“…Just Needed some Money to Break Free from there”: Multimodal Analysis of Urban Women in Film

DOI

10.2991/978-2-38476-321-4_12How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Urban Women; Gender; Multimodal Analysis; Film; Bollywood

Abstract

This article delves into the representation of urban women in the Indian film Crew, which intricately depicts the lives of women employed as flight attendants. It explores the dual burdens these women face, balancing demanding careers with family obligations, amidst the broader pressures of urban life in Mumbai. The central inquiry of this article is: What are the images and visuals of urban women in Bollywood film? And how does Crew contribute to and reflect upon gender discourse? Employing the multimodal discourse analysis research method and Rick Iedema's six-level tele-filmic analysis within a qualitative exploratory framework and gender discourse, this study comprehensively examines the film. The findings indicate that the gender discourse surrounding urban women has several key themes. These include the responsibility of being the family's primary support system, the societal expectation to maintain an attractive and elegant appearance, and the necessity of securing a prestigious job that brings pride to the family. Through its narrative and visual storytelling, Crew offers a nuanced commentary on the complex intersection of gender, work, and societal expectations in the lives of urban women in contemporary India. This film serves as a poignant lens through which the multifaceted lives of urban women are examined. The portrayal of flight attendants is particularly significant, as it sheds light on the specific challenges women face in this profession. These challenges are compounded by the pressures of adhering to societal standards of beauty and elegance, which are often amplified in the urban context of Mumbai. Furthermore, the film underscores the pressure on women to attain and maintain prestigious employment to meet familial and societal expectations. This article, therefore, provides a thorough analysis of how Crew navigates and presents these themes, offering valuable insights into the broader discourse on gender roles and the representation of urban women in Bollywood cinema.

Copyright

© 2024 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Nurdini Tsabitul Chusna
PY  - 2024
DA  - 2024/12/24
TI  - “…Just Needed some Money to Break Free from there”: Multimodal Analysis of Urban Women in Film
BT  - Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Communication, Language, Literature, and Culture (ICCoLliC 2024)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 163
EP  - 177
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-321-4_12
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-321-4_12
ID  - Chusna2024
ER  -