The autonomous village is a threat because it will not
the man wh:> is arriving by car to 'see' Roja's sister. Roja's declared legitimize the state by demanding its existence. It is a structure that
intentions are altruistic but for the spectator, the entire scene is so enforces its own laws on those who enter its domain. It is not in a
constructed as to invest her glance with a desire of which she herself dependent position vis-a-vis the state. The wedding and the second-
is as yet unaware or which she is unwilling to acknowledge. The stage reconciliation, however, change everything. Henceforth, the
split here between conscious purpose and unconscious desire defines Village figures as a voice, expressing a demand that only the state
Roja too as a hysteric, creating the space for the narrative of re- can respond to. Voices emerge from the ruins of a structure. This
interpellation to follow in segment B. It is not by coincidence that process is completed only when the demanding subject participates
beginning with this incident, until the moment of his declaration of in elevating the state to absolute dominance by surrendering her
preference for Roja, Rishi finds himself besieged, a captive of the own personal source of phallic power. In the case of Damini, this is
collective will of the village. Key elements of the second segment accomplished when the Gandhian conscience is dissolved into the
are prefigured in the first: abduction (by Roja), captivity, the objective apparatuses of the state and truth-telling is equated with
'exchange' proposal (Roja's sister wants Rishi to be an object of telling the truth to the state. For Roja, this shift involves a transfer of
exchange in an operation that will restore to the family its greater loyalties from her personal Village deity (with whom she has a secret
unity by bringing an alienated branch back into the fold), the pre- liaison, to whom she confesses and who grants her all her wishes)
emption of exchange by a counter-move: escape with another captive to the state: this is accomplished when she explicitly names the
(Roja in the first segment, and the 'humanized' militant in the second). state as her saviour during her meeting with the central minister.
As for the last feature, there is, of course, a difference: what Rishi This scandalous subordination of religious authority to the secular
pre-empts is not the reunion desired by the sister, but his own authority of the state is only one element of a long process: by
neutralization as a pure object of exchange. His abrupt and making unreasonable demands, by fully assuming the position of a
scandalous declaration of interest in Roja makes possible the hysteric, Roja actively provokes the state to respond to her call. The
reunification of the family but at the same time successfully breaches state, figured as a neutral place of pure altruism, obliges and even
its will to autonomy from another flank. indulges the demanding subject.
Through these parallels, the film establishes a strong connection The gulf between two patriarchal zones is bridged in both films
between two kinds of resistance to the national-modern project: the by the figure of the woman. It is through her agency that it becomes
anti-national and the pre-modern. The village's autonomy is not the possible to allegorize historic transformations. The 'homeless' woman
result of a conscious disidentification with the modern state, unlike is the bearer of the phallus, which she must pass on to the emerging
the separatism of the militants. Nevertheless, the modern state power. The doubling of the plot in Raja enables the allegorization
encounters both the pre-modern enclave and the separatist movement by importing Roja from one domain into the other. The primary
as challenges to its will to hegemony. The village threatens Rishi's antinomy of the plot is subdivided into a series of oppositions, as
and the modern state's project (his desire to marry a(ny) village shown below.
The call that Roja addresses to the state is its most important
 Towards Real Subsumption? • 235
234 • Ideology of the Hindi Film
the subject pasits the state as the external embodiment of its Self. Of
course, the state in its objectivity pre-exists the subject's positing of
Master antinomy: it. But this state of affairs is intolerable, it provokes a movement of
State vs autonomous segments narrative resolution precisely because there is a gap between the
subject and this external substance, a disjuncture which only arises
Anti-national Pre-modern when, having exited another structure and become 'voice', the subject
Roja
secessionism resistance comes face to face with what Zizek terms the 'pre-Symbolic reality'.
The resolution of this crisis is arrived at when the subject 'posits the
State
vs
Rishi
vs
I (agency of
integration)
State
vs
Rishi
vs
big Other, makes it exist' (Zizek 1989: 230). This positing is an empty
gesture, a purely formal act which transforms what is already there,
militants militants village village
as external reality, into a subjectively posited, symbolized reality. It
is this act that completes the subject's re-grounding: 'subjects are
subjects only in so far as they presuppose that the social substance,
opposed to them in the form of the State, is already in itself a subject
Textual Reduction (Monarch) to whom they are subjected' (ibid: 229).
One of the problems that the formal structure of these films
SEGMENT B brings to the fore is that of narrative enunciation. The fragment B
causes unease in part by displacing the enunciative function of the
vs
narrative, putting this function into crisis precisely by emphasizing
SEGMENT A it, by foregrounding it as a problem through the conflicting and
unexplained juxtaposition of sequences. The fragment hovers
menacingly over the pastoral segment A, inscribing a lack at its
source of legitimacy. As a demanding woman, her role is to provoke centre, robbing it of its customary naturalness and self-identity. The
the state into existence, to free her of the unbearable narrative spectator's attention is thus divided, so that it is impossible to fully
function of phallic authority. The relief attendant upon the transfer identify with the pastoral narrative. In both films, the pastoral segment
of this authority to an agent of the law is much more vividly reinforces this distraction in scenes that demonstrate the split between
represented in Damini but it is there in Raja too. In Damini, the the principal character's conscious assertions and unconscious desire:
split that we have noted in Raja is neither necessary nor possible. Roja directs an altruistic gaze at Rishi but we know that there is
However, both texts manifest the anxiety created by the phallus-in- more to it; Damini always tells the truth but there is something else
transit, and in both, the object of the female figures' crusade, not that speaks another truth: her hysteria. The narrative stages a 'war
capable of narrative resolution in itself, is subsumed under the more of position' (P. Chatterjee 1986: 48-9), robbing the pastoral discourse
manageable resolution by which their individual desires are fulfilled. of its fullness and self-identity, creating the need and the space for
Thus Damini's concern for justice, which seemed to exceed her another agency that will take on (indeed, has already taken on) the
personal interest, is redefined within the terms of her desire for function of enunciation and narrative control. Segment B thus appro-
conjugal rehabilitation. Whereas in Raja the hysteric's demands are priates the position of subjective pre-eminence by demonstrating its
capacity to commensurate the seemingly incommensurable content
deployed in another scenario of hegemony vs autonomy, in Damini
of fragment B and segment A. The resolution of the thematic
the hysteric's demands focus back on the world she left behind. In
conflicts-between the state and the militants, between Damini and
one, the siege of the pastoral enables the invention of the topical
a bunch of criminals-is secondary to the more important resolution
film with a window to reality; in the other, the same assault on the
that tackles the dissonance of incommensurate worlds co-existing
pastoral romance leads to the invention of the modern women's
in the same narrative/national space.
melodrama.
Everything depends on fragment B. What exactly does it do? We
The narrative process thus achieves its completion only when
 Towards Real Subsumption? • 235
234 • Ideology of the Hindi Film
the subject posits the state as the external embodiment of its Self. Of
course, the state in its objectivity pre-exists the subject's positing of
Master antinomy: it. But this state of affairs is intolerable, it provokes a movement of
State vs autonomous segments narrative resolution precisely because there is a gap between the
subject and this external substance, a disjuncture which ·only arises
Anti-national
secessionism
State Rishi
.. Raja

(agency of
Pre-modern
resistance
State Rishi
when, having exited another structure and become 'voice', the subject
comes face to face with what Zizek terms the 'pre-Symbolic reality'.
The resolution of this crisis is arrived at when the subject 'posits the
big Other, makes it exist' (Zizek 1989: 230). This positing is an empty
vs vs integration) vs vs
gesture, a purely formal act which transforms what is already there,
militants militants village village
as external reality, into a subjectively posited, symbolized reality. It
is this act that completes the subject's re-grounding: 'subjects are
subjects only in so far as they presuppose that the social substance,
opposed to them in the form of the State, is already in itself a subject
Textual Reduction (Monarch) to whom they are subjected' (ibid: 229).
One of the problems that the formal structure of these films
SEGMENT B brings to the fore is that of narrative enunciation. The fragment B
causes unease in part by displacing the enunciative function of the
vs
narrative, putting this function into crisis precisely by emphasiZing
SEGMENT A it, by foregrounding it as a problem through the conflicting and
unexplained juxtaposition of sequences. The fragment hovers
menacingly over the pastoral segment A, inscribing a lack at its
source of legitimacy. As a demanding woman, her role is to provoke centre, robbing it of its customary naturalness and self-identity. The
the state into existence, to free her of the unbearable narrative spectator's attention is thus divided, so that it is impossible to fully
function of phallic authority. The relief attendant upon the transfer identify with the pastoral narrative. In both films, the pastoral segment
of this authority to an agent of the law is much more vividly reinforces this distraction in scenes that demonstrate the split between
represented in Damini but it is there in Roja too. In Damini, the the principal character's conscious assertions and unconscious desire:
split that we have noted in Roja is neither necessary nor possible. Roja directs an altruistic gaze at Rishi but we know that there is
However, both texts manifest the anxiety created by the phallus-in- more to it; Damini always tells the truth but there is something else
transit, and in both, the object of the female figures' crusade, not that speaks another truth: her hysteria. The narrative stages a 'war
capable of narrative resolution in itself, is subsumed under the more of position' (P. Chatterjee 1986: 48-9), robbing the pastoral discourse
manageable resolution by which their individual desires are fulfilled. of its fullness and self-identity, creating the need and the space for
Thus Damini's concern for justice, which seemed to exceed her another agency that will take on (indeed, has already taken on) the
personal interest, is redefined within the terms of her desire for function of enunciation and narrative control. Segment B thus appro-
conjugal rehabilitation. Whereas in Roja the hysteric'S demands are priates the position of subjective pre-eminence by demonstrating its
capacity to commensurate the seemingly incommensurable content
deployed in another scenario of hegemony vs autonomy, in Damini
of fragment B and segment A. The resolution of the thematic
the hysteric'S demands focus back on the world she left behind. In
conflicts-between the state and the militants, between Damini and
one, the siege of the pastoral enables the invention of the topical
a bunch of criminals-is secondary to the more important resolution
film with a window to reality; in the other, the same assault on the
that tackles the dissonance of incommensurate worlds co-existing
pastoral romance leads to the invention of the modern women's
in the same narrative/national space.
melodrama.
Everything depends on fragment B. What exactly does it do? We
The narrative process thus achieves its completion only when
 236 • Ideology ofthe Hindi Film
Towards Real Subsumption? • 237
have seen how it helps to embed the feudal family romance in a
new syntagmatic order, a symbolic register in which the principal expanding and experimenting with old and new materials and
formats, can be expected to challenge the narrative film's role as the
figure of the romance enters and becomes Subject. Thus in both
pre-eminent host of musical spectacle, forcing it towards new
these films, the imaginary relation between husband and wife as
experiments as a means of survival.) This process can be defined as
represented at the end of segment A is subjected to a disruption in
constituting a re-commodification, or re-invention of the cultural
order to break the imaginary fullness and force the subject to enter commodity.
the Symbolic network, where a final resolution will have to be Until these processes are clarified, we can only speculate on the
achieved. This precise allegory of real subsumption has, however, significance of stray events like the coincidence of a formal structure
proposed at the very beginning a solution to the disruption that it in the two films we have chosen for analysis. One speculative
will enforce. The fragment B, as noted above, brings to the fore the proposition of this essay is that the formal structure of these texts is
question of narrative enunciation. Indeed, in a field (of popular a trace of the work of the 'political unconscious'. In the moment of
cinema) where the enunciative function was non-existent as a arrival of real subsumption (that we are living through), capital is
problem, the wilful juxtaposition of jB and A abruptly produces the breaking out of the impasse of the ruling coalition, emerging into
problem. In the process, it also posits an enunciator, invisible but complete dominance. It is no longer necessary to artificially prolong
not insignificant. The fragment that menaces the pastoral segment the life of 'tradition', that alleged entity which was modernity's own
thus also contains the supreme ideological reassurance: that there is invention, its preferred rendering of the adversary's profile. The
an Other who directs the unfolding of the new order. Not just the ideology of formal subsumption, which insisted on the difference
director, Santoshi or Mani Ratnam; nor even the efficient army which between the modern and the traditional, and the need to protect
captures the terrorist in Roja'sjB or the benign doctor of Damini- that difference, resulted in the protection given to the feudal family
but one for whom they are all surrogates: the Other in whom we romance as the appropriate form of entertainment for the masses.
trust when we trust in capitalism. This difference and the apparatuses that are meant to preserve it are
It would be premature to say that a new popular film aesthetic is no longer sustainable. While the ideologues of formal subsumption
signalled by the work of ideological reform that these films manifest. stubbornly cling to their superannuated posts, the remaking of Indian
Nevertheless, one can speculate on the significance of the strategic ideology goes on apace.
deployment of form, the struggle waged, within the framework of It would nevertheless be a mistake to see these films as Simply
the text for enunciative pre-eminence: the imperative for this struggle reflecting the changes that are under way, of being superstructural
arises from the ambition to occupy the same place that is now representations of what is happening in reality. These texts are works
occupied by an older dominant form. In this effort, these films may of ideology, not mirrors of reality. The changing realities are, no
doubt, one of the conditions that make these films possible and
deploy the resources of alternative/middle cinema, but they aspire,
necessary, not in order to reflect these conditions, but to construct
not to take the place of the alternative, but to conquer the larger
market. ideological resolutions for the contradictions that accompany these
changes.
For a more comprehensive picture of the nature of ongoing
transformations to emerge, we will need to examine several other
dimensions of the process, such as the emergence of culture
corporations, signs of monopolistic tendenCies, the new bid by
Hollywood to expand its market beyond Anglophone frontiers, etc.
(Of these one of the most visible, and for speculations about the
future of narrative film form, extremely important dimensions is that
which concerns the film song as a sub-commodity. In this segment
of the cultural market, the emergent(· of music video as an
autonomous form, supported by a vast televisual system that is still
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..,..

Index

Aakrosh 194 Corporation 216

Aandhi 164, 179-80 Bazin, Andre 50, 61, 62
Abbas, K.A. 160 Theory of realism 21-3, 50, 61,
Abhiman 164, 178-9 62
absolutist gaze 83 Benegal, Shyam 25, 62, 128, 130, 161,
alternative 189, 190
cinema 2 contribution to realism 195. See
Star system 156-7 also Ankur; Manthan;
American Cinema. See Hollywood Nishant
Amitabh Bachchan. See Bachchan Bengali culture, and middle-class
cinema 164-5
Anand 131, 164, 167-9
Beta 91
Andaz 139
bhakti, concept of love 110, 111
Andaz(949) 69,86 n.27
Bhumika 215
An Evening in Paris 90
Bhuvan Shame 123, 124, 127, 161,
Ankur 161, 189, 196, 197-203
161 n.1, 188, 190, 191
Anubhav 98-9, 107, 164
realism in 191-2
Apu Trilogy 190
black money 39
Aradhana 139
blind lover, figure of 83, 85 n.26,
art cinema 105, 129, 188
86 n.27
Ashirwad90
Bombay
Association
cinema. See popular cinema
Indian People's Theatre 188
film industry
Motion picture Producers', of
economic structure of
America 130
British policy towards mythological
Audience segmentation 121
films 4 n.3
vs. spectator 161-2
bureaucracy
mobilization of 209-11. See also
Bachchan, Amitabh 24, 131, 132-3, Manthan
133 n.17, 138, 140, 140 n.3
& 4, 141, 158-9 reformist 216
 Index • 251
250 • Index revolution 220-1 experimental cinema 125, 128, 129.
theory, contemporary 54 130
capitalism social. See Social films
spectation in. See darsana; culture female subjectivity 181-3. 186, 187
and cinema 2
darsanic gaze as Big Other 97 feudal
phases of 13
Tamil 158 preservation in commercial family romance 30-1,55,64,237
capitalist social process, theory of 12
and theatre, difference between cinema 105, 106 conflict with realism 55
Cartier-Bresson 190
101, 102 role of State in 9 decline of 219
censorship
voyeurism in 101-1, 102, 103 hero of 76
of Hollywood films 4 n.3, 78,
78 n.22,88 citizen dacoit, portrayal of 158. See also in Indian cinema 30-1
figure of 58-9, 59 n.5, 61 Sholay; Khotey Sikkay narrative structure of 30, 31
of Indian films 88-93
subject, in Indian culture 54-5 dacoit films 136. See also Sholay; in Parsi theatre 30
justification for 92, 93 n.2
class Khotey Sikkay in popular cinema 65-7
Central Academy and Research
Institute 33 endogamy 163 Damini 67, 218,' 221, 224-5, 226, realism in 55
conflict, and ISA II 228,229-30,231,233,234, star image in 133
Chatterjee, Basu 127, 128, 161
classical Hindi film, narrative crisis 235, 236
Chopra, B.R. 129 justice 95-6
in 218 darsana
cinema 1, 9, 100-4 sexuality 215
comic characters, role of 72 and scopophilia
alternative 2 feudalism
commercial cinema 104-6, 108, 109 tradition of 19, 74-5
art 105, 129, 188 in Ankur 196, 197-8
experimentation in 218. See also darsanic gaze 76, 77, 103
and capitalism 2 contemporaneity of. See Manthan
Roja; Damini Dastak 181-7
censorship. See censorship above in Khandan 65-6
preservation of tradition in 105, Demvar144-53,155
commercial. See commercial 106 in Nishant. See Nishant
democracy and realism 56, 58
cinema propagation of consumer culture peasant struggle against 209
despotic regimes 94
and cultural need 108-9 in 109 realist representation of 193, 194,
detective films 67, 68 196--7
and culture 1 recovery from crisis 138
developmentalist realism 24 FFC. See Film Finance Corporation
experimental 125, 128, 129, 130. reform of 139
See also new wave cinema Dharti Ke Lal160 fictional realism 59 n.5
Commission, Film Enquiry 34
frontality in 19-20, 102 Dhool Ka Phool79, 81 Film
Committee
dialogue, role of 45, 70-1 Council 34-6, 36 n.6, 121 n.3, 123
genres of 46, 135, 135 n.19, Film Enquiry, report of 34,37
136--7 Diderot 94 industry response to 35-6
Public Undertaking, report of 131
Hollywood. See Hollywood Dil Ek Mandir 79,81,83 Enquiry Commission. report of 34
communal voyeurism 187
cinema Do Bigha Zameen 160 Finance Corporation 24, 34, 121,
Congress party 118, 119, 120
Italian neo-realist 160 conjugal space, state control over domestic melodrama. See melo- 122,-3, 125, 127, 128, 160,
mainstream. See mainstream 96--7 drama 188
cinema; popular cinema consumer culture 109 dominance and hegemony 10, 12 commitment to realism 160,
metalanguage in 59 corporation dosti, bond of 83-4 161, 190
national 4, 4 n.2 Amitabh Bachchan 216 Dutt, Utpal 191 competition with mainstream
new-wave. See new-wave films Film Finance. See Film finance industry 122-3, 124
non-realist 14 Corporation Emergency, of 1975 intervention in film produc-
socialist programme during 210 tion 131
parallel. See art cinema; new- couple, invention of 94-5,97
wave films crime films. See detective films endogamy, class 163 and new cinema 34
political. See political cinema Evening in Paris, An, 90 policy, obstacles to 126--7
cultural
realist. See realist cinema autonomy 54 exhibition sector, of film industry as producer 122
regional 5 n.5, 192-3, 194-5 need, ideology of 15, 15 n.14, 41-2 Institute 122
scopic activity in 100-1 105, 108-9
 252 • Index
film (contd)
industry, Indian 29-30, 33
audience segmentation in 121
in Roja 224-5, 228-30, 235-6
ideology of 219, 221
formal subsumption, ideology of
1 script in 44
voyerism in 76-7, 78
See also cinema
Index • 253
evolution of 3, 6
feudal family romance in. See
feudal family romance
black money in 39 6-13, 13 n.ll, 14, 16, 218,
Hindu nationalism 8 genre formation in 46, 135,
crisis in 118, 118 n.l,I21-3 237 135 n.19, 136-7
Hollywood cinema, 415, 31, 190
distribution sector of 40, 41 Marx's !heory of 12, 13 history of 14-15
film censorship of 78, 78 n.22
vs. real subsumption 13 idea of 2
during colonial rule 4 n.3
economic structure of formula films 31, 44. See also popular ideological reform in 218
cinema classical 1
37-42 modernity of 18
Freud, theory of dreams 221 in colonial India 4, 4 n.3
exhibition sector of 41-2 and modern state 95
frontality 18-19, 20, 21 melodrama in 65
government intervention in as national cinema 4, 4 n.2
121-2 in cinema 19-20, 102 class structure in 65
language in 70 transformation in 217-18,
government support for 32-3, in open theatres 19
women's 56 236-7
34, 121-2 in Parsi theatre 19
narrative in, importance of 50 culture, vs. western culture 13-14
heterogeneous form of and realism 20-1, 21
manufacture in 42, 43, 45 production mode in 42, 47--8
production Mode in 31-2 realism in 62 politics, coalitional 119
Gandhi, Indira 118, 122, 188
response to Film Council 35-6 script in 44 popular cinema. See 'popular
gaze cinema
response to political crisis 24 darsanic 76, 77, 103 serial manufacture in 42, 43
state, form of 12-13
role in independent Indian 32, spectatorial, 193-4 star image in 133
33 Motion Picture Congress 34, 38
genres, of Indian cinema 46,135, 135 Peoples' Theatre Association 188
segmentation in 24, 25, 118, n.19, 136-7 ideologeme, concept of 6-7
127-31 industrial hero 132
Ghatak, Ritwick 15 ideological
social tax on 121, 121 n.3 Amitabh Bachchan as 138
gladiator films 135 n.19 fonns, and cultural critique 11
production 36 interpretation, Jameson's theory
Gramsci, concept of passive revolu- state apparatuses 10-11 219-20
in Bombay 37--8, 43, 44 tion 12, 52 ideology
FFC intervention in 131 Institute
Guddt 170-1, 172-5 concept of 9-10, 11
in Hollywood 37--8, 43, 44 Central Academy and Re-
GUjral, I.K. 121, 121 n.3 of form 219, 221 search 33
star.>, value of 39, 40 GungaJumna 152 offormal subsumption 6-14,218, film 122
technology 1, 2-3 237 Italian neo-realist cinema 160
theatres 41-2, 190 Hanuman 72, 72 n.17, 76 Marx's definition 9
theory 1-2, 5 ItteJaq 129
Haqeeqat 85 and state form, importance of 13
and Hollywood films 1 ISAs. See ideological state appara-
hegemony idli westerns 156, 157 tuses
social goal of 2 and dominance 10, 12 image-spectator relations 19-20, 21,
western 2 Gramsci's concept of 10 21 n.18 Javed. See Salim-Javed
Filmfare 172, 172 n.7 social 10 independent producers 38-40, 46 Journal of Arts and Ideas 18
Films Division 33-4 heterogeneous form of manufacture India
For a Few Dollars More 156, 157 42, political crisis in 117-18, 118 n.l, Kaadu 193-4
foreign film theatres 190 in Bombay films 43, 45 119-20
form
Kala Pani 67, 68-9,
Hindi film industry, See film industry industry response to 24
Kapoor, Raj 81, 83, 86
content of 220 above political transfonnation in 8
Karnad, Girish 192
primacy of 221 Hindi cinema 14, 18 pre-British, social order in 193
Kaul, Mani 128
in Damini 225-7, 235-6 appeal for third world 18 cinema (s)
Khandan 65-6
 r
254 • Index
Index • 255
Khanna, Rajesh 139 as a means of education 70 n.15
modern state, power relations in 10 Nehru, ]awahar Lal
-KhoteySikkay156, 157,213 n.4 middle-class 67
Mother India 152 views on
kissing, ban on 88-92, 93, 96, 97-8, in popular cinema 57
Motion Picture Producers' Associa- film industry 33
100,103 realism in 71
tion 130 modern society 8 n.8
Kora Kagaz 186 and realism, relation between 56,
Mukherjee, Hrishikesh 127, 128, 131, Nehruvian socialism 33
Kumar, Rajendra 79, 86 58, 62-3, 71, 72-3
171 neo-Gandhians 8 n.8
Kumari Meena 167 role of comic characters in 72
musicals 136 neo-realism, Italian 58, 61, 62
Kurien, V. 216 women's 56
mythological films 135 new cinema 18, 24, 118, 128, 161,
La Cuesta de las Comadres 59--60 Melodramatic Imagination, The 56
British policy towards 4 n.3 161 n.1, 189, 190
law, role in narrative crises 218-19 Mere Apne 127, 164, 165-6, 168 feudal representation in 19&--7
lyrics, in Hindi films 44-5, 45 n.13 metalanguage 58, 59,60
Nadia films 4 n.3, 135 n.19 and FFC 34. See also Film Finance
in cinema 59 Corporation
Main Azad Hun 77 Namak Haram 131, 164, 169--70
and object language 195 growth of 189-90
mainstream cinema 2, 5, 125 Narayan, ]ayaprakash 120
of realism 58, 59, 73 peasant struggle in 196, 199,209.
challenge posed by aesthetic narrative
Metzian segmentation 223 See also Ankur; Nishant
programme 124 crisis, resolution of 218
middle-class realism in 61, 62
government indifference towards emphasis on 139
cinema 24,25, 118, 127, 129, 130, success of 199 n.3
129 feudal
160 See also new-wave films
middle class movement in. See realism in 55, 193-4
middle-class cinema Bengali culture and 164-5 new-wave films 125, 126
structure of 30, 31
threat from FFC films 129--30 commercial 128 vs. Bombay films 125
construction of class space in in Hindi films 49
See also popular cinema Satyajit Ray's views on 125, 126
181 in Hollywood cinema 50
Manthan 189, 209--15, 16 See also new cinema
and female subjectivity 181-3, new form of 133, 134
martyr, as figure of national recon- Nirmalyam 192, 193
186 place of state in 219
ciliation 165 Nishant 196,197,203-9,2 15
melodrama in 67 reformation of 219. See also Roja
in Anand 167-9 non-Hindi film industry 4 n.4
ordinary hero in 134 Satyajit Ray's emphasis on 125, 126
in Mere Apne 165--7 non-realist cinema 14
in Namak Haram 169--70 post-marital conflict in 178-80 nation
nuclear couple 163. See also nuclear
sectors of 163-4 state family
Marx 12, 42, 43
theatres for 128 consolidation of 193-4
definition of ideology 9 nuclear family 24, 94, 95, 96
isolationism 170 post-colonial 12, 52-3, 53 n.1
Maya Darpan 128
melodrama 5&--7, 57 n.4, 58, 62, 64, realism 128 and state, relationship between
object language 58
70 n.15 spectatorship 25 191-6
ordinary hero 133-4
and democracy 56 middle class, and national identity national
dialogue in 71 163 audience
in post-independent India 4 Painted Face, The 16, 17
domestic 57 n.4 milk cooperative movement 216
parallel cinema 129. See also art
early 67, 71-2 minimum guarantee system 41 segmentation of 132
cinema
language in, 69--71 Mise-en-scene 63 n.9 cinema 4, 4 n.2. 121
Parsi theatre 19, 64
legal vs. moral sphere in 69 miSe-en-valeur63, 63 n.1, 64 in Europe 4, 4 n.2
feudal family romance in 30
moral aim of 71 Mirabai 111 FFC films as 129. See also Film
Finance Corporation frontality in 19
in Hollywood cinema 56, 70 modernity and tradition 6,7,8 passive revolution 12, 13, 53
in India films 64 in commercial cinema 106, 107, realism 164
Gramsci's concept 12, 52
affinity with western melo- 113 nationalism, post-colonial 52
in Manthan 215
drama 64-5 in India society 7, 7 n.6, 8, 18 Nationalist Thought and the Colo-
nial World 52 Pather Panchali 14, 160
 256 • Index Index • 257
regional cinema Metzian 223
peasant struggle, in new cinema 196, Ratnam, Mani 217 influence of Bombay films 5 n.5 in Roja 225, 226-7, 235-6
199, 209. See also Ankur Ray, Satyajit 5 n.5, 14, 15, 106, 123,
Nishant realism in 192-3, 194-5 Sen, Mrinal 123, 161, 188, 191
124, 125, 126, 198 Renoir, Jean 190
Phalke, Dadasaheb 2, 33, 133 serial manufacture 42
comments on Ankur 198 report of
Phir Bhi 187 in Hollywood 42, 43
emphasis on narrative 125, 126 Committee on Public Undertak-
Pixerecourt 70 n.15 sexuality, feudal 215
realism of 160-1, 190 ing 131
political cinema 16, 129, 131, 199 n.3, Shahani, Kumar 29, 128
realism 58, 73 Film Enquiry Committee 34, 37
209 Sholay 79, 153-8
Bazin's theory 21-3, 50, 61, 62 Report of the Indian Film Industry's
Ankur as. See Ankur social
in Bhuvan Shome 191-2 Mission to Europe and
commercial exploitation of 130-1 films 83, 87, 137, 136
and democracy 56, 58 America 32-3
popular cinema 4, s-6, 15-17, 23, emergence of 46
developmentalist 24 Report of the Working Group on
24, 25, 49, 79, 118 National Film Policy 36 public spectacle in 79
contemporaneity of 17 in feudal narratives 55, 193-4
Raja 218,221,225,228,230,231-3, reformed 137
cultural content of 49 FFC commitmentto 160, 161, 190
235, 236 hegemony 10
fictional 59 n.5
feudal family romance in. See romantic love, in popular cinema reality, and fantasy 221
feudal family romance and frontality 20-1
110-12 socialism, Nehruvian 33
and Indian culture 15 in Guddi 172-4
Rousseau 94 southern film makers, popularity of
lack of authenticity in 5 n.5 in Hollywood 62
Roy, Bimal 160 217
melodrama in 57 internal distancing and 193, 194
Rulfo, Juan 59 spaghetti westerns 156
production mode in 48, 49 metalanguage of 58, 59, 73
spectation 78
popular cinema (contd) realism (contd)
Sahni, Balraj 44 in Indian cinema. See darsana;
romantic love in 110-12 and melodrama 56, 58, 62-3, 71, darsanic gaze
Salim-Javed 133, 134, 135 n.19, 142,
textual form of 30 72-3 152, 157 structure of 73, 74
post-colonial modes of 61-4
Sangam 81-7, 157 spectatorial gaze 193-4
national 64
nationalism 52 Sara Akash 127, 161, 161 n.l, 162-3 speech. See dialogue
nation states 12, 52-3 as national project 190-1 Satpathy, Nandini 121, 125 star
nationalist 61, 62
cultural autonomy in 54 scopic activity, in cinema, 100-1 as ego ideal 74
dominant classes in 53, 53 n.l in new cinema 61, 62, See also scopophilia
new cinema image 133
post-marital conflict, depiction of and darsana tradition 75--6 of Amitabh Bachchan 133, 133
178-80 in popular cinema 63
narcissistic 73-4 n.17, 138, 140, 140 n.3
private vs. public sphere 78-9, 92, of Satyajit Ray. See Ray, Satyajit
unauthorized 101 in feudal family romance 133
94, 96-7, 98, 99 Shyam Benegal's contribution to.
voyeuristic 73 in Hollywood 133
producers, independent 38-40, 46 See Benegal, Shyam
statist 25, 196 screenplay 44 mobilization effect of 158-9
production modes 220 Balraj Sahni's views 44 as public persona 134
realist
in Bombay 31-2 new approach to 139, 142 system, alternative 156-7
in Hollywood 42, 47-8 cinema 5, 161
script state
in India 5
in popular cinema 48, 49 in Bombay films 44 control over conjugal space 96-7
prohibition. See censorship regional 192-3, 194-5
in Hollywood films 44 form, in India 12
sexuality and feudal power in
194 sectoral need, theory of 107 as ideological apparatus 11, 12
Rajnigandha 161, 175-8 segmentation intraventionist role of 53, 121-2.
See also realism; new cin-
Ramachandran, M. G. 158 in Damini 224--5, 228-30, 235--6 See also Film Finance
ema; new-wave films
Ramanujan, A. K. 7 n.6 in film industry 24,25, 118, 127-31 Corporation
theatre, and classical cinema 102
Rama Rao, N. T. 17 voyeurism 97
 m SiC : xq
258 • Index
and nation, relation between of capitalist social process 12
191-6 cultural, contemporary 54
place in narrative 219 film 1-2, 5
role of 32 Freud's, of dreams 221
ruling coalition in 55 Jameson's of interpretation219-20
statist realism 25, 196 Marx's, of formal subsumption 13
still photography 3, 3 n.1 of sectoral need 107
studio companies 38, 39-40 titles, of films 48 n.16
studio era 46, 47. See also studio tradition vs. modernity. See moder-
companies above nity preservation of 105,106
subjectivity, female 181-3, 186, 187 27 Down 162
Susman 216
Uski Roti 128
Tamil cinema 158
technology, film 1-3 Voyeurism 73, 100, 101
Telengana, peasant struggle in 209 cinematic 101-2
textual form, integrity of 21 communal 183
theatre and cinema, difference in Indian cinema 102, 103
between 101, 102 realist 97
theatres 41-2 theatrical 101-2
for foreign films 190 voyeuristic scopophilia 73
for middle-class cinema 128
open, frontality in 19 western cinema 3, 5, 6. See also
owners of, nexus with distribu- Hollywood cinema
tors 126 women's melodrama 56, 79, 81, 83,
rentals of 190 86,87
theatrical voyeurism 101-2
theory Zanjeer140, 142-4, 155