Abstract
Within the terrain of 1970s Bombay film culture, this chapter attempts to position a new landscape of desire. Desire here is the emergence of certain forms of sexualities within a mainstream representation. Through the wide circulation of images new to the decade within a specific sleaze industry, this chapter uses the trope of emergence of a new imagination of the female body in Bombay cinema. This new template of corporeality in effect allows for a rearticulation of romance in a number of key romance films of the decade. This chapter uses the emergence of a new female stardom to understand that shift in romance through a carnal space in a decade that was prominent for other developments in Bombay films. It represents a departure from the landscape of the feudal family romance, argued by Madhava Prasad (Prasad, M. Madhava Ideology of the Hindi film: A Historical Construction. New Delhi: Oxford University Press. 1998), where a heightened form of sexuality was understood as a post-globalization phenomenon. Notably, the 1970s reflected seismic shifts that created a dynamic presence of sleaze, romance, and repression through constant negotiation in the magazine and film cultures of Bombay.
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Notes
- 1.
Natalie Sarrazin in her essay “Celluloid love songs: Musical operandi and the dramatic aesthetics of romantic Hindi film” argues that the romantic duet in a Hindi film emancipates the couple from the framewok of the film. They are able to do so because the duet allows them to explore unchartered territories of sex and pleasure that the overall ideology of the film will not have permitted. The romantic duet therefore exists on its own without being integrated into the overall text of the filmic narrative. Here I argue that the couple in 1970s is able to transgress the boundary of the romantic duet. They are able to explore their sexuality within the text of the film as well.
- 2.
Burman’s music is responsible for a prediction of sorts. His foresightedness, which marked the modernity in his music and created a clear demarcation between his era and the preceding one, is replete with such impulses. See “R.D. Burman: Futuristic Genius Who Knew Pulse of the Masses.” The Indian Express, June 25, 2016.
- 3.
The 1970s film and lifestyle magazines that carried sections on new and upcoming heroines constituted a major shift from the previous decade. The most obvious one is in terms of their clothes, which created a familiar landscape of sexuality.
- 4.
In a documentary made by Simi Garewal, Living Legend Raj Kapoor, a BBC production for Channel 4 UK, Kapoor discusses his tryst with eroticism. In effect, Satyam Shivam Sundaram arrives from a long line of erotic female bodies onscreen, which further mature and become nuanced over the years. The transparent white saree adorning the woman under the waterfall that is featured in this film is present in Jis Desh Mein Ganga Behti Hain (1961) and again in Ram Teri Ganga Maili (1985).
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Discography
“Bheegi Bheegi Raaton Mein” (song). Lyrics: Anand Bakshi; composer: RD Burman; performer: Kishore Kumar, Late Mangeshkar; Bombay, India: Saregama. 1974.
“Piya tu ab toh aja” (song) Lyrics: Majrooh Sultanpuri; composer: R.D Burman; performer: Asha Bhonsle; Bombay, India: Saregama. HMV. 1971.
“Roop Tera Mastana” (song). Lyrics: Anand Bakshi; composer: Sachin Dev Burman; performer: Kishore Kumar; Bombay, India: Saregama. November 7, 1969.
Filmography
Ajnabee. Director: Shakti Samanta. Performers: Rajesh Khanna, Zeenat Aman, Asrani, Yogita Bali, and Prem Chopra. Samanta Enterprises, 1974.
Aradhana. Director: Shakti Samanta. Performers: Rajesh Khanna, Sharmila Tagore, Ashok Kumar, and Farida Jalal. Shakti Films, 1969.
Caravan. Director: Nasir Hussain. Performers: Asha Pareskh, Aruna Irani, and Helen Jeetendra. Nasir Hussain Films, 1971.
Jaise ko Taisa. Director. Murugan Kumaran. Performers: Jeetendra, Reena Roy. M. Saravan, AVM Productions, 1973.
Man Ka Meet. Director: Adurthi Subba Rao. Performers: Som Dutt, Leena Chandavarkar, Om Prakash. Ajanta Arts, 1969.
Satyam Shivam Sundaram. Director: Raj Kapoor. Performers: Shashi Kapoor, Zeenat Aman, and A.K. Hangal. RK Films, 1978.
Acknowledgements
I am deeply grateful to the staff of the National Film Archive, Pune, India, who allowed me to use their extensive film archives for this project. I am also grateful to the Jawaharlal Nehru University Library for its archive of newspapers, magazines, and dailies extensively used for this project. My sincerest gratitude to Dr Gilad Padva and Dr Nurith Buchweitz for their support and appreciation for my work, and to Dr Kaushik Bhaumik, who has been a constant guide and support through the entire project.
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Deb, A. (2017). Reimagining the 1970s: Romance, Sleaze and Obscenity in Bombay Cinema. In: Padva, G., Buchweitz, N. (eds) Intimate Relationships in Cinema, Literature and Visual Culture. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-55281-1_7
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