Single channel video, 8 min 30 sec, colour, sound, 2000
In collaboration with Anuj Vaidya

Chingari Chumma is a fairytale phantasy which dives head first into the spaces of desire that remain unaddressed in the popular culture that Bollywood constructs. Here is a typical Hindi film climax from the 80’s - the heroine has been abducted by the bandit and is taken to his den where he invariably ties her up, or makes her dance; the hero comes just in time to save his beloved, before the villain can commit the ultimate atrocity.

We engage the language of these films and mainstream pornographic movies, in order to complicate the formulaic narrative and destabilize the archetypal relationships that are played out within them. While performing the problematic, we set up a consensual fantasy where gender and sexual expectations are not in congruence, thus displacing the subject position of the viewer. We enter a queer world where nothing is fixed any longer. The pendulum of the narrative swings between the traditional male rape fantasy of the dacoit and an unveiling of the unarticulated sexual desire of the heroine, both characters being played by the collaborating artists. We serve this up to you, hot and piping, with heavily aestheticized music and high camp.