Abstract
Gender is one of the most prominent and complex aspects of selfhood. The social and cultural positioning of gender has never escaped media texts, especially with the proliferation of satellite and cable television. Owing to its significant influence on forming and maintaining gender norms and expectations, the media has become a relevant field for anthropological research (Long and Wall, 2009). Another area mandating investigation is how the content boom, followed by the advent of subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) platforms, has contributed to this phenomenon. This is precisely the task taken up by Runa Chakraborty Paunksnis and Šarūnas Paunksnis. Their edited book Gender, Cinema, Streaming Platforms: Shifting Frames in Neoliberal India critically examines representations of gender against the historical backdrop of Indian feminist movements and the ubiquity of a consumerist, pleasure-driven philosophy introduced by the economic reforms of 1991. With India’s technological and cinematic development as a backdrop and comprising various essays, each with a different ideological take on the evolving gender portrayals in post-millennial Indian visual media content, this edited book acts as a guide through the maze of gender dynamics in media. It not only threads through the ever-changing terrain of Indian film and SVOD content, but also sheds light on how gender intersects with more significant political and socioeconomic trends. Readers are invited and challenged to unravel the complex patterns woven throughout, from the grand spectacle of the ‘Great Indian Wedding’ to the subversive stories of post-feminism. Through the camera lens, the subtleties of shifting economic conditions, feminist movements and societal norms are captured to reveal a canvas where the ‘new (Indian) woman’ struggles with patriarchy and where ideas of masculinity are reshaped in the face of globalization amidst the rise of right-wing politics.
The contributions here have profound implications that go beyond the confines of academia and strike a deep chord within the heart of modern-day Indian society, for example, when the brushstrokes of capitalism and feminism are scumbled in the marketed contours of lavish weddings alongside ‘disruptive portrayals’ of feminine agency. Also, the light on the ‘dominant ideology of male gaze through the private viewing’ in Rutuja Deshmukh’s essay uncovers structural incongruencies and the solidification of the status quo. Visual media becomes not only a mirror reflecting the complexities of societal norms, aspirations and struggles when viewed through the lens of gender, but also a powerful and contradictory means of producing notions of gender that provoke discussion, self-reflection and group imagination.
Fundamentally, the work presented here challenges established narratives and deeply held rhetorics to give voice to long-marginalized groups. It explores a variety of narratives in visual media seldom discussed in the public sphere, from the banned documentary film India’s Daughter (2015), which reveals a connection between language, class, power dynamics and ideology, to the terrain of women documentary filmmakers’ solitary experiences in personal storytelling. The book vitally illuminates the forms of gender representation in the digital era through its engagement with modern scholarship and cultural critique, discussing facets of visual culture that go beyond habitual scholarship. For instance, Sudipto Acharyya dissects the history of female directors of India and their modus operandi in a male-dominated industry, showing how their (select) films employ disruptive narrative techniques that contribute to a core feminist artistic expression.
Such specific instances of how visual media produce gender bring to life the collection’s engagement with quotidian yet atypical narratives, ironically highlighting the incongruency of gendered norms. For example, the editors paint a vignette around Netflix’s Haseen Dillruba (2021), which highlights the film’s attempt to reinforce the idea that women seeking agency outside the patriarchal narrative are inherently destructive, perpetuating traditional gender roles. Šarūnas Paunksnis proceeds to link masculine anxiety with the ‘fatherland’ imagination that Nandy (2009) voiced to contextualize India’s reimagination as Aryavarta in Netflix’s Leila (2019). It also implicates how a dystopian reality is cinematically made sense of and how the very idea of masculinity in visual media is augmented by requisite muscularity (Agarwal and Patnaik, 2023) to sustain the neo-globalized ideal of a contemporary Indian man (Balaji, 2014). Such close analysis of visual media reveals societal inconsistencies by exposing contradictions within presumptive gender narratives.
Several of the contributions here confront non-stereotypical portrayals, where class, caste, region and religion intersect. However, emphasizing these aspects takes a meandering path, occasionally alluding excessively to Western influence. Scholarship from the Global South is given only slight references in most contributions, thereby failing to engage with thoughtful work in the field. However, this limitation is thwarted by Anu Sugathan’s essay, which explicates how cinema ‘shapes’ culture in its Good-Muslim vs Bad-Muslim dichotomy. This point is also seen in Laskar and Reyaz’s (2022) work on television serials. As such, the intersectionality of gender with other lived realities (Shields, 2008) becomes a vital highlight of the volume, reemphasizing how social actants are deconstructed and reactualized in reflective and indicative mediatic models of one’s being.
Ultimately, this collection aims to offer the promise of change and possibility in India. The experimental filmmaker Ashish Avikunthak discusses the visual propensity of cinema to render the nude body as the sexed body in contrast to the blurred lines of masculinity and femininity, and the ‘infertile imagination’ of SVOD platforms. What is revealed is how the pulse of a society in transition can be found in the interaction of light and shadow, sound and silence. Thus, gender becomes more than just a category in this context; it becomes a privileged intersection of forces and forms wherein aspirations are created, identities are cemented and futures are imagined. At its best, the essays gathered here invite readers to consider the individuations of human experience and to imagine a future, idealistically perhaps, in which streaming services and movies act as catalysts for social change and cultural revitalization.
While many of the chapters comprehensively examine contemporary media dynamics, employing popular cultural theories to offer credible insights, some are less insightful due to unnecessarily complex jargon that hinders the clarity of arguments. Additionally, specific themes and observations recur throughout the book without being discussed in relation to each other by the editors, resulting in an impression of repetition. This is exacerbated when the editors introduce new arguments in the conclusion that are not present in the preceding essays. The inclusion of diverse ideological standpoints adds nuance to the overall impression, although voices from the right end of the ideological spectrum seem limited. Yet, Gender, Cinema, Streaming Platforms boasts a unique approach of examining SVOD content alongside traditional films, recognizing the unsystematic pattern of audience consumption in the contemporary age of global media exposure. It certainly offers fresh perspectives on contemporary feminism and the practices of women filmmakers challenging patriarchal structures on the screen. Overall, this collection is evidence of the intersectionality of gendered ways of being, the pursuit of equality across all of them and the transforming power of visual media. The voices that resound within these pages are valuable guides as we navigate the constantly changing media and social landscapes, for they speak not only of the past and present, but also of the possibilities that lie ahead.