{"title":"Chronicle of a Funeral Webcast: Mediating Death in the Time of COVID-19","authors":"Kuhu Tanvir","doi":"10.1177/09749276221097728","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09749276221097728","url":null,"abstract":"Notes on the media experience of last rites in quarantine during the second wave of COVID-19 in India in April 2021.","PeriodicalId":51959,"journal":{"name":"Bioscope-South Asian Screen Studies","volume":"49 1","pages":"19 - 23"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"86068856","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Transgressing Boundaries, Transforming Film Culture(s): Tales of Bedeni and the Constructs of Female Performer Figure in the 1990s Bengali Cinema","authors":"S. Bhattacharya","doi":"10.1177/09749276221104910","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09749276221104910","url":null,"abstract":"Bedeni film emerged as a film genre centred on the snake worship cult and the figure of the bedeni/snake charmer woman after the phenomenal popularity of Beder Meye Josna (Panu, 1991). In this article, I consider how bedeni’s figuration disrupted the idea of the bhadra heroine of Bengali cinema, a figure of polish and restraint, and offered new understandings of ‘public women’. I study constructs of bedeni as a sexualised female performing figure through the multiple influences of diverse media texts ranging from Hindi cinema, to music videos, to sexually explicit Bengali songs (‘raser gaan’) popularised by cassettes. These influences speak of an expansive adaptation by Bengali cinema of contemporary popular culture across regional and national boundaries.","PeriodicalId":51959,"journal":{"name":"Bioscope-South Asian Screen Studies","volume":"87 1","pages":"94 - 116"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"80553620","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Through a Drone Darkly: Drone Media as Pandemic Witnessing","authors":"Anirban K. Baishya","doi":"10.1177/09749276221097732","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09749276221097732","url":null,"abstract":"When the COVID-19 pandemic broke out in 2020, countries around the world began enacting lockdown measures and enforcing social distancing rules. Almost at the same time, the use of drones also began to see a spike, especially in the hands of civilian users. This article examines the phenomenon of the drone video as a genre of the pandemic. While drone imagery is not endemic to the COVID-19 crisis, in the face of mass deaths and lockdowns, drone users globally began to turn to the drone as a mobile archive machine. Drawing on recent scholarship on drones, I examine how the drone’s vertical vision afforded a form of pandemic witnessed by proxy. Despite the increasing use of drones for policing, surveillance and warfare, in the case of India, drone imagery also played an important role in countering government narratives about the pandemic and its body counts. Examining the drone images captured by the late photographer Danish Siddiqui, I demonstrate how the drone’s ‘vertical play’ facilitated the emergence of a counter-archive of the pandemic.","PeriodicalId":51959,"journal":{"name":"Bioscope-South Asian Screen Studies","volume":"56 1","pages":"24 - 32"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"89308292","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Mangled Homes, Tangled Homeland: Religion and Gender in Tanvir Mokammel’s Chitra Nadir Pare","authors":"Srideep Mukherjee","doi":"10.1177/09749276221100280","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09749276221100280","url":null,"abstract":"The oeuvre of Tanvir Mokammel majorly centres on his conviction that the Indian Partition of 1947 has long-standing ramifications for Bangladesh. While nationalist historiography understandably privileges the Liberation War of 1971 as the arrival of nationhood in Bangladesh, Mokammel persistently argues for the relevance of historical continuities in understanding both the aspirations and ruptures underlying the nation project over the last 50 years. This article analyses his film Chitra Nadir Pare (Quiet Flows the Chitra, 1998) for Mokammel’s representation of the complex ways in which the matrices of religion and gender have subversively operated in the intervening decades between 1947 and 1971 to rupture a hitherto syncretic Bengali identity, leading to displacements and statelessness. This re-historicising of the mid-twentieth-century cataclysm and its analysis in the second decade of the twenty-first century prioritise film as an authentic medium of cultural history that bears deep implications in the present time.","PeriodicalId":51959,"journal":{"name":"Bioscope-South Asian Screen Studies","volume":"45 1","pages":"117 - 135"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"77109146","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"A Critical Film Zone on Zoom","authors":"Laleen Jayamanne","doi":"10.1177/09749276221099089","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09749276221099089","url":null,"abstract":"Quite by chance, participating in Zoom webinars on two recent films about Sri Lanka, Funny Boy and The Single Tumbler, opened up an unexpected and surprising research problem. This was especially surprising because neither of the webinars were organised from within academic film studies.","PeriodicalId":51959,"journal":{"name":"Bioscope-South Asian Screen Studies","volume":"14 1","pages":"33 - 37"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"81655131","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Vote for Visibility: Talent Hunts, Networked Infrastructures, and the Emergence of Northeast India’s First Reality TV Star","authors":"Sagorika Singha","doi":"10.1177/09749276221114180","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09749276221114180","url":null,"abstract":"This article explores the relationship between the arrival of early mobile communication technologies and the emergence of reality television (TV) contestants from the Northeast region, particularly Assam. It argues that such networked communication infrastructures enabled marginalised and aspirational publics to mobilise and assert their identities in an evolving mediascape; specifically, how these publics deploy telecommunication and media infrastructures to acquire media visibility. This correlation is examined via the success story of Debojit Saha—the first reality TV star from the Northeast. Significantly, his win was credited to a rigorous, coordinated SMS voting campaign conducted by local student and socio-political unions. Hitherto marginalised regional identities emerged as key players in development of the digital television culture in a neoliberal economy.","PeriodicalId":51959,"journal":{"name":"Bioscope-South Asian Screen Studies","volume":"74 1","pages":"74 - 93"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"78167796","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Book review: Debashree Mukherjee, Bombay Hustle: Making Movies in a Colonial City","authors":"J. Fay","doi":"10.1177/09749276211045791","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09749276211045791","url":null,"abstract":"Debashree Mukherjee, Bombay Hustle: Making Movies in a Colonial City. New York: Columbia University Press, 2020, 448 pp., $30 (Paperback). ISBN: 9780231196154.","PeriodicalId":51959,"journal":{"name":"Bioscope-South Asian Screen Studies","volume":"5 1","pages":"238 - 241"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2021-10-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"75452808","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Book review: Vazira Zamindar and Asad Ali (Eds.), Love, War and Other Longings: Essays on Cinema in Pakistan","authors":"Ulka Anjaria","doi":"10.1177/09749276211045800","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09749276211045800","url":null,"abstract":"Vazira Zamindar and Asad Ali (Eds.), Love, War and Other Longings: Essays on Cinema in Pakistan. Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2020, 274 pp., $15.00. ISBN-13: 978-0190701857.","PeriodicalId":51959,"journal":{"name":"Bioscope-South Asian Screen Studies","volume":"51 1","pages":"236 - 238"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2021-10-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"81001799","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Book review: Priya Jaikumar, Where Histories Reside: India as Filmed Space","authors":"Alastair Philips","doi":"10.1177/09749276211045793","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09749276211045793","url":null,"abstract":"Priya Jaikumar, Where Histories Reside: India as Filmed Space. Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2019, 398 pp., $29.95 (Paperback). ISBN: 978-1-4780-0475-2.","PeriodicalId":51959,"journal":{"name":"Bioscope-South Asian Screen Studies","volume":"48 1","pages":"136 - 138"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2021-10-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"79329607","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Book review: Wazhmah Osman, Television and the Afghan Culture Wars: Brought to You by Foreigners, Warlords, and Activists","authors":"Heather Jaber","doi":"10.1177/09749276211045806","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09749276211045806","url":null,"abstract":"Wazhmah Osman, Television and the Afghan Culture Wars: Brought to You by Foreigners, Warlords, and Activists. Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 2020, 288 pp., $28.00 (Paperback). ISBN: 978-0-252-08545-1.","PeriodicalId":51959,"journal":{"name":"Bioscope-South Asian Screen Studies","volume":"117 1","pages":"234 - 236"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2021-10-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"77147904","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}