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Screening trans narratives

Representation of transwomen in Indian regional cinema

Bibliographic Data

ID22232137
AuthorsNeethu S Nair (0000-0003-0407-4720, Anna University, Chennai, corresponding author), Deepa Mary Francis (0000-0002-9286-7327, Anna University, Chennai)
Year2024
Volume11
Issue1
Publication date2024-11-28
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueHumanities and Social Sciences Communications (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2662-9992 • E-ISSN: 2662-9992
PublisherSpringer Science and Business Media LLC (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1057/s41599-024-04153-4
OpenAlexW4404796328
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited23

In India, the cinema industry has gotten a facelift with the absorption of regional cinema into its defined and confined boundaries, which was earlier a monopoly of commercial Bollywood films as well as award-winning Hindi films. One of the pertinent problems it deals with is the societal, political, and individual negligence towards the marginalised and underprivileged gender minority communities in different parts of the country. This essay traces how transwomen are represented in Indian regional cinema and how the two representative South Indian films, Nanu Avanalla Avalu ( 2015 ) and Njan Marykutty ( 2018 ), chosen for study, become visual texts which mark clear demarcation from the existing trans narratives and call for a progressive perception to the representation of transwomen in regional cinema. A critical analysis of these films brings forth the nuances and politics of the representation of transwomen on screen by emphasising the construction and contestation of transfemininity and its association with the visible and invisible cisheteronormative patriarchal power play prevalent in society. It also examines the cinematic construction of transphobia directed towards transwomen and concludes on how such progressive narratives can pave the way for an inclusive society through sensitisation of their experiences and issues to a mass audience

Aesthetics · Art · Literature · Movie theater · Narrative · Political science · Cinema and Media Studies · History · Media, Gender, and Advertising · South Asian Cinema and Culture

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Unique citing works2
Citations per year2
Citation span2026 - 2026 (1)
Citation velocitycurrent
Highly citedNo
Citation typesNeutral: 2
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