Degree

BS (Social Sciences & Liberal Arts)

Faculty / School

School of Economics and Social Sciences (SESS)

Department

Department of Social Sciences & Liberal Arts

Date of Award

Spring 2025

Date of Submission

2025-05-31

Advisor

Aliya Iqbal Naqvi, Faculty Member, Department of Social Sciences

Project Type

SSLA Culminating Experience

Access Type

Restricted Access

Keywords

Hindutva, Bollywood, Love Jihad, Color, Islamophobia

Abstract

Films act as cultural artifacts that shape popular culture and influence identity construction. This research paper critically examines how socio-political events in India (the dominance of Hindutva) and the broader international context (9/11 and the war on terror) culminate in the re-imagination of the Muslim ‘Other.’ This paper foregrounds the Hindu right-wing theme of Love Jihad and explores cross-border and interfaith romance in Bollywood. This paper uses framing theory and the signifier-signified model to analyze archetypal portrayals and examine the intersection of gendered religious identities in these films. The films in focus - Veer-Zaara (2004), Jodhaa Akbar (2008), and Kurbaan (2009) - belong to distinct genres: romantic drama, action thriller, and historical epic drama, respectively. To ensure a holistic analytical framework, each chapter examines a central theme in addition to the overarching motif of forbidden romance: Veer-Zaara explores the border and nationalist discourse, Kurbaan interrogates the construction of a Muslim terrorist image in a post 9/11 world, and Jodhaa Akbar examines religio-cultural sovereignty through the projection of Mughal-Rajput relationships. Through critical film analysis and an emphasis on the mise-en-scène element of color, the article studies how visual aesthetics disseminate dominant national discourses and thereby contribute to constructing religious, social, and national identities. This study ultimately expands the commonly cited binary of the "Good Hindu/Bad Muslim" to a more nuanced framework: the Good Hindu, the Bad Muslim, and the Acceptable Indian.

Pages

161

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