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ABSTRACT
Queer analyses of Bollywood have, for the most part, attended to homosocial scenes and LGBT representation; this essay takes a different approach by tracing the mimicry of screen divas Madhuri Dixit and Sridevi by gay South Asian boys and men. Madhuri and Sridevi are important dance pedagogues in Hindi cinema and have established intimate and embodied relationships with their audiences. Many gay men interviewed for this project in both India and the South Asian diaspora cite these two women as dance inspiration, and the men explain how when they were young they mimicked these actresses. For some of these men, the effeminate gestures they drew from the Bollywood screen were met with praise, but for others they resulted in discipline. The essay imagines the efficacy of returning to these nostalgic film gestures in adulthood, especially in the eroticized space of the nightclub. Combining film and dance analysis, interview and ethnography, this study maps the gestural language transferred between screen and body and the affective and embodied politics of dancing like a diva.
DIVAS AND THE NIGHTCLUB
ON 25 FEBRUARY 2011 THE QUARTERLY QUEER BOLLYWOOD DANCE PARTY JAI HO! HELD AT a gay bar called Big Chicks in Chicago, was themed "Madonna vs. Madhuri." I dolled myself up as my drag persona LaWhore Vagistan and offered a tribute to screen legend Madhuri Dixit through a medley of her most popular numbers. Madhuri Dixit quickly rose to fame following her performance as Mohini in Tezaab (Acid) (N. Chandra, 1988), gaining immense popularity for her sweet and sassy dance to "Ek, Do, Teen" (One, two, three). Though she occupies a legendary status in the Indian pantheon, her career has fluctuated over the last thirty years.1 What has remained consistent is her reputation as a dancer, particularly evidenced by the reprisal of her Mohini role twenty-five years later for Yeh Jawani Hai Deewani (These youngsters are crazy) (Ayan Mukerji, 2013). If there was ever a Bollywood diva to pair against pop-icon Madonna for this gay event, Madhuri was the one; the alliterated name for the party was but icing on the campy cake.
The club was severely crowded. This party, unlike other quarterly Jai Ho! parties, drew both the Madonna followers and the Madhuri heads. As...