Fourteenth International Conference on The Image

Abstract

Film is a powerful medium which can transform the real, the medium has its own language which recreates and regenerates the reality. Indian cinema has its roots in interpretation of reality as it begins with mythology and develops from the stages of devotional, hagiographical and historical where personal history is interpreted. Indian biopics are developed from these genres where history is presented from biography (writing life) to thanatography (writing death) as a triumph, anguish, joy, adventure, suffering and heroism through historical and self-explanatory treatment. The genres, the subversive form, the nature of texts depend on the heroes the film is based upon. The process of biopics follow the idiosyncratic approach. Biopics are examined as fragments of a cinematic discourse on mind’s relationship to the past and on the subject’s relationship with telling his or her past. Mobility of images and visuals along with the verbal constructions construct the genre of a film. These images are read physiologically, ethnographically and physiologically to understand the representation of image in biopics. This paper examines how history is recreated in biopics, how films reflect reality and Kinopravada (film truth) how biopics form a relationship with life stories of the protagonists. The paper is an essence of the researcher’s unpublished doctoral thesis which represents technical and symbolic analysis of Indian biopics the way the lives of heroes are recreated and history is transformed from one form to another.