Of enraged shirts, gyrating gangsters, and farting bullets: Salman Khan and the new Bollywood action film

Abstract

This paper explores a new genre of Bollywood action films spawned by action superstar Salman Khan, focusing specifically on his 2010 hit Dabangg [The Thug]. The paper argues that although touted as an action film, Dabangg plays with the generic conventions of the Bollywood action film, by introducing elements of the carnivalesque into its display of masculinity and violence. In doing so it reinvents the action film as the masti (or fun/playful) film. I begin with a brief history of the Bollywood action film, situating Dabangg both within this larger tradition and also analyzing its departure from it. Next, I argue that Dabangg parodies the fight sequence, a staple of the action film genre, by introducing elements of the carnivalesque – the image of the grotesque body, songs and dances, mimicry of serious rituals and the destabilization of the boundaries between art and life – into the ritualized performance of violence and masculinity, thereby transforming the latter into comedic spectacle. Following this, I argue that the film subverts the action hero's hypermasculinity by producing masculinity as a masquerade, a comedic performative act that is not to be taken seriously. In conclusion, I consider the implications of the pleasure produced by Dabangg's masti aesthetic for the genre of the Bollywood action film.

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