Paper short abstract:

This paper seeks to identify the changing status of an 'otherness' of Bengali 'Bhadralok' culture in the available modes of Indian cinema in the post-global scenario. It uses two recent Indian films, 'Kaahani' (2012) and 'Bhooter Bhobishyot' (2012), as the representative sites of the said changes.

Paper long abstract:

The present paper engages with the question of an 'otherness' of the Bengali 'Bhadralok' culture in the available representative modes of Indian cinema within the post-Global scenario. It studies the socio-cultural dynamics through which this 'otherness' happens to be dissipated in different direction in the recent years. It takes two recent films, 'Kahaani' (2012) and 'Bhooter Bhobishyot' (2012), in Hindi and Bengali languages respectively, to consider where two contradictory aspects of this dissipation are at play. The objective of this analysis primarily aims to historicize the construction of a particular cultural pattern called 'Bengaliness' in Indian cinema by marking some of the significant junctures in the course of its history of development. Using the films as cases in point, this article attempts to envisage a possible framework where the changing landscape of the city of Calcutta, shifting codes of the cultural habits of 'Bhadralok's and reconfigured ideas about the Bengali nation can be seen operating to develop a reconstructed complimentary relationship between the post-liberal West Bengal and the other India.I would say, the global cultural inflow, along with the localized notions of the post-liberal 'Bengaliness' are engaged constructing a matrix for the said changes to happen.