Paper short abstract:

The paper analyses recent Indian martial arts films and their relationship with Hong Kong Kung Fu cinema through a postcolonial lens. The analysis will further discuss this genre as an example of an emerging pan-Asian sensibility within popular Indian cinema.

Paper long abstract:

The focus of this paper is the analysis of Indian martial art films and their relationship with Hong Kong cinema. Hong Kong Kung Fu cinema has been popular in India since the 1970s (Srinivas 2012: 66) and it has had a profound influence on the Hindi action films of the 1970s-1980s (Banerjea 2005; Vitali 2006). More recently, as films such as Krrish (Rakesh Rohan, 2006), Drona (Goldi Behl, 2008), Chandni Chowk to China (Nikhil Advani, 2009), Brothers (Karan Malhotra, 2015) and the upcoming crossover film Kung Fu Yoga (Stanley Tong 2016) testify, martial arts have been increasingly integrated within Indian popular film narratives. What is the appeal of martial arts in Indian popular cinema? Drawing upon Tasker's analysis of Honk Kong films as anticolonial narratives (1998), I will focus in particular on the resonance of Hong Kong film within India and I will discuss the insertion of martial arts within Hindi films as an attempt to promote a sense of pan-Asianness which cuts across regional and national boundaries. Moreover, the analysis will focus on films' engagement with Orientalist narratives and their legacy in popular culture.