An analysis of four representations of South African Indian women’s identities in Jayan Moodley’s Kandasamy films (2017 – 2023).

Abstract

South African Indian literature features a variety of texts that both focus on South African Indian women and are created by South African Indian women. These texts, however, are not representative of present day South African Indian women’s identities and experiences. South African Indian film fares little better and the existent literature reflects this. The aim of this dissertation is to provide a starting point for filling the research gap on contemporary South African Indian women’s identities as represented in literature and film and the research gap regarding South African Indian film. It also seeks to contribute to the research that reads film as text as filmic representations are often accessible to larger audiences and play an important role in (re)presenting identities both locally and internationally. This aim is achieved through an analysis of four South African Indian women characters, Aya, Jennifer, Shanti, and Jodi, in Jayan Moodley’s Kandasamy films – Keeping Up With the Kandasamys (2017), Kandasamys: The Wedding (2019), Trippin’ With the Kandasamys (2021), and Kandasamys: The Baby (2023). An intersectional feminist cultural studies framework is employed in analysing Aya, Jennifer Kandasamy, Shanti Naidoo, and Jodi Kandasamy’s representations and re-presentations of South African Indian women’s identities in order to account for the influence of ethnicity, age (generation), and faith on the creation, expression, and expectations of “woman”. Aya is shown to re-present older woman as complex individuals who are active agents in their lives and as challenging the narrative of passive acceptance and longsuffering that is associated with South African Indian women, especially of her generation. Jennifer and Shanti are shown are representing two often conflicting identities – the modernised Superwoman and the traditional Sita. They reveal that no matter the individual identity of the woman, she is still expected to be a good mother and quietly accept double burdens and marginalisation. Shanti is also shown to challenge women’s invisibility, amongst other expectations, as her husband learns to value and actively appreciate her for who she is as a person. Jodi is shown to represent women, daughters especially, as sites of negotiation for identity and culture, facilitating Jennifer’s realisation of her own identity and bridging the gap between tradition and western cultural demands to create a hybrid identity for herself. Through Jodi, South African Indian women are represented as agents within their culture rather than passive participants and South African Indian culture is presented as fluid and alive as opposed to static and stagnant.