Artist’s note:
When I first heard Kill Bill on the new SZA album, my first thought was to make an edit that featured a strong female character on a revenge rampage against the backdrop of the song. I chose Rekha in Khoon Bhari Maang because it is probably the boldest depiction I’ve seen of female rage in a Bollywood movie. Although her revenge quest is more about seeking justice against an abusive homicidal man rather than the rage that stems from being a scorned lover, I thought the themes had enough similarities for them to fit well together. I chose an audio that opens with the dialogue from “Kill Bill” to set the tone for the edit. I also wanted to include the movie’s title card because it is especially powerful to depict visuals of blood, anger, revenge, and release.
Do you think of yourself as a fan or a critic?
I think it’s definitely a combination of both because I grew up on the internet and a lot of my media consumption, be it films, TV shows, music or books, has been intrinsically linked to fan culture. I started making video edits as a fan and eventually started analyzing concepts and themes and engaging with them on a deeper level as a critic would. I also believe that fans are critics, in a way. They may not have the formal stature the way professional critics do but they still have a significant voice in shaping future trends and the interpretations of a piece of media. Succession becoming really popular amongst queer audiences is a good example of that.
Editors’ notes:
Anushka Bidani: What intrigued you the most about this fancam?
Paridhi Puri: The imagination blew me away. As you know, I’m a sucker for intertextuality or, what those of us who’ve been on Tumblr long enough know as ‘web weaving’ — finding parallels across media created in different times and different people, but which still hold a kind of spiritual connection to each other. Using SZA’s “Kill Bill” against the backdrop of the cult classic Khoon Bhari Maang — a movie where Rekha’s character has a metaphorical and figurative rebirth to seek justice for the abuse the man she trusted put her through; it truly imbibes the cross-generational appeal of why fancams are such an interesting medium.
AB: Right, exactly! Bringing together Khoon Bhari Maang with “Kill Bill” absolutely blew my mind too. I never thought of it in conjunction before, but now it seems just so obvious in the best of ways.
I was also really taken by the collapsing of “Kill Bill” with Rekha herself. That iconic visage, contorted in grief and rage, against the background score of “Kill Bill” inevitably made me think of Rekha’s own life story, and the rumours that surround her and Amitabh Bachchan’s affair. My reading of the fancam then also became coloured by all this paratext.
PP: Rekha is a very important cultural figure for a lot of people our age, not only for her exceptional career and long list of iconic roles but also how she was castigated by the media and popular culture for years, after-effects of which still continue. Do you think, like I do, that the fancam embodies that dual elements really well?
AB: Oh, 100%. I think both formally and thematically, the fancam manages to do a great job of weaving Rekha’s glamorous star-image with her notorious reputation. Just look at the way the fancam opens: the bleeding in of the red into the originally blue monochrome image of Rekha….Reading that alongside the title of the film—”Khoon Bhari Maang”—would also yield some interesting results, I feel. What does it even mean to have a maang filled with blood? Read alternatively, what does it mean to make a maang i.e., “demand” for blood?
PP: That’s such an interesting pun, I never noticed that! There’s also, of course, the element of karmic justice of her abuser dying the same way he had meant to kill her.
The editing of the fancam is also so spectacular. I read a tweet recently that said that fancams drive so much marketing for a film — a good edit can instantly make you want to watch a show or a film, that’s so interesting for me!
AB: Yes! Marriage and death coming together in the most grotesque—or, perhaps, realism rendered tangible—way.
Fancams are a really interesting form, yes: the numerous ways in which the same film can be interpreted and then lensed through these edits is so fascinating.
Mihikaa is an independent multi-media artist from Delhi, India. She loves to experiment with both digital and physical mediums and has a special interest in creative direction and creating visualisers for music. She is heavily inspired by themes of nature, youth, female rage, and femininity and tries to explore them through her work. You can find her on @mikromoon on Instagram and @mikromoons on Twitter!