"Maya Mahal" could easily be a moniker for cinema itself. A darkened theatre with a white screen on which light flickers like a phantom and conjures up visions of faraway people and places... what is that, if not a "Palace of Illusions"? Let's explore the action facets...
Priya Paul's film memorabilia
Priya Paul's collection of film memorabilia represents an eccentric mix of films. Many of these films have not been considered socially or artistically significant by elite standards. Maya Mahal does not intend to celebrate the realist strain in Hindi Cinema. We present to you an alternative history which is decidedly excessive, melodramatic and utopian.
Action
Even though cinema can be seen as an intangible, illusory form, many of its pleasures have been decidedly visceral. In this section we look at a particular kind of bodily spectacle - the action sequence. Brahmachari (Master Vinayak, 1938) celebrates physical culture and discipline. The hero, played by Vinayak himself, is indoctrinated into the RSS-ethic of nationalism and celibacy but all his resolve fades away in the presence of the beautiful Kishori. The twinning of physical culture with nationalism was not uncommon at the time, and often used for diametrically opposite political projects.
Diler DaakuPriya Paul Collection
The Hunterwali stunt films produced by Basant studios and starring the inimitable Fearless Nadia, are often didactic in a similar vein.
Picking up on the iconic figure of Fearless Nadia, we track different incarnations of the masked hunterwali figure till she morphs into the avenging daaku of the 1980's.
Lobby card of Daku Rani HimmatwaliPriya Paul Collection
The large numbers of daaku films in the late 1970's and 1980's might be related to daily incidents of dacoit violence in Uttar Pradesh.
Much of this was a response to upper-caste brutalization and economic repression of Dalits and other marginal identities.
Daku RamkaliPriya Paul Collection
The emergence of Phoolan Devi on the Chambal scene created a national sensation, as thousands identified with her crusade for justice and vengeance.
The filmi hunterwali had been reincarnated as a real-life bandookwali.
HimmatwalaPriya Paul Collection
The endless cycle of rape films in the A, B, and C-circuits in the 1980's are also begging to be studied.
It is not hard to see the link between the caste and class power-consolidating rape culture in North India of the time, and the films that emerge in response to that atmosphere.
Chambal ka BadshahPriya Paul Collection
Analyzing film posters from the 1970's, Ranjani Mazumdar notes that "action came to be recognized by the industry as one of the most marketable and spectacular aspects of a film, displayed through a depiction of technology as spectacle."
Ganga Ki SaugandPriya Paul Collection
The gun became an overriding element in action posters, permanently appended to the body of the male action hero.
As Mazumdar observes, "The consolidation of a new techno-masculinity is also abundantly made clear in the erasure of the female protagonists in these posters".
