ABSTRACT
This chapter explores themes and examples of masculine virtue and heroism in Persianate literature and history to better understand their re-imaginings in the Pahlavi-era popular cinema. The appearance of modern ideas of liberal nationalism in Iran during the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries had little effect on the lutias hero and masculine ideal. Street rowdies transitioned from figures of predominantly local to national significance. In one of the more humorous scenes of the film, 'Ali the Indian expatriate states his intentions to Shirin va Farhad's parents in a "broken" Hindi that mocks the language of the Mumbai-based popular commercial cinema but also relies on the audience's intimate familiarity with it. The filmmakers mock the Mumbai-based commercial cinema and their song-and-dance sequences while acknowledging its impact on representations of love in filmfarsi. The song begins with Shirin in a sari gesturing and singing in a style that is meant to remind audiences of Indian film heroines singing of their loves.
