A study of popular gujarati films using agenda setting

Abstract

Indian cinema is an umbrella term used to refer to films made in different languages in India. Gujarati cinema is one of those lesser popular film industries which began in early twentieth century but today has lost its glory, popularity and grandeur. A dying film industry today, Gujarati films have been quiet popular among Gujaratis since its inception, yet there has been little or no study done to understand how these films have newlinerepresented and framed the culture of Gujarat. This thesis tries to investigate Gujarati cinema and explore some of the newlinedominant films of the golden era to see how it frames Gujarati culture through its history, folk lore, tales, and people in terms of their dress, dialect, celebrations, and other significant codes through select fifty films. The study makes an attempt to connect mise-en-scene of these films with newlineframing analysis to interrogate the way visuals have been prioritized in the films to accommodate/ideas depict any specific agenda/ideology. It is important to note that Gujarati cinema subtly but consistently shared the responsibility of restoring cultural symbols and stories within the film newlinenarrative especially post integration in 1960 to remind every Gujarati about his/her roots and work towards Gujarati asmita . newline