Modern Feminist Narratives in Bollywood

In our first ever episode, we tackle how pop culture and mainstream media in Bollywood portray women and marginalized characters. 

To contextualize our discussion, we took note of the male and feminine gazes in cinema and art, and how they uphold (or subvert) traditional ideas of gender roles, social and power dynamics, and other forms of identity privilege. 

For this episode, we specifically chose some recent films and shows coming out of Bollywood that marketed themselves as feminist works. Our watchlist included blockbusters like Veere di Wedding and Four More Shots Please! as well as critically acclaimed media like Lipstick Under My Burkha, Sir, Bulbbul, and Made in Heaven.

Our next episode is a Saucy Deep Dive on Khabi Khushi Khabie Gham.
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For more on the episodes, check out the extended Show Notes for additional reading material, explanations, and videos. 

More available on SareesOnScreen.com

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[Music Prod. By LuKremBo]

Advisory

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction
• 0:42 The "Sauce" Meter
• 5:19 Male Gaze and Feminine Gaze
• 8:41 The Repercussions of Bollywood: Objectification, Consent and Representation
• 16:04 Feminine Gaze in Bollywood
• 24:29 Bollywood and "Boss Babe" Feminism
• 28:14 Agency, Motivations and the Binarizing of Women
• 33:40 Critique of Body Image Issues in "Four More Shots!"
• 39:04 Sexualization, Desexualization and Ownership of Sexual Desire in "Lipstick Under My Burkha"
• 43:29 Intersectionality of Identity in "Lipstick Under My Burkha" and "Sir."
• 47:45 Discussions of Class and Class-Blindness in "Sir," "Veere Di Wedding" and "Made in Heaven"
• 1:09:09 Queer-Coded, Queer-Baiting or Catering to the Male Gaze?
• 1:10:59 "Bulbbul": Female Revenge Fantasies, Gratuitous Violence and the Feminine Gaze
• 1:15:18 Saas-Bahu Serials: Contextualizing Layered Oppression and Learning to Stop Responding to Aunties with Misogyny
• 1:18:35 Co-Opting Bengali Aesthetics in "Bulbbul" and North Indian Hegemony over "South Asian" media
• 1:20:21 Summary and Disclaimers
• 1:23:33 Closing Statement