“…The film noir is noted for having an international form and its ability to identify with other genres and themes such as psychological thriller, crime fiction, horror, gothic, etc. (Broe, 2014;Jancovich, 2009;Fay and Nieland, 2010.) Therefore, it is practically difficult to map out every possible dimension of noir in cinema. Since different genres overlap with film noir at some point, making it "by far the largest body of work on any film category" (Brookes, 2017: 15), this paper restricts the discussion within the crime fiction angle with an emphasis on the gangster/criminal/villain female protagonists/ antagonists in Indian popular cinema.…”