Vol. 4, Issue 12, Part C (2018)

Abstract
Any discussion on the status of women necessitates the perusal of its representations either in literature or in cinema. This paper focuses on cinema - a powerful medium which animates thoughts and emotions. The films that we have chosen to study the issues of women are ‘Ghatashraddha’ by Girish Kasaravalli and ‘Phaniyamma’ by Prema Karanth. Both the directors are from Karnataka and their movies mentioned above deal with widowhood which had caught the attention of many writers and directors during the seventies. These two films are based on the story and the novel written by U.R. Ananthmurthy and M.K. Indira respectively. Now, the reason for choosing these two movies is not just the theme but also the treatment of it by a male director and a female director. Even though both the films remain quite faithful to their original written versions our is more on the transmutations that the cinematic idiom necessitates and not on the literary works.