An Archive of Urdu Feminist Fiction and Bombay's Gaanewalis

The allusions of the Hindi film Dedh Ishqiya successfully combine Urdu feminist fi ction with a history of Mumbai's studio culture. At its heart is a plot line that is 72 years old and based upon the Urdu short story Lihāf about a homoerotic relationship between two women. The emergence of a female voice in the heyday of the Indian nationalist movement - both in terms of its commodifi cation through radio and other new media as well as through collective political assertions by feminist critics - is narrated anew within Dedh Ishqiya.