Mamta Kalia

nuanced reading of the strategy of veiling:
…veiling as a social practice is not fixed
or unidirectional; instead, it is a dynamic
practice in which both men and women
are implicated. In addition, there is a dialectical
relationship between veiling and unveiling:
that which covers is capable also of
uncovering. In practice women have a great
deal of latitude in how they present themselves
to the gaze of male onlookers, involving
body language, eye contact, types of veil
worn, clothing worn under the veil, and
the manner in which the veil itself is opened
Notes and References:
136 :: April-June 2010
and closed at strategic moments to lure
or mask, to reveal or conceal the face,
the body or the clothing underneath. 22
A creative reappraisal of gendering
the look in Iranian cinema therefore
assumes critical importance. Especially,
when the success of Iranian films
internationally has helped restore pride
among the Iranian people in their culture
and heritage and when Iran stands
demonized as a terrorist nation in the
international media.
1. To a great extent watching films is about looking at and identifying with the
screen image. There are three different ways in which the look is organized
– (a) characters inside the diegesis looking at each other (b) the diegetic audience
looking at the characters of the film and (c) the audience inside the cinema
theatres looking both at the characters and the diegetic audience.
2. I began watching Iranian films in International Film Festivals in India 1998
onwards. But then I did not ask questions about their contexts of production
or their channels of circulation and reception worldwide. At the same time
I realized that there was a need to differentiate between Iranian cinema seen
in the film festivals from the Farsi cinema, which is similar in many respects
to mainstream Hindi cinema or Bollywood in form. Since 2001, the popular
Indian television channel Eenadu TV (Urdu) has been occasionally screening
Farsi films dubbed in Hindi. Also UTV World Movies and NDTV Lumiere, routinely
offer contemporary Iranian films (with English subtitles) to its discerning audiences.
3. Hamid Reza Sadr, Iranian Cinema, A Political History, I.B.Tauris, London, 2006,
p.66.
4. Ibid, p.77.
5. Ibid, p.78.
6. Ibid, p.82.
7. Houshang Golmakani, Stars Within Reach, in Aruna Vasudev, Latika Padgaonkar
and Rashmi Doraiswamy (ed.), Being and Becoming, The Cinemas of Asia, Macmillan,
New Delhi, 2002, p. 191.
8. Azarmi Dukht Safawi and A.W.Azhar Dehlvi, Revolution and Creativity, A Survey
of Iranian Literature, Films and Art in the Post revolutionary Era, Rupa & Company,
New Delhi, 2006, p.189.