Representation of ‘Masculinities’ in Bombay Cinema: Millennial Men. Exploring the visual representations of masculinities in Bombay cinema and the narratives pertaining to the construction of a ‘nationalist’ identity in Lakshya.

This study examines the representation of masculinities in Bombay cinema through a qualitative study of Farhan Akhtar’s Lakshya. Set in the context of India-Pakistan conflict during 1999, this paper explores the representation of masculinities in the film and examines the consequent production of the nationalist identity through the gendered discourse. The societal shift in masculinities in the 1990s and the 2000s, when compared to the masculinities in the film, show strong parallels between the reality and media portrayals of reality. Narratives of the New Man mark the transition from hegemonic forms of masculinities and nationalisms to diverse and adaptive embodiment of gender. The nationalist discourse on Indian masculinities reveal an overlap between the performance of gender and nationalism with similar historical trajectories. An amalgamation of Indian masculinities, Indian Nationalism, Bombay cinema and critical film theory has yielded in this work aimed at understanding and problematizing this dynamic nexus.