Open Access
Vol. 2, No. 1 (2026)
Independent Researcher, Durgapur, West Bengal, India, pratichichowdhury1413@gmail.com
This paper explores the theme of female autonomy extensively with special reference to demanding female authority, rights, and freedom through the ‘occult’ form. The study involves a literary analysis of two popular Bollywood films Stree (2018) and Bulbbul (2020) and their larger-than-life portrayals of female autonomy in the occult form. Also, the paper tries to analyze how males become ‘the secondary sex’ in a patriarchal society while women are considered the dominant. This paper highlights females’ retreat over the male dominated society. Also, a subtle critique of the imposition of the mumpsimus ways of the society upon women, is presented in the paper. The binary between the male order and female subjugation has been completely overturned in these films. Though represented in occult forms, the female protagonists in these films symbolize every woman from every sphere and enforces the idea that men become recreants when facing any challenge or when restricted from enjoying freedom and power. Moreover, through feminist theories and readings, the study includes the theoretical analysis of women’s emancipation within the surroundings of Stree and Bulbul. Through the lens of feminism, the study provides an explorative area of how these films highlight the subverted gender dynamics. The paper also presents female empowerment challenging the long-standing patriarchal traditions and the societal expectations to accept the autonomy of women in occult practices.
DOI: 10.63752/pijcace.0201S07
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Open Access
Vol. 1, No. 1 (2025)
PhD Scholar, Department of Performing Arts, Pondicherry University, Puducherry – 605014, E-mail: saddamhossain@pondiuni.ac.in
This study examines the moral contradictions and values of the Bengali middle class as portrayed in Mrinal Sen's acclaimed films Ek Din Pratidin (1979) and Kharij (1982). Through critical analysis of Sen's cinematic techniques and narrative choices, this research explores how the filmmaker exposed the hypocrisies, moral ambiguities, and social complicity embedded within middle-class life in post-Independence India. In Ek Din Pratidin, Sen interrogates patriarchal surveillance and the performative nature of middle-class morality through the story of a working woman's delayed return home. Kharij confronts issues of class privilege and structural violence through the tragic death of a child domestic worker. Both films demonstrate Sen's commitment to what this study terms "cinema of ethical interrogation"—a cinematic approach that avoids melodrama while exposing the normalized violence of social hierarchies. Rather than offering moral verdicts, Sen's realism compels audiences toward uncomfortable self-reflection. His unflinching critique reveals how middle-class virtue often masks systematic exclusion and selective empathy, making his work profoundly relevant to contemporary discussions of social justice and moral responsibility in South Asian cinema.
DOI: 10.63752/pijcace.vol.1.issue.01S.002
48 Downloads
1565 Views
Open Access
Vol. 1, No. 1 (2025)
PhD Student Department of Cinema and Media Studies University of Chicago Chicago, IL, USA
This paper examines the theoretical divide between Walter Benjamin and André Bazin regarding cinema's relationship to reality, using Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho (1960) as a case study to bridge their seemingly contradictory positions. Benjamin's "The Work of Art in the Age of its Technological Reproducibility" (1935) conceptualizes cinema through the metaphor of a surgeon penetrating reality with mechanical instruments, emphasizing montage and editing as fundamental to cinematic meaning. Conversely, Bazin's "Ontology of the Photographic Image" (1945) advocates for cinema's capacity to maintain distance from reality, allowing the medium's indexical relationship to the pro-filmic world to emerge naturally without excessive intervention. Through close analysis of the infamous shower sequence in Psycho, this study argues that these two theoretical approaches are not mutually exclusive but complementary. The sequence demonstrates Benjamin's penetrative metaphor through its voyeuristic camera work and violent imagery, while simultaneously exploiting Bazin's notion of photography's ontological connection to reality to achieve its lasting shock value. This analysis suggests that cinema's power lies in its dual capacity to both penetrate and preserve reality, offering a framework for reconciling these foundational film theory perspectives.
DOI: 10.63752/pijcace.vol.1.issue.01S.003
58 Downloads
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