Unveiling Patriarchy in Narrative Cinema: A Critical Discourse Analysis of ‘Thappad’

Abstract

This paper is a qualitative text analysis of the Indian film titled ‘Thappad’ using Teun A. van Dijk’s Socio Cognitive Model to expose the narrative of patriarchy within the cinema platform. The paper systematically analyzes the screenplay of the film called “Thappad” and focuses on the issues of gender stereotyping, marriage as an institution, and people’s attitudes toward male-dominant subjugation. The objectives of this study include exploring all the thematic representations in the movie, analyzing the characters' dialogues, and analyzing the power dynamics between the characters, as well as investigating the extent to which these representations reinforce or subvert conventional cognitive gender roles in the patriarchal culture. Thus, by analyzing the script of the film and showing how the commentaries created by the screenplay discourse structures reflect and resist the dominant discourses concerning gender imbalance in society. According to the study, the findings depict and call into balance the Indian culture’s marriage and gender norms, which makes the narrative fight against the patriarchal social structure. Furthermore, the sexual awakening and physical transformation of the female protagonist are represented as the woman turns from a passive victim to an active resister, becoming the key message of the movie for the spectators to comprehend the roots and consequences of Patriarchal culture. Therefore, this research adds to the arguments made in film studies and gender by exploring how cinema can open up spaces for change toward challenging productive structures and ideologies.