Ensnared Rebellion: An Analysis of Saratchandra Chattopadhyay’s Heroines in Hindi Film Adaptations

Name of Author : Souvik Datta

Abstract: Saratchandra Chattopadhyay’s women characters have largely stayed within the precincts of conformity – that available to women in the late nineteenth/early twentieth-century Bengal. While none of these characters has been known for particularly bringing a revolution in their time, each of them appears to have lacked inertness when confronted with situations and crises that demand their reaction, whether to change or challenge the contexts they find themselves confronted with. Interestingly enough, the corresponding film adaptations of these novels have taken this notion a notch higher. This paper seeks to analyse the transformations of these existent women characters in Chattopadhyay’s Bengali novels, in comparison with their counterparts in Hindi cinema, commenting on the ramifications of these paradigm shifts through a gendered reading.

Keywords : Stereotyping, Adaptation, Liberation, Interrogation, Resistance

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