Open AccessSnapshots of Indian Otherness in Aparna Sen’s Cinema
Author(s) -
Felicity Hand
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
revista canaria de estudios ingleses
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2530-8335
pISSN - 0211-5913
DOI - 10.25145/j.recaesin.2021.83.07
Subject(s) - hinduism , loneliness , communalism , caste , movie theater , sociology , face (sociological concept) , gender studies , personal life , psychology , religious studies , history , social psychology , political science , social science , law , art history , philosophy , politics
Aparna Sen turned to film directing in 1980 after a highly successful career as an actor. Her debut film, 36 Chowringhee Lane (1981) highlights the loneliness of an elderly Anglo-Indian woman. One of her best-known films outside India is Mr & Mrs Iyer (2002), in which an upper caste Hindu woman saves the life of a Muslim stranger in an act of personal commitment with the Other. In 15 Park Avenue (2005), a film that focusses on schizophrenia, Sen shows how the female members of a family struggle to cope with mental illness. In this article I discuss how Sen explores different ways of being Indian in these three films and how she draws attention to values such as personal commitment and tenacity in the face of disability, ageing and communalism