Killer not terrorist: Visual articulations of terror in Bangladeshi action cinema

Hoek, Lotte

doi:10.1080/14746689.2013.784054

Cited by 3 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…On the other hand, although they are associated with criminality and lawlessness, they are also seen as ‘honourable heroes’, protecting victims of injustice (Devine, : 9), and may also portray themselves in this way (Ruud, : 316). Work on popular culture in Bangladesh has highlighted this ambiguity well; Hoek (: 122) records the slogan of one cinema poster reading ‘he is killer but not terrorist’, implying a sense of righteous violence. This ambiguity can even be seen in the etymology of the word.…”

Section: Violence Specialists In Urban Bangladeshmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Decline of Gangsters and Politicization of Violence in Urban Bangladesh

Jackman

2018

Development and Change

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Contrary to the Weberian ideal of a central state monopolizing the means of violence, political order in many societies requires a balance of interests between diverse 'violence specialists'. In urban Bangladesh, gangsters have been identified as powerful actors, closely linked to politicians and the state. Often called mastan, they are portrayed as mediating access to work and public services, as running extortion networks and providing political muscle. Since the early 2000s Dhaka has seen radical change, largely undocumented to date: these gangsters are in significant decline. Many of the roles associated with these gangs continue, but now under the direct control of lower-level factions associated with the ruling political party -a transition that has brought a greater degree of stability to the urban context. These arguments are developed through ethnographic research from a large marketplace in the centre of Dhaka, examining the rise and fall of an infamous local gangster. In developing this case, it is argued that closer attention should be given to changes in the organization of violence within societies.

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Section: Violence Specialists In Urban Bangladeshmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Decline of Gangsters and Politicization of Violence in Urban Bangladesh

Jackman

2018

Development and Change

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“…In that segment, across the region, aesthetic similarities relating to editing choices, lighting practices, sound design, mise-en-scène and narrative structures of B-circuit action cinema can be discerned. The Bangladeshi B-circuit action film was heavily reliant on strong star-texts in action-heavy melodramatic narratives with stock characters and locations, taking inspiration from high-end national and international films to produce locally resonant action films (see also Hoek 2013). Visual similarities within this low investment segment across South Asia suggest that there are shared conditions under which remarkably similar aesthetic conventions have arisen.…”

Section: South Asian Pornography On Vcdsmentioning

confidence: 99%

When celluloid pornography went digital: class and race in the Bangladeshi cut-piece online

Hoek

2019

Porn Studies

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This article investigates the fate of celluloid pornography after the end of film. With the demise of celluloid filmmaking in Bangladesh and the rapid transitioning of film projection to digital forms, bits and pieces of stray sexually explicit celluloid have migrated to digital formats. In this article, I map the movement of so-called 'cut-pieces', locally produced strips of illegal celluloid pornography, onto online forums patronized by Bengali speakers. Exploring the reception of this sexually explicit material in its new digital environment, I ask the following questions: how are the traces of 'locality' that inflected the celluloid production of cut-pieces received within digital spaces of consumption? What happens to markers of class and race when celluloid forms of pornography move onto digital platforms? And what are the cultural and technological limits to the internationalization of the aesthetic of mainstream pornography?

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“…Comparable to the emergence of violent action genres and gangster-driven narratives in Indian popular cinema (see Gopalan 2003;Mazumdar 2007;Vasudevan 2011), these Bangladesh action films have appeared alongside rapid social, political and economic transformations (Feldman 1993;Jahan [2000] 2002; Van Schendel 2009) that have shaken certainties around class divisions, the rule of law and the nature of urbanity. These uncertainties have been fodder for film narratives, that shifted their focus from melodramatic 'socials' to violent action tales of moral decay, urban disintegration and political collapse that are drenched in fake blood (see Hoek 2013). On this wave, Rana's films had found an audience that, he thought, demanded profusely flowing fake blood.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Blood splattered Bengal: The spectacular spurting blood of the Bangladeshi cinema

Hoek

2013

Contemporary South Asia

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The contemporary Bangladeshi cinema is stained red by the enthusiastic use of fake blood that erupts from bodies pictured in fist fights, gun battles and sword attacks. In this article, I draw on my ethnographic fieldwork in the Bangladesh film industry to illustrate the spurting of fake blood in two popular film genres: mainstream action cinema and straight-to-VCD rural crime stories (kiccha pala VCDs). I suggest that the affective intensity ascribed to blood by film insiders points to the capacity of blood to lend force to the protean and submerged discourses of contemporary Bangladesh presented in these blood-splattered genres. These film forms make use of the excessive and abject quality inherent in this bodily tissue as well as interacting with more regimented and metaphoric uses of blood in the political aesthetics of contemporary Bangladesh that they recycle and pervert. IntroductionThe make-up men of the Bangladeshi action film Mintu the Murderer (pseud. 2005) had been at work for some time before the decapitation shot. Mixing together Rooh Afza, a bright red drinking syrup favoured by children, with a pigment known in the market as khuni lal (murderer's red), they had filled up a large plastic bottle with fake blood. They handed it to the stunt men who were setting up the decapitation shot. One of their members lay down on the floor of a banged-up Toyota, hiding from the camera's eye trained on the passenger door. The stuntman carried two props: in one hand he had a papier-mâché head, complete with curly black hair and glasses, and in the other he held the bottle of blood. The camera would take two brief shots. 'Rolling', called the stunt director to the cameraman, who rolled the celluloid in his old Arriflex camera. Upon hearing action, the stuntman in the car threw the head out of the window. 'Cut!' The second part would be harder. When action was called again, the stuntman in the car carefully lifted the bottle to the edge of the open window and then squeezed as hard as he could. A huge jet of bright red fake blood came spurting out of the window. When edited together with the footage of the film's gangster swinging a large blade at the minister sticking his head out of the car window, these two brief shots would present the decapitation in one powerful crimson montage.

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Killer not terrorist: Visual articulations of terror in Bangladeshi action cinema

Cited by 3 publications

References 16 publications

The Decline of Gangsters and Politicization of Violence in Urban Bangladesh

The Decline of Gangsters and Politicization of Violence in Urban Bangladesh

When celluloid pornography went digital: class and race in the Bangladeshi cut-piece online

Blood splattered Bengal: The spectacular spurting blood of the Bangladeshi cinema

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