| Title | : | Dancing with the Nation: Courtesans in Bombay Cinema |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 9386702908 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9789386702906 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 272 |
| Publication | : | Published December 5, 2017 |
In Ruth Vanita’s study of over 200 films from the 1930s to the present—among them, Devdas (1935), Mehndi (1958), Teesri Kasam (1966), Pakeezah (1971), Ram Teri Ganga Maili (1985), Ahista Ahista (1981), Sangeet (1992) and Ishaqzaade (2012)—courtesan characters emerge as the first group of single, working women depicted in South Asian movies. Almost every female actor—from Waheeda Rehman to Rekha and Madhuri Dixit—has played the role, and compared to other central female roles, these characters have greater social and financial autonomy. They travel by themselves, choose the men they want to have relations with and form networks with chosen kin. And challenging received wisdom, in Vanita’s analysis of films such as The Burning Train (1980) and Mujhe Jeene Do (1963), courtesan characters emerge as representatives of India’s hybrid Hindu-Muslim culture rather than of Islamicate culture.
A rigorously researched and groundbreaking account of one of the less-examined figures in the study of cinema, Dancing with the Nation is also a riveting study of gender, sexuality, the performing arts and popular culture in modern India.
Ruth Vanita is a professor at the University of Montana, where she directs South and South-East Asian Studies. She earlier taught at Delhi University and co-founded Manushi, India’s first nationwide feminist magazine. Her books include Gender, Sex and the City: Urdu Rekhti Poetry in India 1780-1870; Love’s Rite: Same-Sex Marriage in India and the West; Gandhi’s Tiger and Sita’s Smile: Essays on Gender, Sexuality and Culture; and Same-Sex Love in India: A Literary History (co-edited with Saleem Kidwai). She has translated the work of several Hindi writers.
Dancing with the Nation: Courtesans in Bombay Cinema Reviews
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I borrowed this book from a friend, who is herself a Kathak expert. Ruth Vanita explores Bollywood films in detail and analyses how courtesans are treated in the storytelling. She certainly manages to make more out of the stories that I would just dismiss as pathos, overacting, unrealistic, and annoyingly patriarchal.
I think you really need to be a Bollywood aficionado to actually enjoy this analysis. I realised I have actually not seen nor intend to see so many of these films, though many have been popular in their time. One very clear example is Ram Teri Ganga Maili whose very title puts me off. I can very well imagine the misogynist story without actually needing to watch it. Far too many films that deal with courtesans / prostitutes have been not just bleak but also extremely sexist. The only film I have put on my list after reading through the entire book is The Burning Train. Let's see how that works out!
The author's insistence on calling the films "Bombay cinema" felt extremely weird. I have never in all my life of watching Hindi films heard it called that. It's either Hindi films or Bollywood; there's no need to make a random change that added nothing to the narrative. I was also perplexed by the author's choice of including terrible films like Ishaqzaade but passing over other films like Tezaab or Khalnayak, the latter of which also has a Ganga who dances and entertains men in disguise. A lot of the films mentioned in the list at the end are also not mentioned in the actual text.
What I enjoyed most are the snippets of actual Mughal culture, information about the different gharanas, and some historical descriptions.
I mostly just took issue with the idea that showing courtesans as bad is a colonial construct. I mean, yes, the courtesans are not bad people, per se. Pushing these courtesans into sex work is also a bad move. But the whole set-up is geared towards male pleasure and this is not something the author ever pointed out. I am always happy when those things tumble down. I'll sign up when men get dressed up and perform for rich women. Then we can discuss good / bad.
Did I enjoy this book? Kind of ... it was interesting to see some of the films I have mindlessly watched being analysed in such detail. Would I read a similar book again? Probably not unless the author has a far more radical outlook towards the criticism of both the treatment of courtesans that this book adequately provides, but also of the whole patriarchal structure and nature of the kothas, which it doesn't. -
Up until a few years ago, a book such as this would have largely intrigued those who would read it for anthropological reasons. Not anymore. There is a conspicuous enough shift within the minds of film aficionados to re-examine popular films or even the most escapist narratives and characters from a socio-political viewpoint. Ruth Vanita’s treatise frees the courtesan from the clichés. It is both groundbreaking and long overdue.
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A well-written scholarly work documenting the role of the courtesan in Hindi films. The book covers hundreds of films and in that way is a very extensive and balanced portrayal of courtesans in films. This is a welcome read in times when most books on Hindi films are sycophantic biographies of Bollywood personalities.
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Dancing with the Nation: Courtesans in Bombay Cinema
Ruth Vanita
Speaking Tiger
INR 450
At one point in time the ‘tawaif’ of poetry and Lucknow culture was a romantic figure, a doomed beautiful repository of art and culture, like Muzaffar Ali’s Umrao Jaan. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s mother, for example was a Hindu tawaif. Gradually, however, times changed and the figure of the tawaif far from being romantic was looked down upon especially after the 1857 revolt when Victorian morality took over and India cultural nuances were pushed under the carpet.
Courtesans have always been part of Hindi films, not to mention stories like Saratchandra Chatterjee’s Devdas from where it went to several Hindi films. From doomed romance, the courtesan was gradually relegated to the status of prostitute. Rita Vanita’s study documents the rise and fall of the courtesan in Hindi films – the only set of films in world cinema to give the courtesan prominence. An academic based in the University of Montana, Vanita has studied over 200 Hindi films to support her theory.
Originally, the courtesans taught classical dance and music, were occasionally single mothers and earned their own living without the help of a supportive household. They also transmitted the values of ancient Indian culture, dating from the Kama Sutra. Despite this because of their independence and the fact that they had the freedom to travel as freely as men did, they were among the first modern women shown in Hindi films.
They caught the imagination of viewers with their beauty and erotic promise, through a string of movies starting from Devdas (1935), to Pakeezah (1971) to Ram Teri Ganga Maili (1985) and the relatively recent Ishaqzaade (2012). Vanita’s argument is that the courtesan had a very valid role to play and should not be condemned because of narrow colonial issues that have been handed down today without any recognition of their origin.
Vanita’s claim is that her book is the first of its kind, though other books have been written on Bombay bar girls and the like, tracing a similar rise and fall, sometimes with more thoroughness. However, Vanita’s research cannot be faulted. However, the fact remains that even though Dancing with the Nation is a relatively slim volume this is a weighty academic work and not the racy page turner that the subject seems to promise even though familiar dialogues are used as part of Vanita’s research that the reader will connect to emotionally.
The title Dancing with the Nation is an attempt to restore dignity to the ignored tawaif and encourage a new look at the values that they inculcated to generations of young men and not a few women. As women in their own right they deserve to be valued and their contribution given the importance it deserves.
