An exploration of the consequences of unbridled expansion of neoliberal values within India through the lens of popular film and culture.

The neoliberal self, far from being a stable marker of urban, liberal, millennial Indian identity, is replete with contradictions and oppositions. This study of the unstable neoliberal identity lays bare the sense of precarity and inherent inequality that neoliberal regimes confer upon their subjects.

This analysis draws upon theories of feminist media studies, popular culture analyses, and film studies to critique mainstream Hindi cinema texts produced in the last two decades. Rele Sathe also examines a variety of peripheral subjects and texts, including the film star, the urban space, web series, YouTube videos, and social media content.
 

Namrata Rele Sathe is a postdoctoral fellow at the School of Interwoven Arts and Sciences at Krea University, Sri City. She has a PhD in media studies and is the assistant editor of Studies in South Asian Film and Media.

List of Figures


Acknowledgements


Introduction: The Future that Never Was


 


1. The Maladjusted Metrosexual: Urban Masculinity, Neoliberal Workplaces, and Romantic Dysfunction


2. At Home in the City: Women, Sexuality, and Democratic Politics in the Urban Space


3. Forging a Fairytale: New Rituals of Romance and Marriage in Neoliberal India


4. Brand ‘Priyanka Chopra’: The Cult of Individuality, Citizenship, and the Transnational Female Celebrity


 


Epilogue: Fraying Selves and Disintegrating Realities 


Notes 


Bibliography