Apocalyptic desires and possessing the world through the gaze

Satyajit Ray’s Charulata

Abstract

Whilst cinema certainly propagates social change as a signpost of dominant ideologies and prevalent values in society, it may also be a means to establish resisting positions, and here I examine the dynamics of ‘looking’ versus ‘to be looked-at-ness’, as it were. I attempt this through a reading of Satyajit Ray’s Charulata and problematise Laura Mulvey’s notion of the 'male gaze'. Ray’s film, in fact, seem to pre-empt this with the ‘female gaze’. This, I argue, differs because it is discerning and critical, and it is through this that the woman at last comes into her own.