The Use of Semiotic Codes in Film Aina 1977: A Feminist Perspective for Multimodal Film Analysis

Abstract

Film Aina is a meticulously crafted master piece, which enjoyed tremendous success in the box office. The study views film Aina from a feminist lens. Ten semiotic codes are identified in the filmic texts and images which converge on the theme of female objectification. Female’s struggle and misery is artfully represented in this film. The researchers found significant data in the form of codes including; linguistic verbal, paralinguistic, literary and theatrical, non-verbal audio, music, verbal graphic, graphic non-verbal, dress and makeover, kinetic and proxemic, camera function, and editing. These codes and their sub categories reveal how well structured the film is from semiotic and linguistic perspective. The theoretical perspective of this study is adapted from Gambier (2013). Data collected in the form of words and images, were analyzed through application of multimodal film analysis by John A. Bateman and Karl-Heinrich Schmidt (2012). The semiotic themes are further narrowed down through the binding thread of female objectification Theory by Papadaki (2010). The study finds the rich text of film Aina to be full of semiotic signs. The film is well crafted and integrated, and it communicates with all the verbal and semiotic resources.