Scripting Justice: Intersecting Law, Culture, and Gender in Hindi Cinema’s Portrayal of Domestic Violence

Abstract

Domestic violence in the Indian context becomes complex with the interplay of law and prevalent sociocultural dimensions vis à vis women. This article analyzes the representation of domestic violence in select Hindi films: Agni Sakshi (With Fire as Witness) (Ghosh, 1996), Daman: A Victim of Marital Violence (Subjugation: A Victim of Marital Violence) (Lajmi, 2001), and Mehndi (Henna) (Khan, 1998). These films conceptualize the legalistic matter of domestic violence in two ways: one, in the form of battering, sexual, emotional, and verbal abuse by a psychopathic husband, and two, as family violence caused by the social evil of dowry. By exploring the fictional screening of the issue of domestic violence, this article analyzes how such depictions have been co-related to contemporary legal discourses. Our article investigates how films contribute to the understanding of domestic violence within the context of legal matters and reveal the underlying feminist or patriarchal values. Through textual analysis of the film texts, we hypothesize that they often reinforce patriarchal narratives by portraying domestic violence as isolated incidents related to husbands’ psychopathy or dowry issues.

Keywords

• domestic violence
• dowry
• hindi films
• women
• indian law