Cinema and the Desire for Modernity industrial economy's logic calls for as well as a desirable alternative to the existing patriarchal enclaves within which subjects are situated. This is then a question of emerging from feudal social relations into capitalist ones, an epic narrative of the trans-patriarchal migration of subjects, a struggle within the social 86 for a radical transformation which cinema represents and resolves in its own way. Popular cinema, however, displays no unequivocal preference for a traditional standpoint in its narratives of conflict between the traditional and the modem. On the contrary, one of its constant preoccupations is with the propagation of commodity culture within the context of traditionally regulated social relations. In the process it sometimes represents the Utopian aspiration to transform the social in keeping with the promises made by capitalism and the modern nation-state. I wish to thank Lucy Fischer, Janaki Nair and Tejaswini Niranjana for their critique of earlier drafts. REFERENCES Barrett, Michele and Mary Mclntosh, 1991, The Anti-Social Family, Verso, London. Barthes, Roland, 1980, 'Upon Leaving the Movie Theatre', in Theresa Hak Kyung Cha (ed.). Apparatus, Tanam Press, New York. Bellour, Raymond, 1980, 'Symboliques', in Raymond Bellour (ed.), Le Cinema Americain: Analyses de Films, Vol.1, Flammarion, Paris, 173-200. Bellour, Raymond, 1986, 'Segmenting/Analyzing', in Philip Rosen (ed.). Narrative, Apparatus, Ideology, Columbia, New York, 66-92. Fanon, Frantz, 1965, A Dying Colonialism, Grove Press, New York. Grosrichard, Alain, 1979, Structure du SeraU: La Fiction du Despotisme Asiatique dans I'Occident Classique, Editions du Semi, Paris. Hegel, Philosophy of Right, 1967, T.M. Knox, Oxford University Press, London. Kakar, Sudhir, 1989, Intimate Relations: Exploring Indian Sexuality, Penguin, New Delhi. Metz, Christian, 1986, The Imaginary Signifier' in Philip Rosen (ed.). Narrative, Apparatus, Ideology, Columbia University Press, New York, 244-78. Nandy, Ashis, 1987, 'An Intelligent Critic's Guide to Indian Cinema', 1.1, Deep Focus, December, 68-72. Nandy, Ashish, 1988a, 'An Intelligent Critic's Guide to Indian Cinema', 1.2, Deep Focus, June, 53-60. Nandy, Ashish, 1988b, 'An Intelligent Critic's Guide to Indian Cinema', 1.3, Deep Focus, November, 58-61. Pateman, Carol, The Sexual Contract, Stanford University Press, Stanford. Rajadhyaksha, Ashis, 'Neo-traditionalism: Film as Popular Art in India', Framework, 32/33, 20-67. Report of the Enquiry Committee on Film Censorship, 1969, Government of India, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, New Delhi. Shahani, Kumar, 'The Media Police', in Framework, 30/31, 87-90. Singer, Irving, 1984, The Nature of Love, 3 vols., Vol.2: Courtly and Romantic, University of Chicago Press, Chicago. Zizek, Slavoj, 1991 a. Looking Awry: An Introduction to Jacques Lacan Through Popular Culture, MIT Press, Chicago. Zizek, Slavoj,1991b, For They Know Not Wiat They Do: Enjoyment as a Political Factor, Verso, London. Journal of Arts & Ideas