Cinematic Geographies of Fear: Women, Public Space, and Urban Imaginaries in Indian Cinema

Abstract

This paper explores how Indian cinema mediates the relationship between women, fear, and urban public space. While empirical evidence indicates that women face greater threats in private/domestic domains, cultural narratives persistently frame the city as the locus of danger. Cinema plays a pivotal role in sustaining this disjuncture by producing a symbolic geography of fear, a mediated urban imaginary in which women are rendered perpetually vulnerable. Drawing on feminist criminology (Stanko, 1990), spatial theory (Lefebvre, 1991; Puwar, 2004), and Baudrillard’s (1981) notion of hyperreality, the study argues that films not only reflect social anxieties but actively shape gendered experiences of mobility, safety, and surveillance.

Through critical analysis of films such as NH10 (2015), Darr (1993), Pink (2016), Kahaani (2012), Lipstick Under My Burkha (2016), and Thappad (2020), the paper examines how cinematic form i.e., mise-en-scène, sound design, framing, and narrative tropes constructs urban space as threatening, surveilled, or reclaimed. While some texts reinforce precautionary cultures of fear, others stage counter-narratives that imagine female agency and spatial entitlement, resonating with feminist interventions like Why Loiter? (Phadke, Khan, & Ranade, 2011) and Pinjra Tod. By situating cinematic portrayals within India’s broader socio-political context, particularly post-2012 debates on women’s safety, the paper demonstrates how film operates as both a disciplinary force and a site of resistance. Ultimately, the study contributes to sociology and film studies by positioning cinema as an active agent in the cultural production of gendered urban experience.