EXPLORING SUBALTERN PERSPECTIVE IN THE MOVIE KERRY ON KUTTON: A SEMIOTIC ANALYSIS OF SMALL-TOWN REALITIES IN INDIAN CINEMA
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.29121/zx12p969Keywords:
Semiotics, Subaltern Studies, Indian Cinema, Poverty Representation, Cultural MythAbstract
Cinema in India often functions as an ideological text that mirrors social realities, reinforces cultural hierarchies, and constructs public perception of marginalised communities. This study conducts a qualitative semiotic analysis of the Hindi film Kerry on Kutton (2016) to examine how subaltern identities are visually and narratively represented within the small-town socio-economic landscape. Using a purposive sampling approach, the film was analysed through multiple viewing cycles, identifying key signs, character trajectories, spatial settings and symbolic objects. Drawing upon Saussurean and Barthesian semiotics, the analysis proceeded through denotation, connotation and mythic interpretation, while psychoanalytic and subaltern frameworks were employed to contextualise character desire, humiliation and aspiration. Findings reveal that the film encodes marginalisation not through explicit dialogue, but through symbolic cues such as pig-rearing, wedding band labour, leftover food, urban aspiration and the gun as imagined emancipation. These narrative and visual signs naturalises caste hierarchies, structural poverty and the myth that upward mobility is attainable only through deviance or violence. This study contributes to existing scholarship by demonstrating how small-town Hindi cinema encodes caste and class through symbolic and spatial cues rather than explicit narrative exposition. The paper presents evidence that semiotic analysis can reveal hidden ideological structures embedded in popular media.
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