Laura Mulvey - film analysis

Laura Mulvey is a feminist film theorist, scholar, psychoanalyst and film maker from Britain best known for her essay on Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema. She attempts to unveil the patriarchy present in movies. Her theories are influenced by the likes of Sigmund Freud and Jacques Lacan. 

In this essay she argues about how the movies represent, reflect and reinforce the pre-existing and socially established gender power asymmetry including how the unconscious patriarchy has structured the form of movies. Phallus centrism is the idea that the phallus is the centre element in the organisation of the social world. The world emphasizes on the male point of view. She further describes the problematic positioning of women in cinema, where in a phallocentric and patriarchal film tradition, the female character is coded as castrated, or as those that do not possess the male sex organ.

This threat of the absence of penis, puts the woman in the position of a secondary creature. She tends to exist only in relation to a man and is represented only as a signifier for the male other. A man could easily live out his fantasies and desires by imposing them on the woman. A woman is thus still considered to be the bearer of meaning and not the maker. Individually the woman has no importance.

DHRUVA

Dhruva, a telugu film released 2016 revolves around the male protagonist Dhruva (Ram Charan). He is an IPS Officer who discovers a strong network of organised crime. He then intends to take down the mastermind behind a huge racket and encounters numerous challenges on his way. Throughout the movie, the entire focus is on him and he is thus represented as the alpha male. The female character, Ishika (Rakul Preet Singh) is simply an object for entertainment and is used to freeze the flow of action of the movie. Her absence wouldn’t have made any difference in the plot of the movie. This is a typical example of a male centric or phallocentric cinema where every part of the movie and the lives of the other characters on the screen revolve around the hero.

Laura Mulvey after that introduces the Scopophilia and Voyeurism, from Freud’s theories. They are later used to explain the term ‘Male gaze’.

One of the pleasures offered by cinema is Scopophilia. It is the idea of seeking pleasure through by looking. It is an infantile instinct where the subject considers other people as objects of sexual pleasure by subjecting them to a controlling and curious gaze. In the patriarchal society, this is gendered. The woman is always the objects of one’s sexual pleasure and the men tend to possess the objectifying gaze simply because he is a man.

Voyeurism is the practice of seeking sexual gratification by looking at sexual objects or acts. It the act of watching people live their lives under unsolicited surveillance and “the desire to see and make sure of the private and the forbidden”. As Mulvey stated “At the extreme, it can become fixated into a perversion, producing obsessive voyeurs and Peeping Toms, whose only sexual satisfaction can come from watching, in an active controlling sense, an objectified other.”

Laura Mulvey describes the male gaze as the way in which the films depict the world and women from a masculine point of view and present women as objects of male pleasure. This occurs when the camera puts the audience into the perspective of a heterosexual man. Male gaze denies women their individual identity relegating them to the status of objects to be admired for the male sexual desires and fantasies. Women tend to believe that their role is to be looked at and are displayed for a strong visual and erotic impact. This establishes the base concept of men as watchers and women as watched.

POKIRI

Pokiri is a Tollywood film released in 2006 that portrays this aspect of movies. The introduction scene of the heroine or the female character (Ileana) is a scene of her walking in a corridor while the male protagonist or the ‘hero’ (Mahesh Babu) along with his friends stare at her throughout. The slow-motion shots of her walk and the focus of the camera on her body from the perspective of these men, put her in the position of an object for the man’s sexual desire. She thus is subjected to the objectifying gaze.

Later, the hero along with his bunch of friends follow her and view her from a window while she was doing her daily tasks. These shots give the audience the perspective of the man. Here the woman is objectified not only by him and his friends but also by the spectators. This shows how the woman in a movie is an object of desire not only for all the male characters in the movie but also the spectators. It is a typical example for male gaze.

ALA VAIKUNTHAPURAM LO

Ala Vaikunthapuramlo, is another telugu movie, released in 2020. The heroine’s (Pooja Hedge) introduction scene is a shot of her from her feet to her thighs. The scene then cuts to the hero (Allu Arjun) and her in lift where he can’t stop staring at her thighs.Throughout the entire scene and during a conversation they have later, Allu Arjun's eyes don’t go above her thighs. 

To make this worse, there is an entire song describing how he has ‘fallen in love” with her when his eyes caught sight of the legs. Ironically, this takes place in the office where she is his boss. This reveals how the status and position of a woman doesn’t help her escape the controlling gaze of men.

The next aspect is Narcissism. Movies tend to intermingle ones wish and curiosity with likeness and recognition. Jacques Lacan described the mirror stage, that occurs in infants between six and eighteen months of age, as the stage in which the children tend to misrecognize themselves while looking in the mirror. The infant's look in the mirror is a misrecognition because the infant sees its fragmentary body as a whole and identifies itself with this illusory unity. In movies, this mirror is replaced by a screen. Spectators tend to misrecognise themselves due to the star system present in movies. As stated by Mulvey “The glamour impersonates the ordinary.” There is identification of the spectator with the image seen on the screen. This creates a false image of the spectator.

For instance, men who watch the movie, Ala Vaikunthapuram lo, relate themselves to the actor Allu Arjun and consider it normal to glare and objectify a woman’s body. They might tend to replicate this behaviour in their real lives.

Laura Mulvey then introduces the idea of an active male and a passive female that is demonstrated in movies. She states the man always plays the active role, that is, the role of the one responsible for the course of events in the movie. He moves the story forward and makes things happen. He emerges as the representative of power. This implies that the spectators watch the movie in his perspective or that for one to enjoy a movie, they must watch it as a heterosexual man. The male protagonist controls the events and has the power of the erotic look which gives him a sense on omnipotence.

However, the role of a woman is completely the opposite. She is just a passive character. She doesn’t play a role in moving the plot of the movie forward. She is merely inserted to keep the story line going or as an object for erotic pleasure. “In herself the woman has not the slightest importance”

GABBAR SINGH

The telugu movie, Gabbar Singh, released in 2012, is about a police cop who renamed himself as "Gabbar Singh" after the famous villain revolting against a dreaded goon. In the process, he loses his mother and develops a hatred towards his stepfather and stepbrother. The rest of the plot revolves around Gabbar and his clash with the antagonist, Siddappa.

The heroine of the film is Shruti Hasan. She has no role in moving the story forward. She is a passive character whose life revolves around the male protagonist Gabbar. She is merely used to freeze the flow of action and insert a romantic angle to the movie, indicating that woman’s role has been confined to be the supporting a man. Her absence wouldn’t affect the sequence of actions. The male protagonist, however, is the active character. The entire movie revolves around him and the consequences of his actions. He decides and controls the events and has the power of the erotic look.

All the other female characters in the movie, for instance, his mother, are only used to either inspire the hero or make him act the way he does. In themselves, they are incomplete and could be easily replaced without causing a change in the story.

The same movie has an item number with no importance whatsoever. It does not add to the continuity of the plot. It is merely to satisfy the sexual fantasies of the male characters in the film and the audience.

Infact, this is only purpose of any item number in the movie. They are another aspect introduced in movies to objectify woman and portray them merely as an object of desire.
Ex: Chikkni Chameli, Munni Badnam Hui etc. 

Movies also establish the gender power asymmetry by attributing and promoting the roles based on the gender. The woman is generally supposed to be quite and submissive while the man must have control over the people around him. His ideologies are the considered to be dominant and correct all the time.

KABHI KUSHI KABHI GHAM

For example, in the Bollywood movie, Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham, Amitabh Bachchan is the head of the family. His decision of disowning his son is the final decision of the family and he isn’t willing to listen to another members opinion. 

Each time his wife tries to prove her point he repeats the phrase “keh diya, na bas, keh diya.” Translating, means “my decision in the final decision”. This portrays the dominance of the male character within the family and his representation as the head. His wife, on the other hand, has no say in any matter after her husband makes his decision for the family. This establishes how a man shall behave and how differently should a woman or the roles of characters based on their gender.

A woman with traits unlike the ones expected is displayed as a “non-woman”. She is displayed as either the villain or a character incapable for a man’s love and attention. She is considered to be a vamp or a female character that is against the ‘norms’ of a woman.

PADAYAPPA

Padayappa is a 2001 Tamil movie featuring Rajnikanth, Soundharya and Ramya Krishnan. Soundharya is a sweet, innocent and submissive girl whereas Ramya Krishna is an opinionated, strong headed woman. Rajnikanth falls in love with Soundharya because of her innocence and hence rejects Ramya Krishna. This depicts how woman are expected to be a certain way to be liked by a man.

In addition to assigning the role of a woman, movies also establish their character. A single woman is portrayed as weak and powerless. She needs of a man to be significant. A man must come for her rescue or without the support of the main male protagonist, the woman is isolated and could be sexualized by other men. But then as soon as she becomes meets and falls in love with the main protagonist, she becomes his property and her eroticism is subjected to the male star alone.

SHOLAY

The idea of weak woman is shown in the Bollywood movie, Sholay. Released in 1975 it shows a scene in which the antagonist or villain kidnaps the female character, Basanti. She is viewed as a defenceless woman who needs a man to save her from this situation. She is too vulnerable to fight for herself since the men who kidnapped her are stronger than she is. She is only rescued when the main male protagonist enters the scene, fights the bad guys and ‘protects’ her from them. Without the man, she wouldn’t have been saved.

This similar aspect is shown in Pokiri. Ileana is in a metro when a bunch of guys gather around her and begin to tease her. Till her hero arrives, she is helpless and weak and has no control of the situation. The hero arrives, fights with the guys and again ‘protects’ her. Without the man, the woman would be an object of pleasure for any male character in the film.

In Gabbar Singh, yet again, the heroine Shruti Hasan is forced to marry the villain. She is helpless and incapable of changing her destiny. That is when the hero enters and with his strength and power takes her out her misery. It is only with his presence that she is protected. 

Padayappa, once again, has many instances where the woman in his family are trapped in a situation which is inescapable but Rajnikanth somehow enters, fights with all his might and rescues the woman. Without his presence in their lives, they would all be defenceless and vulnerable. 

Male castration anxiety occurs when a man finds a woman superior to him. She is considered as unattainable or is too god for him. This inferiority develops a castration threat. In response to this, Mulvey distinguished two modes of looking for the audience. They are voyeuristic and fetishistic. Voyeurism is associated with sadism where the pleasure lies in asserting control and subjecting the guilty person to punishment or forgiveness. Fetishistic looking, in contrast, involves ‘the substitution of a fetish object or turning the represented figure itself into a fetish so that it becomes reassuring rather than dangerous. This builds up the physical beauty of the object, transforming it into something satisfying in itself.’ 

MAHANATI

This male castration anxiety was depicted in the bilingual movie, Mahanati, released in 2018. The movie is based on the life of Indian Actress Savitri. She is talented but struggling actress who wasn't getting a hold in the film industry. In comes the male lead Ramasamy Gemini Ganesan (Dulquer Salmaan) who worked in the casting department. It is with his help that she rose as a superstar. Savitri (Keerthi Suresh) then fell in love and married him. Initially supportive of her career, Ganesan soon began to feel jealous, with Savitri's fame overshadowing his. This inferiority complex builds up over time to an extent where he began to be toxic in her life. He then becomes a reason of the undoing of her career. This is an obvious example of castration threat in men.

Concluding, movies even today have been constantly portraying the already existing patriarchy of the society. All these movies have been successful. They haven't been questioned or challenged but have simply been accepted and normalized. Movies like these are released in a large amount each year. They still remain patriarchal, objectifying and influential. They are considered as a "mainstream" film.  This happens because we people tend to believe that the men are always on the right side of the law but the woman on the wrong.

On the other hand, however, female centric movies like "Lipstick under my burkha"  and "Veere di wedding" and considered controversial as is it still not acceptable to portay a woman as a free creature who doesn't need a man in order to pleasure herself. It then becomes a viscous infinite loop of directers portraying the patriarchy present in the society and the society internalising the patriarchy portrayed in movies.