Objects of Desire
Commodification of Gender on the Titles of Popular Hindi Novels

This presentation features cover pictures of sixteen such novels some of which are historical and social, while others present a moral discourse for the youth with titles like ‘Vaishali Ki Nagar Vadhu’ [The town bride of Vaishali] , ‘Doctor Dev ’and ‘Do Raha’ [A fork in the road] . In some other pictures/titles one finds individual struggle for survival -- physical as well as emotional -- against social pressures. There are also titles like ‘Sapno Ki Raakh’ [The ashes of dreams], ‘Uske Saajan’ [Her lover] and ‘Abhagi Ka Payar’ [The luckless one's love] , ‘Khooni Kalaian’ [The bloody wrists]. Certain other novels (‘Paap Ki Dunia’ [The world of sin] , ‘Munh tod jawab’ [A Befitting Reply] , ‘Taur Grah Ke Devta’ [The gods of the Taur planet]) thrive on the depiction of bloody struggle of the underworld.Such novels are glossy and eye-catching, and greatly depend upon the cover picture to draw the hero-worshipping readers.

The stories in some other novels such as ‘Watan’ (Homeland), ‘Forty Eight Inch ka Hitler’’ (a 48-inch Hitler) and ‘Koi Gulam Nahin’ (No one is a slave) create individualised heroes whose images are splashed on the covers, inviting the reader’s subjective identification with them. In the ever-popular Reema Bharti and Vijay Chauhan Series, Vimal Series, Agniputra Series, Godfather Series and so on,intelligentartists are able to inter-visually draw upon pictorial imagery from earlier novels in order to frame the cover of next novel in the series, and hence grab the attention (as well as wallet) of the reader. Besides the images on the title, one should also not ignore the small notes given at the back cover or the inside cover of the novel introducing the characteristics of a novel. Brief summaries of these introductory notes have been provided in English along with the captions in the gallery pages.

Historically speaking, one could argue that such  art caters to the popular aesthetic and psychological needs of middle and the lower middle class people, and hence its large consumer base. It is this middle-class-consumer-as-patron who has ensured the survival of artists/artisans who are involved in this work. Although it is a challenging task for a student of popular art to discern the basic motivations of the middle class in their patronage of such novels, it may be surmised that they provide the reader with a means to retreat from the day-to-day drudgeries of life, and escape to the novelistic dreamland where their unfulfilled desires find suitable fulfilment.

To conclude this short study, one would like to present the argument in the form of a few questions which could be discussed/debated through this online exhibit:

Is it consumerism which finds expression in the narratives of these popular novels that prepares the basic ground for the commodification and objectification of man and women? To take popular art in India in a comprehensive perspective, it is necessary to understand what we mean by popular art in relation to the historical divisions of the society and its hasty deviation towards the modern western world. What future forms of popular art are possible in India in the next decade? Will it represent a so-called globalised aesthetics or only a proxy of the west? These are serious concerns, and I welcome further debate on this subject. I welcome further debate on this subject. Also see on this website a short essay in Hindi on South Asia’s Popular Visual Culture, by Atmaram Bhakal

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