Representations of Womanhood and Disability in Popular Hindi Cinema

Although women with disabilities constitute a significant proportion of India’s population, their experiences remain marginalised. Notions of women with disabilities are riddled with gendered, ableist stereotypes. As Hindi films are an important reflection of popular perceptions of disability, we analysed six successful films that revolve around women with varied disabilities, which are relatively poorly understood in the country, to assess their portrayals of womanhood and disability. Our main interest was in the points in the films where the women are able to act as agentic selves. We wanted to know the ways in which women express agency as well as the enabling factors and opportunities that they utilise to pursue their objectives. A critical-feminist thematic analysis was used on portrayals to assess their potential to undermine or reinforce prevalent social notions. A comparison of the films showed diverse depictions of the women’s agentic selves, ranging from being fairly self-determined to having little control or choice.