Favored Variety and Cultural Othering: Semantic Enclave in Hindi Cinema

Abstract

Hindi cinema has a wide market across the world, and hence it affects the use of Hindi language to a large extent. But what is officially known as Hindi cinema also includes the movies in regional varieties of Hindi language without any acknowledgement of the variety. Varieties of signs are involved in generating a text of cinema, and hence it turns out to be a Semantic Enclave. The cinema develops a kind of Creole that is more or less understood by the standard Hindi language users. Present paper investigates the codes developed in three films based on regional milieu. The way the standard codes are modified, and newer text-specific metaphors are generated are the thrust of this investigation. The unavailability of standard Hindi subtitles is also significant. The fourth film, which acts as a counter example, implies the selection of regional variety which is to do with the dichotomy of rural and urban. The films also question the mainstream propaganda of development and how the reality is alienated from the audience at large.