Third Gender Portrayal in Bollywood: An Analysis of Sadak

Abstract

Cinema works as a mirror in which the human beings could see the reflection of their lives. It has a power to influence more than any other arm form. Therefore, it is very important to understand how a country, its people and its aspirations are represented in the cinema produced in the country. Mainstream Hindi cinema is the most widely distributed cinema in India. Identity construction is one of the significant issues in Bollywood. Filmmakers in India are trying to step outside the beaten track of traditional Indian themes but there has been no or little allowance for portrayal of transgender people, a subject that is still a taboo in a country where the discourse on sex itself is bound by moral restriction. Portrayal of their life stories and issues in Bollywood has veered between the sarcasm, denial, biased, comic, criminal and stereotyped. It would be interesting to study how Bollywood is portraying transgender people and what changes has their character undergone over the past decades. The research paper will analyse Sadak. The film is chosen because of being one of the first cult Bollywood film about a transgender character. Multi-modal discourse analysis will be taken as a tool for analyzing the transgender character in the film. The present research attempts to show the identity construction of a third gender by analyzing select film in Bollywood. The researcher tries to establish the fact that a fair treatment is needed in order to deconstruct the myth of this marginalized section which deciphers their individual role and identity through the lens of sex only.

The Repercussions of Representation

“…This is done by reviewing the effect lighting, dialogues, costumes, camera angles had on the perception of the character. The dramatic and jarring portrayal can be inferred as a way to make the audience abhor the character (Mushtaq & Ahmed, 2019).…”