Socio-Cultural Dynamics and Economic Implications: Unravelling Son Preferences in Indian Cinema

Within Indian patriarchal families, a well-established preference for male progeny resulted in a loss of girls either before or after their birth. The son preference in India comprehends within several different strands of thought, still which is considered part of cultural beliefs and practices. The preference for a male child has seen as an expression of traditional social behaviour. And the gender disparity of socio-economic rights also enforced to choose the male progeny in the patriarchal society. As I consider film and sociology are linked, so in this chapter, I would like to analyse “son preference” in the aspect of post-nineties alternative cinema. Influenced by feminist theories and the new world view, it proposes that as committed artists, alternative filmmakers have tried to depict the struggle for reproductive and sexual rights which has led to a progressive feminisation of the theory and practice of governance, development, human rights and justice. Simultaneously, I would like to locate how patriarchal are these cinemas subtly even when they articulate the rights of the womb. Is it possible to contextualise these films in multiple locations and categorise them accordingly to have a much-disaggregated view and bring out the fractured within the new vision of gender?.