CASTE AND VISUAL REPRESENTATION IN BENGALI CINEMA: A SOCIOLOGICAL REVIEW

Antara  Ray

doi:10.29121/shodhkosh.v7.i10s.2026.8083

Authors

Dr. Antara Ray Associate Professor, Department of Sociology, Presidency University, Kolkata, India

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.29121/shodhkosh.v7.i10s.2026.8083

Keywords:

Caste, Bengali Cinema, Symbolic Violence, Dalit Agency, Hegemony, Stigma, Social Mobility, Visual Representation

Abstract [English]

Bengali cinema, particularly productions originating from West Bengal and Bangladesh, has long served as a cultural mirror reflecting—and at times reinforcing—the hierarchical stratifications of caste. This paper undertakes a sociological review of selected popular Bengali films released between 2019 and 2024, examining how caste identity, status, stigma, social mobility, symbolic violence, hegemony, and Dalit agency are constructed, contested, and circulated through cinematic visual language. Drawing on Pierre Bourdieu's concepts of symbolic violence and cultural capital, Antonio Gramsci's theory of hegemony, and Erving Goffman's framework of stigma, alongside the growing body of Dalit feminist and subaltern studies scholarship, this review interrogates representational politics in mainstream Bengali cinema. The films analysed include Abhijaan (2022), Kaalbela (2021), Dawshom Awbotaar (2023), Mahananda (2022), and Brihatta (2024). The findings suggest that while Bengali cinema occasionally gestures toward social critique, it predominantly reproduces Brahmanical-savarna aesthetics, denies Dalit subjectivity, and enacts symbolic violence through stereotyping, erasure, and the containment of Dalit agency within narratively safe boundaries. The paper argues for a deliberate reorientation in Bengali cinematic practice toward authentic, Dalit-authored representation.

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