Defying modesty: sexuality, female desire and stardom, Chandidas (1932)

ABSTRACT

Sexuality and sexual display in Indian films, especially the more contemporary Indian cinema has often been labelled as regressive on account of it objectification of the female body and the splitting of the woman down to her bodily presence. This article however makes the case that female sexual displays, especially in songs (and dance sequences) have accounted for the making of stars, more so when such displays have stood out against the mainstream society’s codes of feminine modesty and reticence. In essence the article argues that what has often been criticised as a disservice to women has frequently been precisely the opposite, for its projecting of autonomous and potent feminine selves. That is not to take away from the truth of this cinema’s sexualisation and objectification of women, or the aspect of sexual exploitation in the workplace as epitomised by the infamous casting couch wherein women have had to dispense sexual favours in order to secure work. However when we consider stardom and the making of some female stars of Indian cinema, what stands out is a sexual openness in their portrayals, which made these exceptional for the agency that they ascribed to the female protagonist. As such, the article makes the case that women in films, even when figured as objects of the male gaze, occasionally actually stood forth as models for the debunking of social codes, and for giving a primacy to women that was not a given either within the diegetic space of the films themselves, or society at large.

KEYWORDS:

• Female desire
• sexuaility
• Umasashi
• female agency
• stardom

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Filmland, 12 November 1932, p. 5-6.

2. Filmland, 5 November 1932, p.19.

3. Devi, My Homage to All, 23.

4. See Neepa Majumdar’s discussion of stardom in Indian silent films and early talkies, Majumdar, Wanted Cultured Ladies Only.