Space as a metaphor in mainstream Hindi cinema a study of the female protagonist

Abstract

Women function inside a social context that reins and determines their lives. Over the years women s roles in films have developed and changed and many blockbuster films have featured women in important roles with abundant screen- and performance-time. But the significant issue is what these roles mean. The negotiations and arbitrations done by the heroine in an average Hindi commercial film happen at many levels Cultural, Political, Social Roles, Familial Roles, Professional - and these influence her sense of individuality, her self-realization and self-actualization. newlineThis thesis attempts to explain the way a Bollywood heroine has been presented, ever since films started being made commercially in India. The idea is to study how a woman character in a commercial Hindi film recognizes herself in terms of her sense of self and how much this sense of self is influenced by various roles played by the woman character (daughter, sister, wife, mother etc) as well as external conditions - place, situation and event - that cause a character to make a decision. Additionally, the thesis also attempts to explain the multifaceted cultural and aesthetic framework from which Bollywood emerges and the socio-political setup it represents, draws from, and perhaps contributes to. The study seeks to understand, using Indian performance theories, combined with Western social and communication theories, how strongly the influence of epics pervades Hindi cinema.