Though only a century old, the cinema has captured the essence of human civilizations across time & space. As a meeting point between science, technology, visual arts, music, drama & commerce, it is in a sense, an epitome of human civilization itself. Simultaneously operating at two levels of creation--the process of film making & its final product the film--cinema illuminates the dialectics between past & present, fact & fiction, reality & imagination.
Indian cinema too displays the above characteristic features in the specific Indian context. e.g. taking gender as a focal point, we can illustrate the changing realities & shifting perspectives in India. When Dadasaheb Phalke made the first Indian film 'Raja Harishchandra' in 1913, the role of the heroine Taramati was played by a man because no woman was ready to face camera as it was supposed to be vulgar & inappropriate to the modesty of a woman. Since then there has been such a metamorphosis in the public attitude towards cinema that today there is hardly any aspect of cinema which is not transformed by the Midas touch of the women.
The present Conference aims at exploring this wonderful relationship between cinema & women --women as audience, as characters, as actors, as singers, as dancers, as writers, as critics & as film makers. So we invite research papers dealing with women & cinema from various angles as listed below. The given list of themes is only indicative & the participants are free to choose any other relevant topic.