Abstract
In commercial Hindi cinema, representations of female identity have always been closely linked with female sexuality. Often considered a fairly accurate barometer of sexual mores in the country (Dasgupta, 1996), Hindi cinema has provided measured representations of ‘acceptable’ femininity in India. Early films produced by the Bombay film industry tackled progressive social issues (Vasudevan, 1989), and dealt with female sexuality in a similarly progressive way. However, after the slow erosion of the ‘social films’ of the 1950s, the spectre of female ‘eye candy’ soon arose. This particular vision of female sexuality was embodied in the character of the Hindi movie ‘vamp’. Vamps were women who provided sensuality to the film’s narrative, and reached their zenith in the 1960s and 1970s, when almost all commercial Hindi films negotiated with sexuality through their lens.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Chatterjee, P. (1995) ‘A Bit of Song and Dance’, in A. Vasudev (ed.), Frames of Mind: Reflections on Indian Cinema (New Delhi: UBS Publishers & Distributors), 197–218.
—. (1993) The Nation and Its Fragments: Colonial and Postcolonial Histories (New Jersey: Princeton University Press).
Dark, J. (2008) ‘Crossing the Pale: Representations of White Western Women in Indian Film and Media’, Transforming Cultures eJournal, 3.1, 124–44, file:///D:/UserData/sarwal/Downloads/677–2714–1-PB.pdf, accessed on 17 February 2013.
Dasgupta, S. (1996) ‘Feminist Consciousness in Woman-Centered Hindi Films’, Journal of Popular Culture, 30.1, 173–89.
Dwyer, R. & Patel, D. (2002) Cinema India: The Visual Culture of Hindi Film (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press).
—. (2000) ‘Bombay Ishtyle’, in S. Bruzzi and P. Gibson (eds), Fashion Cultures: Theories, Explorations and Analysis (London: Routledge), 178–90.
Gangoli, G. (2005) ‘Sexuality, Sensuality and Belonging: Representations of the “Anglo-Indian” and the “Western” Woman in Hindi Cinema’, in R. Kaur & A. Sinha (eds), Bollywood: Popular Indian Cinema through a Transnational Lens (New Delhi: Sage), 143–62.
Ghosh, T. (2013) Villains, Vamps and Henchmen in Hindi Cinema (New Delhi: Sage).
Gokulsing, K. M. & Dissanayake, W. (1998) Indian Popular Cinema: A Narrative of Cultural Change (Michigan: Trentham Books).
Govindan, P. & Dutta, B. (2008) ‘From Villain to Traditional Housewife! The Politics of Globalisation and Women’s Sexuality in the “New” Indian Media’, in A. Kavoori & A. Punathambekar (eds), Global Bollywood (New York: New York University Press), 180–202.
Kabir, N. M. (1989) Helen: Always in Step, Documentary (Hyphen Films: Channel Four).
Kasbekar, A. (2001) ‘Hidden Pleasures—Negotiating the Myth of the Female Ideal in Popular Hindi Cinema’, in R. Dwyer & C. Pinney (eds), Pleasure and the Nation (Oxford: Oxford University Press), 286–308.
Kaur, R. & Sinha, A. J. (2005) Bollyworld: Popular Indian Cinema through a Transnational Lens (New Delhi: Sage).
Kishwar, M. & Vanita, R. (1988) ‘The Burning of Roop Kanwar’, Race & Class, 30.1, 59–67.
Mazumdar, R. (2007) Bombay Cinema: An Archive of the City (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press).
Mehta, S. (2004) Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found (New York: Alfred A. Knopf).
Nijhawan, A. (2009) ‘Excusing the Female Dancer: Tradition and Transgression in Bollywood Dancing’, South Asian Popular Culture, 7.2, 99–112.
Pinto, J. (2006) Helen: The Life and Times of an H Bomb (New Delhi: Penguin).
Rushdie, S. (1991) Imaginary Homelands: Essays and Criticism, 1981–1991 (London: Granta Books).
Thomas, R. (1995) ‘Melodrama and the Negotiation of Morality in Mainstream Hindi Film’, in C. Breckenridge (ed.), Consuming Modernity: Public Culture in a South Asian World (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press), 157–82.
Vasudevan, R. (1989) ‘The Melodramatic Mode and the Commercial Hindi Cinema: Notes on Film History, Narrative and Performance in the 1950s’, Screen, 30.3, 29–50.
Virdi, J. (2003) The Cinematic Imagination (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press).
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2014 Suneeti Rekhari
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Rekhari, S. (2014). Sugar and Spice. In: Kishore, V., Sarwal, A., Patra, P. (eds) Bollywood and Its Other(s). Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137426505_9
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137426505_9
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-49085-1
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-42650-5
eBook Packages: Palgrave Media & Culture CollectionLiterature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)