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J ai B him C omrade and the Politics of Sound in Urban I ndian Visual Culture
Author(s) -
Matzner Deborah
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
visual anthropology review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.346
H-Index - 18
eISSN - 1548-7458
pISSN - 1058-7187
DOI - 10.1111/var.12043
Subject(s) - caste , film director , scholarship , agency (philosophy) , visual culture , sound (geography) , visual arts , politics , sociology , media studies , art , political science , social science , acoustics , law , physics , movie theater
Indian documentary filmmaker A nand P atwardhan's latest release J ai B him C omrade (2012), which depicts protest music employed by the D alit (previously “Untouchable”) movement in M aharashtra, presents challenges to the ways in which P atwardhan's work has been characterized. Key among these are the sonic practices in which D alits in the film engage to assert presence and agency in defiance of their caste subjugation. Situating these practices in the everyday sonic ecologies of I ndian cities, I think through the importance of sound to the study of S outh A sian visual culture and documentary, and interrogate the primacy of the visual in scholarship on visual culture.