Jai Santoshi Maa Revisited:

Abstract

Cecil B. DeMille’s cynical adage, “God is box office,” may be applied to Indian popular cinema, the output of the world’s largest film industry, albeit with certain adjustments—one must pluralize and sometimes feminize the subject of the adage. The film genre known as “mythological” was present at the creation of the Indian feature film and has remained a hardy perennial of its vast output, yet it constitutes one of the least-studied aspects of this comparatively understudied cinema, cursorily dismissed (or more often ignored) by scholars and critics.² Yet DeMille’s words also belie the fact that most mythologicals—like most commercial films of any genre— flop at the box office. The comparatively few that have enjoyed remarkable and sustained acclaim hence merit study both as religious expressions and as successful examples of popular art and entertainment.

Audiences were showering coins, flower petals and rice at the screen in appreciation of the film. They entered the cinema barefoot and set up a small temple outside.… In Bandra, where mythological films aren’t shown, it ran for fifty weeks. It was a miracle.

—Anita Guha (actress who played the goddess Santoshi Ma) ¹

I am grateful to Madhu Kishwar and Brent Plate, both of whom encouraged me to turn my longstanding interest in Jai Santoshi Maa into an essay. A longer version of this essay (including additional discussion of the history of Indian “mythological” films and their neglect by scholars) appeared in the journal Manushi 131 (2002), as a two-part article entitled “A Superhit Goddess” and “A ‘Made to Satisfaction’ Goddess” (10–16, 24–37). I also thank my colleague in cinema studies, Corey Creekmur, for his useful comments on an earlier draft.