Visual pleasure and the gaze with reference to Asoka Hadagama's 'Alborada' film

Abstract

Background: Alborada is based on an incident in Pablo Neruda's life in colonial Ceylon. In his memoir, he has described how he forced himself on a woman who cleaned his latrine. The film draws on this incident and other biographical accounts of Neruda's life. This study examined the visual pleasures and the gender dynamics of Ashoka Handagama's film 'Alborada' (2021) and to analyze the sexual objectification of women in Ashoka Hadagam's film, examining closely how the cinematic narrative constructs fantasies about women. Method: This case study of the "film gaze" employed qualitative research techniques, and thematic and visual analysis (Analytical) was used for data analysis. This approach contributed to the broader understanding of how films reflect and shape our subjective experiences. The text was subjected to careful thematic and visual analysis, and the findings of this paper are that Alborada stages a persecutory gaze that is a signature of Handagama's cinema. Conclusion: This study concluded that sexual and sexualized fantasies about women displace the real inequalities that shape the realities of the characters in the film, and that the persecutory gaze was directed at the two women, Josie and the unnamed woman from a lower caste, where were subjected to punishment and violence by Neruda. The study also explored the politics of the gaze within the film in the larger context of Handagama's oeuvre.