Gendered Urban Landscapes: A Study of Select Assamese Films Depicting City Life, Identity, and Power Dynamics

Cities, like Guwahati, in North East India act as an urbanisation hub where the intersection of identity formation and power dynamics is inevitable. The marginalised, be it in terms of economy, gender or social status, simultaneously construct and deconstruct the city life according to the changing needs of their survival. Films from North East India, and Assamese films inparticular, act as a canvas for representing these dynamic landscapes of the city life layered with gendered power dynamics. This study explores the portrayal of gendered spaces within these urban landscapes in select Assamese films. The study attempts to analyse Assamese film as a lens to address and critique evolving social, economic and gendered frameworks. These films do not depict the cities merely as backgrounds behind which the characters play out their parts but as participants in the formation of individual and collective subjectivities. They are simultaneously the hope and the horrors of modernisation and create landscapes where traditional norms are both upheld and questioned. The study uses Feminist Film theory and Gender Role theory to understand how the urban spaces are gendered and how they reflect gender roles, social hierarchies in the face of urbanisation. The study further uses Henri Lefebvre’s “The Production of Space” (1974) to understand the socio-cultural impact of urbanisation and its effects on gendered spaces and identities. Three Assamese films, Antareen (2017), Ronuwa- Who Never Surrender (2021) and Guwahati Diaries (2022), havebeen purposely explored for the study.