LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 24:4 April 2024
ISSN 1930-2940

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         B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
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         Pammi Pavan Kumar, Ph.D.
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Selling Toxic Masculinity Through Regional Cinema:
A Case Study of the Film Arjun Reddy

Arunesh Babu. N., M.A. English, NET, NFSC JRF


Courtesy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arjun_Reddy

Abstract

This article explores toxic masculinity in Indian cinema through an analysis of Arjun Reddy. It examines how film perpetuates patriarchal norms and reinforces gender inequality. By examining the portrayal of the protagonist and society's reactions, it reveals the impact of film representations on real-life attitudes. The study highlights the need for alternative narratives that challenge traditional gender norms and promote diversity in masculinity. It advocates a critical analysis of film discourse to promote a more inclusive portrayal of gender identities in Indian cinema.

Keywords: Arjun Reddy, Film studies, Indian Cinema, Toxic Masculinity, Gender studies.

1. Introduction

Film is not an isolated art form as it inhabits a common expressive culture fed by tradition, cultural memory, and indigenous modes of symbolic representation. Hence, films and other arts are mutually implicated in the productions of meaning and pleasure, which definitely needs to be examined. (Indubala Singh - Gender Relations and Cultural Ideology in Indian Cinema).

Cinema contributes to the discourses, which canonize the ideologies that benefits the socially dominant populace in the space it is produced. It convinces the general society that the power relation is, in fact, arbitrary without any external influence acting upon to ferment it. This process of creating a power structure without the knowledge of the subordinate population is called naturalization. Without any physical force, thus, a hegemonic structure is created, as Raymond Williams (1997) explains,

It is in [the] recognition of the wholeness of the process that the concept of “hegemony” goes beyond “ideology.” What is decisive is not only the conscious system of ideas and beliefs, but the whole lived social process as practically organized by specific and dominant meanings and values.

Looking at Indian cinema from a gender perspective, many stereotypes were created and naturalized by popular commercial cinema. While their spread a misogynistic message in the minds of Indian youth, what one fails to notice is that not just women, but men are also affected by this trope. The heroes in mainstream Indian cinema have their own grammar which plants the idea that a man must be fairer, taller, with strong voice, which can ‘protect’ the female counterpart(s). With most men in India lacking these qualities, it creates an inferiority complex in them and to prove that they are equally manly, they imitate everything done by film stars on silver screen such as catcalling and eve-teasing.

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

Arunesh Babu. N., M.A. English, NET, NFSC JRF
Research Scholar, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences
Puducherry Technological University
Puducherry
Aruneshbabu.n@gmail.com
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