In early 1980s the Ramsay Brothers gave Bollywood a new genre of monster flicks with blockbusters... more In early 1980s the Ramsay Brothers gave Bollywood a new genre of monster flicks with blockbusters like Purana Mandir, Hotel, and Veerana. Following the work of the Ramsay Brothers, the decades of 1980s and 1990s saw the rise of low-budget horror films that were made exclusively for the rural market. These films are primarily known for their unintentional humor owing to poor production and acting, but they have never been acknowledged for their actual content. This article argues that Bollywood lowbudget films fulfill the basic function of horror movies-that is, they subvert mainstream moral order and sexual morality. These films open up the space for dialogues that the mainstream cinema has totally neglected; particularly, in the areas of incest, female lust, othering of male sexuality, and transgendered identities. On a different register, the relationship between low-budget horror films and mainstream Bollywood can be compared to folklore and canonical literature, where folklore repeatedly resists the conformities endorsed by the mainstream prescriptive texts.
In early 1980s the Ramsay Brothers gave Bollywood a new genre of monster flicks with blockbusters... more In early 1980s the Ramsay Brothers gave Bollywood a new genre of monster flicks with blockbusters like Purana Mandir, Hotel, and Veerana. Following the work of the Ramsay Brothers, the decades of 1980s and 1990s saw the rise of low-budget horror films that were made exclusively for the rural market. These films are primarily known for their unintentional humor owing to poor production and acting, but they have never been acknowledged for their actual content. This article argues that Bollywood lowbudget films fulfill the basic function of horror movies-that is, they subvert mainstream moral order and sexual morality. These films open up the space for dialogues that the mainstream cinema has totally neglected; particularly, in the areas of incest, female lust, othering of male sexuality, and transgendered identities. On a different register, the relationship between low-budget horror films and mainstream Bollywood can be compared to folklore and canonical literature, where folklore repeatedly resists the conformities endorsed by the mainstream prescriptive texts.
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Papers by Aditi Sen
Books by Aditi Sen
Introduction...Brian Collins, Aditi Sen, and Ellen Goldberg 1
Part 1: Material Cultures and Prehistories of Horror in South Asia
1. Monsters, Masala, and Materiality: Close Encounters with Hindi Horror Movie Ephemera...Brian Collins
2. Vampire Man Varma: The Untold Story of the “Hindu Mystic” Who Decolonized Dracula...Brian Collins
Part 2: Cinematic Horror, Iconography, and Aesthetics
3. Divine Horror and the Avenging Goddess in Bollywood...Kathleen Erndl
4. Horrifying and Sinister Tāntriks...Hugh B. Urban
5. Do You Want to Know the Raaz?: Sāvitri, Satyavān, and the Other Woman ...Aditi Sen
Part 3: Cultural Horror
6. Cultural Horror in Dev: Man is the Cruelest Animal...Ellen Goldberg
7. Bandit Queen, Rape-Revenge, and Cultural Horror...Morgan Oddie
8. Mardaani: The Secular Horror of Child Trafficking and the Modern
Masculine Woman...Beth Watkins
Introduction...Brian Collins, Aditi Sen, and Ellen Goldberg 1
Part 1: Material Cultures and Prehistories of Horror in South Asia
1. Monsters, Masala, and Materiality: Close Encounters with Hindi Horror Movie Ephemera...Brian Collins
2. Vampire Man Varma: The Untold Story of the “Hindu Mystic” Who Decolonized Dracula...Brian Collins
Part 2: Cinematic Horror, Iconography, and Aesthetics
3. Divine Horror and the Avenging Goddess in Bollywood...Kathleen Erndl
4. Horrifying and Sinister Tāntriks...Hugh B. Urban
5. Do You Want to Know the Raaz?: Sāvitri, Satyavān, and the Other Woman ...Aditi Sen
Part 3: Cultural Horror
6. Cultural Horror in Dev: Man is the Cruelest Animal...Ellen Goldberg
7. Bandit Queen, Rape-Revenge, and Cultural Horror...Morgan Oddie
8. Mardaani: The Secular Horror of Child Trafficking and the Modern
Masculine Woman...Beth Watkins