Dr Ishrat Jahan
Post-Doctoral Fellow, ICSSR- MANUU, Hyderabad
E-mail: Ishrat.ahamad@gmail.com
Issue: Volume 2 No. 1 (March 2026) Anubodhan
Received: 23 March 2026 / Accepted: 25 March 2026 / Published: 31 March 2026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.65885/anubodhan.v2n1.2026.035
Abstract
Despite India’s status as one of the most prolific and globally visible film-producing nations, its cinematic imagination remains profoundly uneven. While dominant industries such as Bollywood and select regional cinemas enjoy widespread circulation and critical attention, entire regions remain marginalized within the national visual discourse. Among these, Northeast India occupies a uniquely peripheral position—simultaneously incorporated within the territorial nation-state and excluded from its representational frameworks. This paper examines how Indian cinema contributes to the marginalization of Northeast India through structured absence, stereotyping, and regimes of selective visibility. Drawing on postcolonial theory, particularly the works of Edward Said, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, and Homi K. Bhabha, alongside cultural studies and epistemic injustice frameworks, the paper argues that cinematic marginalization constitutes a form of representational and epistemic violence. Through close readings of selected films—including Mary Kom (2014), Chak De! India (2007), Axone (2019), and Aamis (2019)—the study highlights how Northeast identities are either erased, commodified, or mediated through an external gaze. The paper further situates these dynamics within contemporary algorithmic cultures, demonstrating how digital platforms reproduce older hierarchies of visibility. Ultimately, it calls for a decolonial reconfiguration of Indian cinema that centers indigenous epistemologies, strengthens regional film infrastructures, and redefines the contours of national cinematic imagination.
Keywords: Northeast India, Indian cinema, marginalization, postcolonial theory, epistemic injustice, representation, decolonial aesthetics, national cinema
How to cite: Jahan, I. (2026). Fractured Frames: Cinematic Marginalization of Northeast India in Indian National Cinema. Anubodhan, 2(1), 367–380. https://doi.org/10.65885/anubodhan.v2n1.2026.035