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Exploitation, victimhood, and gendered performance in Rituparno Ghosh's Bariwali

This article analyzes Rituparno Ghosh's celebrated film Bariwali (The Lady of the House, 2000). The film marks the beginnings of Ghosh's treatment of gender and sexual politics. Ghosh's earlier films Unishe April (1994) and Dahan (1997) engaged with strong female characters, but Bariw...

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Main Authors: Rohit Dasgupta, Tanmayee Banerjee
Format: Default Article
Published: 2016
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Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/2134/22998
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author Rohit Dasgupta
Tanmayee Banerjee
author_facet Rohit Dasgupta
Tanmayee Banerjee
author_sort Rohit Dasgupta (3187374)
collection Figshare
description This article analyzes Rituparno Ghosh's celebrated film Bariwali (The Lady of the House, 2000). The film marks the beginnings of Ghosh's treatment of gender and sexual politics. Ghosh's earlier films Unishe April (1994) and Dahan (1997) engaged with strong female characters, but Bariwali is the first of his films to narrate the various ways in which female agency is routed through male exploitation and patriarchy. Through close readings of the characters and the visual tropes perspicaciously crafted by Ghosh, this article positions hegemonic masculinity and heteropatriarchal privilege as the exploiter within India's gendered politics. By placing the protagonist Banalata both within the feudal space as well as within the bhadralok discourse, one can trace the transition from tradition to modernity that the story represents, and in turn trace Ghosh's unique understanding of and reaction against India's prevailing social and cultural norms.
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institution Loughborough University
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spelling rr-article-94640032016-01-01T00:00:00Z Exploitation, victimhood, and gendered performance in Rituparno Ghosh's Bariwali Rohit Dasgupta (3187374) Tanmayee Banerjee (7185782) untagged This article analyzes Rituparno Ghosh's celebrated film Bariwali (The Lady of the House, 2000). The film marks the beginnings of Ghosh's treatment of gender and sexual politics. Ghosh's earlier films Unishe April (1994) and Dahan (1997) engaged with strong female characters, but Bariwali is the first of his films to narrate the various ways in which female agency is routed through male exploitation and patriarchy. Through close readings of the characters and the visual tropes perspicaciously crafted by Ghosh, this article positions hegemonic masculinity and heteropatriarchal privilege as the exploiter within India's gendered politics. By placing the protagonist Banalata both within the feudal space as well as within the bhadralok discourse, one can trace the transition from tradition to modernity that the story represents, and in turn trace Ghosh's unique understanding of and reaction against India's prevailing social and cultural norms. 2016-01-01T00:00:00Z Text Journal contribution 2134/22998 https://figshare.com/articles/journal_contribution/Exploitation_victimhood_and_gendered_performance_in_Rituparno_Ghosh_s_Bariwali/9464003 CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
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Rohit Dasgupta
Tanmayee Banerjee
Exploitation, victimhood, and gendered performance in Rituparno Ghosh's Bariwali
title Exploitation, victimhood, and gendered performance in Rituparno Ghosh's Bariwali
title_full Exploitation, victimhood, and gendered performance in Rituparno Ghosh's Bariwali
title_fullStr Exploitation, victimhood, and gendered performance in Rituparno Ghosh's Bariwali
title_full_unstemmed Exploitation, victimhood, and gendered performance in Rituparno Ghosh's Bariwali
title_short Exploitation, victimhood, and gendered performance in Rituparno Ghosh's Bariwali
title_sort exploitation, victimhood, and gendered performance in rituparno ghosh's bariwali
topic untagged
url https://hdl.handle.net/2134/22998