Vijaya Ramaswamy raises a pertinent question in the introduction to Biography as History: Indian Perspectives asking why biographies in the Indian context end up being hagiographies. She answers this through Ramachandra Guha’s position where Guha “...locates the problem of impoverished biographies in the obsession with idolization/iconisation that characterizes most biographies and biographers” (Ramaswamy 6). Speaking of political biographies, Ramaswamy prescribes that a biography of any political figure “needs to balance equally the personal and the political…” She brings up another valid query to the fore: whether the crucial silences in political biographies are indicative of the disturbing tendency among Indian biographers to “...express only that which is laudable and looks good...” (Ramaswamy 7). It is against this premise that this paper seeks to conduct a close reading of a Bollywood film Aandhi, released in 1975, as a fictionalized biography of India’s third and only woman prime minister Indira Gandhi (1917-1984). She was married to Feroze Gandhi (1912-1960). The film written, produced and directed by Gulzar, gathered immense popularity as it was thought to portray the true facets of the “iron lady” of India.
It would be useful to begin with a brief account of certain events of Indira’s life which are crucial to one’s understanding of the film. Pankaj Vohra, a reviewer of Katherine Frank’s biography of Indira Gandhi describes Frank’s take on the tenuous Indira-Feroze relationship in the biography– “Indira remained caught between the father and the husband. She, however, went over to her father because of her sense of the father’s needs, and her own needs as well because the relationship with Feroze, though not boring and...
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...rine. “Mr. Rushdie and Mrs. Gandhi”. Biography 19. 3 (Summer 1996): 245-258. Print.
Gandhi, Indira. Peoples and Problems (Collected Speeches). Great Britain: Hodder and Stoughton, 1982. 9-10. Print.
Gokulsing, K. Moti, and Wimal Dissanayake. Indian Popular Cinema- a narrative of cultural change. New Delhi: Orient Longman, 1998. 46, 77. Print.
Gulzar, Govind Nihalani, and Saibal Chatterjee. Ed. Encyclopaedia of Hindi Cinema. New Delhi: Popular Prakashan, 2003. 218. Print.
Gulzar. “Do you have any idea of sur and taal?” How Aandhi got its songs.” . N.p. Web. 14 March 2012.
Ramaswamy, Vijaya and Yogesh Sharma. Ed. Biography as History: Indian Perspectives. New Delhi: Orient Blackswan, 2009. 6-7. Print.
Vohra, Pankaj. Rev. of Indira: The Life of Indira Nehru Gandhi. Katherine Frank. Think India 5. 1 (2002): 96-100. Print.
In conclusion, the testimony of Maya Rani on the Partition of India provides a good overview of the fateful events leading to that disastrous decision made by the British, and the fatal suffering of innocent civilians that has passively caught between the crossfire of communal hatred. The importance of her oral testimony to history from a gendered, female, child, and caste perspective is severely underrated as the actions of a nation through her eyes (and other oral histories) are paramount to understanding the emotions, reasoning and social human logic behind the events that unfolded on the ground as more than just facts, dates and statistics on a piece of paper.
In Nehru’s India, women were victims of a “passive revolution” that subtly advanced bourgeoisie men of higher castes under a guise of parliamentary democracy. Though women have presided over the Indian National Congress, served as a prime minister, and represent a large part of India’s la...
Thesis: It is clear that Gandhi made many sacrifices in his lifetime to not only appease millions around him, but to also influence many forthcoming icons.
Rudolf, Lloyd L., and Susanne Hoeber Rudolf. Post Modern Gandhi and other essays. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2006. 92-120. Print.
"Selections from Gandhi : Complete Book Online." WELCOME TO MAHATMA GANDHI ONE SPOT COMPLETE INFORMATION WEBSITE. Web. 01 Oct. 2011. .
It is not the daily news, newspapers, books or magazines, but the Indian cinema that has undoubtedly remained the ...
While I am an avid critic and a skeptic of the Indian “Hindi” film industry, it is hard for me to ignore the cultural significance that Bollywood holds. While pop-culture is a representation of the society, films also hold the responsibility of perpetuating, and in some cases exaggerating, long held beliefs. Much like the film industry in the
Potpourri, Kamat. "Gandhi: A Biography." Kamat's Potpourri -- The History, Mystery, and Diversity of India. 4 Jan. 2011. Web. 23 Feb. 2011. .
Gandhi, Mohandas Karamchand. Young India, Volume 9. N.p.: Navajivan Publishing House, 1927. Print. Vol. 9 of Young India.
Indira Gandhi was an important historical figure in India. She broke through traditional gender boundaries, and became a woman leader of the largest democracy in the world. This was an accomplishment that even the United States has not achieved. She also marked the start of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty within a democratic India. Internal affairs such as the Hindu-Sikh conflict and the exponentially growing population led to Indira Gandhi changing her governance to that of an authoritarian.
Rao, S. (2007). The globalization of bollywood: An ethnography of non-elite audiences in india. The communication Review, 10(1), 57-76. doi: 10.1080/10714420601168491
India as a nation has evolved tremendously over the course of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Due to the effects of colonization, economic liberalization and globalization, India has been influenced by western principles of politics, society and commercialism. One of the major ways in which western influence has affected India is through its films. While Indian cinema encompasses a wide variety of film genres, this paper will be primarily focusing on Bollywood which may at times be referred to as Hindi films or masala films. In this paper I will be discussing how western influences are existent in film advertisement, film settings and brand placement in Hindi films and how these influence have all attributed to the westernization of Bollywood films. In order to understand how these three factors have attributed to the westernization of Bollywood films, I will provide historical background on India and Hindi films. Then I will provide information regarding what role each factor had on westernizing Hindi films.
Bollywood movies are entertaining the global now.it is the one of largest film industry in the world, the term Bollywood coined in a journalistic column in India and contested and commended in almost equal measure. The word is a derivative, imitative and low quality version of the world richest film factory –Hollywood but in terms of the production of feature films and viewership, India leads the world: every year on average 1,000 films are produced and a billion more buy tickets for Indian movies than for Hollywood films. Bollywood helped to make an attractive, exotic and colorful, tourist and investment destination. In addition
...f cheap culture by using flowery words but now the trend of vulgarity and the Punjabi culture in the films are changed and film makers have tried their best to attract the audience towards this industry again. If the scripts of films are related to reality like the novel which are based on drams are getting highest applause from the audience then the dying industry again gain its position and popularity.