Volume-XII, Issue-V, September 2026 |
Niyoga and the Politics of Masculinities in Eklavya: The Royal Guard (2007) Dr. Sabitha Zacharias, Assistant Professor, Research Centre & Postgraduate Department of English, Bharata Mata College (Autonomous), Thrikkakara, Kerala, India Dr. Lima Antony, Professor, Postgraduate Department of English & Research Centre, St. Xavier’s College for Women (Autonomous), Aluva, Keralam, India |
Received: 05.08.2026 | Accepted: 18.09.2026 | Published Online: 30.09.2026 | Page No: 76-82 | ||||
DOI: 10.29032/ijhsss.vol.12.issue.05W.373 | |||||||
ABSTRACT | ||
This paper examines how Eklavya: The Royal Guard (2007), directed by Vidhu Vinod Chopra, reworks the concept of niyoga, a socially sanctioned means of commissioned procreation, to examine the politics of masculinity in Indian cinema. Drawing on close analysis of the film, intertextual readings of The Mahabharata, and masculinity studies framework put forth by R.W. Connell, the study shows how the film transforms niyoga, a reproductive ritual, into a site of ethical crisis and sovereign violence. The mise-en-scène, spatial arrangements, and embodied performances in the film reveal intersecting and unstable masculine positions. Hegemonic masculinity of the pater becomes unstable in the private realm, the surrogate occupies a marginalised-subordinated masculinity, and the progeny manifests a confounded masculinity. This study aims to expand film and myth scholarship by approaching niyoga as a framework to examine how reproductive politics and masculinity become entangled in Indian cinema. | ||
Keywords: Niyoga, The Mahabharata, Masculinity studies, Hegemony, Indian cinema |