Demon and Hero: Mani Ratnam's Raavanan and de-mythologising the Indian discourse of the nation

The epic poem Ramayana occupies a central position in the religious, social and cultural lives of peoples in the Indian subcontinent, as well as in regions elsewhere in Asia that have had contact with the poem. Narratives and characters found in the Ramayana have also been incorporated in the discou...

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Main Author: Ahmad, Siti Nuraishah
Format: Conference or Workshop Item
Language:English
Published: 2015
Subjects:
Online Access:http://irep.iium.edu.my/44919/1/44919.pdf
http://irep.iium.edu.my/44919/
http://www.ukm.my/fssk/v2/news/solls-intec-15/
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Institution: Universiti Islam Antarabangsa Malaysia
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spelling my.iium.irep.449192018-01-03T07:58:20Z http://irep.iium.edu.my/44919/ Demon and Hero: Mani Ratnam's Raavanan and de-mythologising the Indian discourse of the nation Ahmad, Siti Nuraishah NX Arts in general The epic poem Ramayana occupies a central position in the religious, social and cultural lives of peoples in the Indian subcontinent, as well as in regions elsewhere in Asia that have had contact with the poem. Narratives and characters found in the Ramayana have also been incorporated in the discourse of the modern Indian nation-state and the construction of a national identity through recitation, performance and adaptation into various cultural forms, in what Benedict Anderson (2006) calls acts of imagining the nation. But what happens when one takes a founding myth like the Ramayana as a means of challenging present-day India’s discourse of the nation? Mani Ratnam’s film adaptation of the epic, Raavanan (2010) is an attempt at re-appropriating and revising the core narrative and characters of the Ramayana in order to draw attention to the limitations of the Indian nation-state, particularly in its treatment of subaltern communities (peasants, indigenous people) and use of state-sanctioned violence against dissent. Using postcolonial critiques of the nation and nationalism, this paper will examine how Raavanan reveals the faultlines in the Indian nation-state’s self-fashioning of itself as a modern, progressive political entity by thrusting the demonized Other (Ravana) into the centre of the narrative, as well as re-casting its female characters i.e. Sita and Surpanakha (Ravana’s sister). 2015-09-30 Conference or Workshop Item REM application/pdf en http://irep.iium.edu.my/44919/1/44919.pdf Ahmad, Siti Nuraishah (2015) Demon and Hero: Mani Ratnam's Raavanan and de-mythologising the Indian discourse of the nation. In: SoLLS.Intec 2015 Conference, 29 & 30 September 2015, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Bangi, Selangor. (Unpublished) http://www.ukm.my/fssk/v2/news/solls-intec-15/
institution Universiti Islam Antarabangsa Malaysia
building IIUM Library
collection Institutional Repository
continent Asia
country Malaysia
content_provider International Islamic University Malaysia
content_source IIUM Repository (IREP)
url_provider http://irep.iium.edu.my/
language English
topic NX Arts in general
spellingShingle NX Arts in general
Ahmad, Siti Nuraishah
Demon and Hero: Mani Ratnam's Raavanan and de-mythologising the Indian discourse of the nation
description The epic poem Ramayana occupies a central position in the religious, social and cultural lives of peoples in the Indian subcontinent, as well as in regions elsewhere in Asia that have had contact with the poem. Narratives and characters found in the Ramayana have also been incorporated in the discourse of the modern Indian nation-state and the construction of a national identity through recitation, performance and adaptation into various cultural forms, in what Benedict Anderson (2006) calls acts of imagining the nation. But what happens when one takes a founding myth like the Ramayana as a means of challenging present-day India’s discourse of the nation? Mani Ratnam’s film adaptation of the epic, Raavanan (2010) is an attempt at re-appropriating and revising the core narrative and characters of the Ramayana in order to draw attention to the limitations of the Indian nation-state, particularly in its treatment of subaltern communities (peasants, indigenous people) and use of state-sanctioned violence against dissent. Using postcolonial critiques of the nation and nationalism, this paper will examine how Raavanan reveals the faultlines in the Indian nation-state’s self-fashioning of itself as a modern, progressive political entity by thrusting the demonized Other (Ravana) into the centre of the narrative, as well as re-casting its female characters i.e. Sita and Surpanakha (Ravana’s sister).
format Conference or Workshop Item
author Ahmad, Siti Nuraishah
author_facet Ahmad, Siti Nuraishah
author_sort Ahmad, Siti Nuraishah
title Demon and Hero: Mani Ratnam's Raavanan and de-mythologising the Indian discourse of the nation
title_short Demon and Hero: Mani Ratnam's Raavanan and de-mythologising the Indian discourse of the nation
title_full Demon and Hero: Mani Ratnam's Raavanan and de-mythologising the Indian discourse of the nation
title_fullStr Demon and Hero: Mani Ratnam's Raavanan and de-mythologising the Indian discourse of the nation
title_full_unstemmed Demon and Hero: Mani Ratnam's Raavanan and de-mythologising the Indian discourse of the nation
title_sort demon and hero: mani ratnam's raavanan and de-mythologising the indian discourse of the nation
publishDate 2015
url http://irep.iium.edu.my/44919/1/44919.pdf
http://irep.iium.edu.my/44919/
http://www.ukm.my/fssk/v2/news/solls-intec-15/
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