Frankenstein’s Avatars: Posthuman monstrosities in Indian science fiction cinema

Abstract

This paper engages with 'Frankenstein' as a narrative structure in Indian popular cinema, in the context of posthumanism. Scholarship pertaining to monsters/monstrosity in Indian films has generally been addressed within the horror genre. However, the present paper aspires to understand monstrosity/monsters as a repercussion of science and technology (S&T) through the cinematic depiction of Frankenstein-like characters, thus shifting the locus of examining monstrosity from the usual confines of horror to the domain of science fiction. The paper contends Enthiran/Robot (Shankar 2010 Tamil/Hindi) as an emblematic instance of posthuman monstrosity that employs a Frankenstein narrative. The paper hopes to bring out the significance of cinematic imagination concerning posthuman monstrosity, to engage with collective social fears and anxieties about various cutting-edge technologies as well as other socio-cultural concerns and desires at the interface of S&T, embodiment and the society/nation.