Men and Alternative Masculine Behaviours: A Gendered Study of Imtiaz Ali’s Film Tamasha

Abstract

This study offers a detailed analysis and a textual reading of ‘Tamasha’, a cult hindi movie written and directed by Imtiaz Ali through the lens of ‘Masculine Studies’. It validates how men are represented in the Indian movies with respect to their gender normative roles and various masculine behaviours as facilitated of the social organisation of families. The protagonist of the movie, Ved serves as the voice of all such men who are burdened under the term ‘masculine’ and raises concern for the men who are weak and effeminate as opposed to firm and hegemonically masculine. The Masculinity Studies provide a discussion favouring the non-hegemonic men like Ved, who is a subordinate male thereof who falls in the category of majority of men stuck in the vicious cycle that moves at the behest of dominating men who exercise hegemonic masculinity. The article further attempts to showcase the masculine anxieties of men via ‘Tamasha’ and renders to expose certain the ill-nature of hegemonic masculinity responsible in shaping the discourse of other types of masculinities in Indian families vis-a-vis father-son relationship dynamics. It also represents how the gender identities of men are formed and could be restricted by the patriarchal system present in society.