Contested Representation

Dalits, Popular Hindi Cinema, and Public Sphere

By: Dhananjay Rai

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Hardcover | 19 July 2022

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Hardcover
268 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
23.6 x 16.3 x 2.3

Hardcover

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Popular Hindi cinema has become a significant signpost of contemporaneity due to its construction of social language. Generally, Hindi cinema has been understood through internal (auteur or genre or cinema verite) and external aspects (consumption spheres and moviegoers' complex response in the form of catharsis or everydayness mimesis). However, cinema also needs a new way of discerning with respect to 'Dalit Representation'. The study needs to look at the construction and meaning of the social language of Hindi cinema. Construction refers to exploring factors beyond the film industry responsible for shaping the social language. Meaning entails the exhibition of social language in the form of messages. Herein, relational exploration becomes crucial. The relationship between factors of social language of Hindi cinema and Dalits must be unraveled for understanding the meaning of social language for Dalits. Contested representation encompasses the nature of absence and presence of Dalits in Hindi cinema.

Industry Reviews

Well-researched, theoretically grounded and politically committed, this is a pioneering study of Dalits and Hindi cinema, examined through the perspectives of social language and representation. It needs to be read, and I hope it leads to more studies of Dalits in Indian cinema.

-- Tabish Khair, Aarhus University

Contested Representation is a brilliant exposition of the social language of Hindi cinema focusing on the 'absence' and 'presence' of Dalits in cinematic constructions. Rai argues persuasively that cinematic representations replicate the social and material power imbricated in caste hierarchies, yet the narratives are heterogenous, and the representational field is inflected by powerful Dalit resistance against domination.

-- Anupama Roy, Jawaharlal Nehru University

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