ABSTRACT
The Ramayaja has appeared on screen since the cradle days of the Indian film industry, starting with Lanka Dahan and Setu Bandhan by Dhundiraj Govind Phalke in the early twentieth century, followed by many more partial or whole renderings throughout the decades. Quite a few of these retellings have sought to suggest bold improvements to the well-known epic storyline. In this chapter I am particularly concerned with issues of gender and family in the Ramayaja, and how they get transferred in film. While taking stock of the major innovations, I shall focus on two successful recent mainstream Hindi movies, Hum Saath Saath Hain by Sooraj Barjatya (1999) and Lajja by Rajkumar Santoshi (2001). Both movies attempt to remake some incidents of Ramayaja with the goal of rewriting the story in totally different outcomes. The first movie addresses the traditional ideal of the unity of a joint family based on sacrifice and the second modern ideals of feminism based on equality and individualism.
