Describe what aspect of South Asian culture represented in the film(s),relate one or more of the concepts discussed in the course to the film(s),make an argument about what the film says and how it says it to some audience.

Describe what aspect of South Asian culture represented in the film(s),relate one or more of the concepts discussed in the course to the film(s),make an argument about what the film says and how it says it to some audience. To meet the requirements of the assignment, your essay must have a thesis, a particular point you are trying to make. It should have an argument, a set of claims about the book that work together to support your point. It should offer evidence to support each claim. It should cite the sources of its evidence, the most important of which should be the film itself.The essay is due at 8:30am April 22. If your paper is turned in before 11:59pm April 22, it will automatically be assigned to another student for peer review, and you will be given a paper to review. The peer review is part of your course work. If you miss the deadline and don’t get assigned a paper, you will get a zero on the peer review assignment.You will revise the paper based on feedback, and I will grade the final draft. The final draft is due May 8.Writing a Film EssayAt the beginning of class we learned that media representations like movies are cultural artifacts. They are created at a particular time, in a particular place, and no matter what time and place they are set in–historical periods or fantastic science fiction futures–they always reflect the social, economic political and cultural milieu in which they were created.A film essay explores the film text and tries to unpack the meanings of the film, analyzing how it represents South Asia. Your job is to understand the film as a cultural artifact—the product of cultural producers in a particular time and place, with a particular vision. The peoples and places portrayed in a film are not really people or places; they are symbols, and it is. your task to try to figure out what they symbolize.We have had several examples in out own readings, most obviously the analysis of Hum Aapke Hain Koun and the assessment of the television show about generations of women.Types of Film EssaysThe following is a list of common kinds of approaches to film texts.Symbolic Analysis. Analysis means to “take apart” so you can see how something works. A symbolic analysis pulls a film apart to examine its key symbols – words, actions or things that carry particular meanings and often are repeated again and again – and examines how they are arranged into meaningful structures. Symbolic analyses attempt to describe how symbols express meanings that may not be immediately apparent. A sample paper might be titled “Food symbolism in Hum Aapke Hain Koun” Gender Analysis. This is a form of symbolic analysis that focuses on how the social roles of women and men are represented in a film, what kinds of male/female (and sometimes additional genders and sexes) relationships are valorized and which ones are portrayed as unfulfilling. Ultimately, it seeks to explore what kinds of messages are encoded in the film about forms of masculinity and femininity. A sample paper might be titled, “It takes a Father: Masculinity and Female Empowerment in Dangal.”Social Identities Essay. Aside from gender, there are many other issues of social identity that can be explored: caste, community (religious identity), family, citizenship, and so forth. A sample paper might be titled “Hindu, Muslim, Christian: Religious Roles in Amar, Akbar, Anthony”Film Comparison. A comparative analysis compares and contrasts one film to other films it is like or unlike. Comparative essays usually assess films that have a common theme or subject and then examine how (and sometimes why) they handle the theme or subject differently. A sample paper might be titled “Managing Muslim Identity in Chak De! India and My Name is Khan.”Film/Book Comparison. If a film is based on a book, as some of these are, one can compare and contrast the two forms of expression. Any producer of a film must pick and choose what s/he will use from the novel, what will be jettisoned and what new images or symbols will be introduced. Such an essay seeks to understand how film and written media handle things differently, and to what extent they produce different meanings. A sample paper might be titled “Devdas Envisioned: A comparison of Chattopadhyay’s novel and the 2002 film”Movie Versions Comparison. If a film is a remake of another film, one can compare and contrast the two forms of expression. Any producer of a film must pick and choose what they will use from the earlier film, what will be jettisoned, and what new images or symbols will be introduced. Such an essay seeks to understand how these changes reflect the changing culture of the society over time. A sample paper might be titled “Revenge, Reincarnation and the Media Industry: A Comparison of Karz (1980) and Om Shanti Om (2007).Global Movie Comparison. One of the most interesting phenomena in globalization is the tendency of people in one country to revise and remake films from another country. You can find online lists of Bollywood movies that were adapted from Hollywood or other film production centers. Examining the original against the remake can reveal all kinds of interesting things about the two cultures. A sample paper might be titled “From The Seven Samurai to The Magnificent Seven to Sholay: Three Cultures, Three Movies”Reality Check. No film, fictional or documentary, is ever a window on reality. Any producer of a text must pick and choose what to show and what to exclude when making a film. Some film scholars make a distinction between the “reel” world of a film and the “real” world of ethnographic description, demographics or historical record. Essays that compare the reel to the real especially pay attention to the morality of the world constructed by the film, and to those aspects of the historical or sociological record about which it is silent. A sample paper might be titled “A Historical Assessment of No One Killed Jessica”Reception Analysis. This approach seeks to find out what people really make of movies. It requires the author to watch the film with a group of people, paying close attention to what they say and do as they watch (when they are attentive and silent, when they are restless, when they comment). To this data, the author adds interviews with the viewers. These interviews are not taken at face value; rather, they are analyzed to see what assumptions the interviewee is making and how these assumptions relate to the symbols and structure of the film. In other words, the interviews have to be analyzed instead of just the film. A sample paper might be titled “’But America Isn’t Really That Bad’: What Some White American Audiences Don’t Like About Pardes.”Where Can I Find Indian Movies?Where can you find movies? Many Bollywood movies, including those below), are available through normal streaming services like Netflix and Amazon Prime (not Hulu, though). There are a surprising number on YouTube, even. Below is a list of films you might look for and some of the themes in them that we’ve touched on in class. You do not need to use one of the films below; you are welcome to find something that interests you.MoviesMOVIESPOSSIBLE THEMESChak De! IndiaGender, Muslim Identity, National UnityDilwale Dulhana Le JayengeFamily & Kinship, Gender, GlobalizationDostanaFamily & Kinship, Gender, GlobalizationEnglish VinglishFamily & Kinship, Gender, Globalization, LanguageHum Aapke Hain Koun..!Family & Kinship, GenderIt’s Breaking NewsPolitics, Gender, MediaKal Ho Naa HoCaste, Family & Kinship, Gender, GlobalizationLagaan: Once Upon a Time in IndiaCaste, Class, Colonialism, Family & Kinship, Gender, National UnityLage Raho Munna BhaiClass, Goonda RajMughal-E-AzamMuslim Identity, Munnabhai MBBSClass, Goonda RajMy Name is KhanFamily and Kinship, Globalization, Hindu-Muslim Relations, Muslim IdentityNo One Killed JessicaGender, Media, PoliticsOm Shanti OmGender, Media, ReincarnationPKReligion (mostly Hinduism)RojaNational UnitySholayGender, Kinship & Family, Muslim Identity, National UnityResearchThis essay is a research paper not a film review. You will need to learn as much as you can about the film, and how it has been interpreted, both before and after you read it.