Contested Representation: Dalits, Popular Hindi Cinema, and Public Sphere

Popular Hindi cinema has become a significant signpost of contemporaneity due to its construction of social language. Generally, Hindi cinema has been understood through internal (auteur or genre or cinéma verité) and external aspects (consumption spheres and moviegoers’ complex response in the form of catharsis or everydayness mimesis). However, cinema also needs a new way of discerning with respect to ‘Dalit Representation’. The study needs to look at the construction and meaning of the social language of Hindi cinema. Construction refers to exploring factors beyond the film industry responsible for shaping the social language. Meaning entails the exhibition of social language in the form of messages. Herein, relational exploration becomes crucial. The relationship between factors of social language of Hindi cinema and Dalits must be unraveled for understanding the meaning of social language for Dalits. Contested representation encompasses the nature of absence and presence of Dalits in Hindi cinema.