SIS Undergraduate Researches Monsoons in Hindi Films
Monsoons—the seasonal, directional change of the wind—cause wet and dry seasons throughout the tropics and serve as an essential source of rainfall in several regions. In Southeast Asia and India in particular, the summer monsoon is associated with heavy rain that fills the wells and aquifers farmers and agricultural workers rely on for an entire year, .
Monsoons also hold a prominent role in many Hindi films—a topic recently researched by Devon Mullins, SIS/BA ’24. As part of their undergraduate research classes at SIS, Mullins decided to analyze the prevalence and portrayal of monsoons in Hindi films over several decades.
Mullins recently presented their research, entitled The Romance and Destruction of Monsoons: An Analysis of Monsoon Portrayal Over Time in Hindi Films, at the National Conference on Undergraduate Research in Long Beach, California. The annual conference showcases and celebrates undergraduate scholarship from higher education institutions across the United States.
We sat down with Mullins to learn more about what inspired their monsoon research, their research methodology, and how SIS prepared them to present at NCUR.
Monsoons and Movies
Mullins interest in Hindi films started in high school when their AP World History teacher showed the class , an Academy Award nominated movie released in 2001. The film, which takes place during the 1800s when India was under British colonial rule, follows the story of a village that is being crushed by high taxes and experiencing a three-year drought. To oppose the high taxes, the villagers challenge the British to a cricket match under high-stakes terms: if the villagers win the match, they will not be taxed for three years; if the British win the match, the villagers will be taxed triple the current amount. In the end, the villagers win the match, and the monsoon rains come.
The movie left a lasting impression on Mullins—so much so that they would return to the film again when contemplating a topic for their undergraduate research classes, SISU-206 and SISU-306.
“I tried several topics in [SISU-206] that were just not working,” Mullins explained. “I was trying to do something with monsoons, like weather patterns and agriculture, but it was too scientific for my knowledge base. And then I remembered that movie, and I thought, ‘maybe I should see if there are really monsoons in all Indian films and, if so, what does it mean?’.”
Research Methods
Mullins began their research by watching 18 Hindi films and taking detailed notes on monsoon portrayals for their undergraduate research classes. They later built on that research in preparation for the National Conference for Undergraduate Research (NCUR) by expanding their analysis to 27 Hindi films.
Mullins examined three films per decade from the 1930s through the 2010s. The films they chose were either the highest grossing films of the decade, films with the longest lasting cultural impact, or films that were heavily researched in the academic field. Through their analysis, Mullins found that before India gained its independence from Britain in 1947, there was “very little representation of Indian culture” in Hindi films and no appearance of monsoons. But after 1947, Mullins explained that India entered the “age of golden cinema in Hindi film.”
“There’s a monsoon in almost every film for this era,” Mullins said. “Monsoons are featured heavily as an indication of a new beginning, and this continues for decades.”
Mullins discovered that the presence of a monsoon in a Hindi film can signal that “something is shifting deeply in a character’s life,” whether that be romantic interest, their social standing, or their ability to live happily.
“What I found, essentially, is that the way the ‘new beginning’ is presented or the type of new beginning that the character is getting changes based off of what's happening in India at the time,” Mullins explained. “So, in the 1950s, the monsoon was very tied to India as independent and India as suffering and struggling against colonial oppressors.”
Mullins’ analysis found the prevalence of monsoons and their meaning changed through the decades. In the 1960s and 1970s, monsoons appeared less frequently in the films they analyzed, but in the 1990s, after India globalized its economy, rain and monsoons made a comeback with the rise of the rom-com genre in Hindi film.
“India was largely isolationist after it gained its independence, but when they had to take out a loan from the IMF and World Bank in 1991, the country was required to open up economically and culturally, and this had a huge impact on basically everything in India, especially Hindi film,” Mullins explained. “This is where you see the rise of this rom-com genre and the ‘new beginnings’ starts being romance almost exclusively. There aren't as many monsoons, but instead, it's rain as an indicator of romance and rain as an indicator of sexuality.”
Presenting at NCUR
In preparation for NCUR, Mullins worked with SIS professor Robert Adcock as their faculty mentor. Mullins said Adcock was “instrumental” in helping them translate research into a publishable paper and get them prepared to present at NCUR.
“[Professor Adcock] was absolutely amazing and just constantly came up with different points and really intriguing questions,” Mullins said.
When it came time to present at NCUR, Mullins flew to Long Beach, California, where they presented in the final slot of the last day of the conference. Mullins said they enjoyed speaking with others in attendance about their research and found that there was a lot of “intrigue” surrounding their topic.
“People were really exci
ted whenever they found out that I was looking at film as a discipline because I think within academia there's this tendency to think that whenever you're doing something, especially in international studies research, it has to be policy-focused, it has to be conflict-focused, or it has to be like full of struggle and strife and really, really difficult topics,” Mullins said. “So, it felt really nice to come in with a perspective of like, ‘look at this amazing form of media that we should all watch and respect more and think more about’.”
Mullins’ undergraduate experience at SIS not only taught them how to best conduct research by instilling the importance of methodology and sources, but it also helped them to discover their own professional passion within the field of international studies.
“After my first year [at SIS], I was a little bit nervous because I realized that foreign policy and diplomacy and global development were not the areas that I wanted to be in, and I wasn't quite sure what to do about that at first,” Mullins said. “I ended up taking Identity Race, Gender, and Culture with [SIS Undergraduate Dean] Rose Shinko in the fall of my sophomore year, and I took Environmental Sustainability and Global Health with [SIS professor] Malini Ranganathan, and I think those two classes in particular really pushed me to be like, ‘Oh, international studies can be so much more than communication between governments; it's about every single person in every single community and all of the things that bring us together as an entire species’.”
In the future, Mullins hopes to work in sustainable food and agriculture after drawing inspiration from classes taught by SIS professors Raganathan and Garrett Graddy-Lovelace.
“I can't imagine being at a place that has those kinds of resources that isn't AU,” Mullins said. “I can’t imagine anywhere else that would have professors who also specialized in these things and were so ready to communicate with me and provide resources and share their wealth of knowledge. I'm so grateful that this is the school that I ended up at.”