Review | The Male Gaze Redefined by Shoma Chatterji
A review of Shoma Chatterji's book 'The Male Gaze Redefined' critiques its analysis of Indian cinema through the lens of Western film theory. The reviewer points out significant issues with the book's dated content and lack of contemporary relevance despite its 2026 publication date.
Why it matters
The review serves as a critique of academic and critical standards in film studies, emphasizing the importance of currency and accuracy in cultural analysis.
A book reviewer or a film reviewer often falls into the trap of judging a work by pre-set notions of what it ought to be, fixating on exclusions rather than what it contains. This is something any serious critic should be mindful of. Yet I must confess that some of my reservations about Shoma Chatterji’s The Male Gaze Redefined are along those lines.
Subtitled ‘Through Mother India and Other Classics of Indian Cinema’, this book examines the works of nine major male directors in terms of the attitudes to women revealed in their films, spanning several decades. To elucidate her points about ways of looking and depicting, Chatterji also discusses, and occasionally argues with, Western film theory by Laura Mulvey and others.
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