The Nationalist Imaginary in the Bollywood Sports Film

Abstract

Even after the liberalising of the Indian economy, the nationalist narrative, has endured, taking new forms. Some scholars have to argued that the post-national trope has been inaugurated in the Hindi film. By looking at a few popular sports films of the last decade and a half, Nissim Manathukkaren interrogates this contention pointing out that the post-national is not yet realized in the sports film genre. The author argues that the sports film by mirroring the limited notion of nationalism that is in sync with the logic of the market, is as yet a disappointment. It papers over the fissures and the complications within the current hegemonic nationalism, but carrying the potential of reimagining it. The author contends that in its intense desire to portray sporting glory as a triumph for the nation, films have tended to underplay individual struggles.

‘Enjoying life’: Consumption, changing meanings, and social differentiation in Kerala, India

“…Hindi-language films from the 1990s exemplify this melding of global capitalism and nationalism, and commodification and diasporic nationalism (seeRajadhyaksha 2003;Basu 2010;Mannathukkaren 2022). …”