Abstract
This essay critically examines the discursive construction of heroism in popular Bangladeshi films for a longer period in yesteryears, particularly those produced by the state-owned film industry. These films, often labeled as ‘mainstream’, catered primarily to working-class audiences, but were frequently dismissed as lacking taste and sophistication by the educated middle class. By employing a Gramscian understanding of hegemony, this research aims to challenge the dichotomy between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ films, and instead, unpack the power dynamics that shape the representation of heroes in Bangladeshi cinema and its significant changes in the later years. The ‘Robin Hood’ archetype, once a symbol of resistance and social justice, has undergone a significant transformation in recent films, reflecting shifting societal values and power structures. This essay seeks to explore the cultural and political implications of this transformation, and how it reflects the changing landscape of Bangladeshi society and politics.
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Notes
- 1.
For a comprehensive account, popular films in the Bangladeshi context refer solely to films produced under the Film Development Corporation [FDC], a state organ to monitor film production. That is to say, the films having a larger marketing strategy are to be referred to as popular films according to the middle class and media lexicons.
- 2.
Often the heroes of early times are mocked by contemporary consumers for their specifically less ‘masculine’ attributes, for having the ‘lover-boy’ image, for being too soft.
- 3.
Amit Rai brought forward a relevant question during the presentation of my paper on this issue at Florida State University in 2005. He referred to the recent trend of portraying ‘less-masculine’ heroes in Bollywood and asked if Bangladesh had something comparable. Mainstream films in Bangladesh are yet to accommodate the trend. I think the recent standardization that is taking place in Indian cinema is largely related to its diasporic audiences—both as the consumer and, more importantly, as the architect of literary consciousness within and beyond India.
- 4.
Understandably there are certain formulas for filmic representation of the supposedly ‘indigenous’. It is popularly believed among the middle class that mainstream films are overhyped and worthless. It is interesting to note that the discourses of ‘indigenous’, and sometimes ‘national’, are very much in line with that of literate society, namely, the middle class. While the indigenous have a sharp gendered space in mainstream films, this is also common in middle-class self-representation.
- 5.
This is another example of how mainstream films in Bangladesh are a crucial area of cultural products. Consent, here, appears to be critical to setting a hegemonic notion of property. In my view, Bangladeshi films, despite the simplistic denial of the middle class, are to be taken seriously for their extreme capacity for reconciliation.
- 6.
It relates to the civil society movement that has taken place since the early 1990s. A commonly stated slogan they carried was the ‘rule of law’.
- 7.
Mumbai films have an exemplary tradition for that. The most popular one is probably Akheri Rishta starring Amitabh Bachchan.
References
Gramsci, Antonio. 1992 [1971]. Selections from the Prison Notebooks. London: Lawrence and Wishart.
Pinney, Christopher. 2001. Introduction: Public, Popular, and Other Cultures. In Pleasure and the Nation: The History, Politics and Consumption of Public Culture in India, ed. R. Dwyer and C. Pinney, 1–34. New Delhi: Oxford University Press.
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Chowdhury, M. (2025). Fall of the ‘Robin Hood’ in Bangladeshi Films. In: Popular Culture and Political Lives. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-99074-8_5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-99074-8_5
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