| Summary: | In this thesis, I argue that the 1994 Bollywood film Hum Aapke Haiti Kaun (Who am I to You?),
is framed by an apparent middle-class desire to reinscribe caste and class purity. I argue that the
ritual of marriage enshrines the commodity and gives it a larger visual appeal that needs to be
understood in the context of India's economic liberalization of the nineties. The narrative
reflects the normative role cinema can play in shaping ideas about religion, politics and
economics in contemporary India. In order to interrogate the Bollywood film's tendency to
homogenize Indian cultural experience, the thesis also investigates resistant films such as Mira
Nair's Monsoon Wedding (2001), and Deepa Mehta's Fire (1996). Also, I demonstrate how
national print media and women's magazines in particular reinforce stereotypes about marriage
in the globalized economy. Hum Aapke Hain Kaun's opulent visual spectacle functioned as a
marker of class and became a symbol of self-representation of that class as well. This thesis
engages with debates about the construction of nation, family and women. The thesis presents
specific examples from Hum Aapke Hain Kaun and the resonance it has within public debates
about morality and sexuality including the work of artist M.F. Hussain. It also argues that the
film is a visual endorsement of the fundamentalist and exclusive ideas Hindutva (militant Hindu
nationalism) was trying to perpetuate in the highly visible public spheres of the Nation.
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