Published Paper Details:

Indian Subcontinent narrates a different tale of gender identity. Undivided India and the societal customs and traditions since the post partition scene plays a pivotal in studying about India as a whole, with Pakistan , India and Bangladesh being still connected by an invisible thread of culture and customs. A culture nurtured under the aegis of the religious mythologies promoting male gods in superior positions, culminated a society adulated in a dominant male ego with an imbalance in gender identity. A consensus that a woman still needs the protection of a husband and a family to survive in this society is a prominent psyche. The recent days, films have become a medium to narrativize such approaches and have well documented the portrayal of the angst of the Indian Subcontinent Women. In most of the movies, women are given a second-tier status; often stereotyped as 'objects' and they are characterized as inferior. However, there are certain movies that serve as the mouthpiece for women cause, and have focused in echoing their voice. The new trend of modern cinema also represents a sexual revolution for the women, who have finally come out to talk explicitly about their sexuality, their desires and concerns. This paper will try to analyze how religion, customs and patriarchy move as a single dominant force in the two selected movies (Bol and Parched) to highlight the role of patriarchy and religion that creates a structure of cultural violence against women. A sense of feminist consciousness pitted against dogmatic patriarchal society drives the narratives of these films. The scope of further research on this topic opens up due to encompassing of the visual narratives of India and Pakistan in a single paper.