CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2017
| Author | Szivák, Júlia |
|---|---|
| Title | India and Pakistan on the Screen - The Portrayal of the Kashmir Border in Hindi Cinema |
| Summary | The present thesis discusses how Hindi cinema chooses to represent the region of Kashmir, the territory divided between Pakistan and India today, though the analysis of three iconic films, Henna (1991), Roja (1992), and Mission Kashmir (2000). The three case studies attest a shifting paradigm in the way they address Kashmir, reflecting on contemporaneous political and social changes. Whereas earlier films conceived the region as a romantic metaphor of an idyllic landscape, from ca. 1990 onward the productions focus more on the conflicts between India and Pakistan, terrorism, and the concept of barriers within the society. Given the extreme popularity and success of these films, the main argument put forward is that the Bollywood industry acts as an able opinion-shaper in present-day India, and thus contributes significantly to the way Indians think of Kashmir. In order to understand the movies themselves, the coeval events of war and terrorism are highly relevant, especially because the filmmakers evidently reflect on those. Part of what makes these films successful is that the narrative is presented from a hegemonic point of view, and the references to contemporary events are combined with traditional and newly established tropes. |
| Supervisor | Kumar, Sanjay |
| Department | History MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2017/szivak_julia.pdf |
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