Bhang ya Bong? Representation of Cannabis in Selected Hindi Film Songs

Abstract

The lack of discourse on different uses of cannabis in visual media has resulted in a unidimensional understanding of different forms and methods in which cannabis is consumed. To understand how visual representation often dictates and reinforces hegemonic notions of culturally ambiguous objects such as cannabis, this paper looks at  selected film songs from across different eras of Hindi Cinema, and probes the manner in which politics and discourse operate in constructing meaning at the level of production of such texts. It uses theories connecting representation and discourse, adopting the lens of 'symbolic frameworks' as suggested by Paul Manning to make a textual and discourse analysis of the selected texts. The paper argues that songs depicting consumption of bhang attach images of festivity and  religiosity to normalise its consumption in certain contexts, while songs where consumption happens in the form of smoking marijuana and/or charas images of dysfunction and social alienation are invoked. This paper concerns itself primarily with semiotics and does not look at the caste and gender dimensions of visual representation surrounding cannabis in the selected texts. Those approaches can become a full-length study in themselves and bring a much sharper focus to the politics of representation affecting a more balanced discourse on cannabis.