Bollywood through a french lens is it possible?

• Lecture film clips Q&A and discussion on film and philosophy with
• Dr. Sonali Pattnaik
• Friday 4 April 6 P.M.
• @ The French Gallery

Bollywood is known to either marginally invoke or erase queer bodies through invisibility. Yet as this lecture will demonstrate drawing on the works of Monique Wittig Michel Foucault and other queer and feminist thinkers the homosocial bonding in films such as Sholay (1975) and the various depictions of humor dialogue and role-play in Honeymoon Travels (2007) and Dostana (2008) have both wittingly and unwittingly shaped the limits of cinematic heterosexual imagination while simultaneously celebrating queer bonding and desire. Through an analysis of more recent queer films such as Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga (2019) Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui (2021) and the Madhuri Dixit-starrer Maja Maa (2022) this lecture will explore how queer and straight bodies are configured on screen. This will be examined through Foucault’s theory of the body as a site of power and Wittig’s argument that heterosexuality functions as a socio-political form of oppression.

Furthermore Monique Wittig’s work questions the very need to define ‘woman’ a perspective that will be critically engaged in the lecture. This discussion will also include an analysis of Gangubai Kathiawadi (2022) where the configuration of heteronormative feminine heroism arguably leads to the villainization of certain identities.

Host or Publisher Alliance Française d'Ahmedabad