Playing it the nation’s way: tradition, cosmopolitanism, and the native-masculine of Hindi sports films

IF 0.5 3区社会学 Q3 AREA STUDIES

Contemporary South Asia Pub Date : 2023-08-09 DOI:10.1080/09584935.2023.2245345

Pooja Radhakrishnan, Dibyakusum Ray

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Abstract

ABSTRACT The generic popularity of Hindi sports films has been overwhelming in recent years. The article examines this genre of Hindi films through the thematic construction of the sports‘man’ and its evolutionary manifestation from a masculine figure symbolising India’s national unitarian ethos to a megalithic, tradition-backed, orthodox patriarchy post-2010s. It elaborates this seemingly linear transformation through decade based phases, starting from the social-emancipatory athletic phenomenon of the pre-globalisation era to the neoliberal Hindi sports films of the early millennial phase. The study then explores the slow dissolution of the ‘composite masculinity’ that considered the ethnic variegation of Indian nationalism, and the emergence of sporting cinema on patriarchal and athletic superheroes. The article further discusses how it was nurtured within deeply insular, and ethno-religious gaming traditions of antiquity like the akhara wrestling, in fictional/biographical sports films like Sultan (Zafar 2016) and Dangal (Tiwari 2016). While commenting on this transformation of the ‘national athlete’ into the ‘heritage’s surrogate’, the article attempts to provide a detailed methodology of understanding the expanding canon of Hindi sports films so far and how it aligns itself with the re-ethnicisation of India’s polity in the last two decades.

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来源期刊

Contemporary South Asia AREA STUDIES-

CiteScore

2.10

自引率

0.00%

发文量

期刊介绍： The countries of South Asia - Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka - are internally diverse and part of global flows of people, goods and ideas. Contemporary South Asia seeks to address the issues of the region by presenting research and analysis which is both cross-regional and multi-disciplinary. The journal encourages the development of new perspectives on the study of South Asia from across the arts and social sciences disciplines. We also welcome contributions to pan-regional and inter-disciplinary analysis. Our aim is to create a vibrant research space to explore the multidimensional issues of concern to scholars working on South Asia and South Asian diasporas in the postcolonial era.