The Indian animation industry borrows heavily from the corpus of mythology and animated content, especially in India, is stereotypically seen as children's content and mythology majorly blankets the Indian childhood.

_Dashavatar_, a 2008 animated film is an adaptation of the mythic tales of the ten ¬avatāras (incarnations) of Lord Viṣṇu. The film employs elements like time travel, comical interjections by characters, engaging soundtrack, and songs that complement the respective episodes. One such song that should be analyzed is _O Mohini O Kamini_, describing the mesmerizing charm of Mohini. Such charm does not seem too strange in mythic reality but does it really translate to the reality of the world then and now?

Before the song commences, the animated Mohini comes across as desire personified. She is introduced mystically from behind a foggy blank with a mellow, ad-lib female vocal track backing the visuals. The successive shot films her steps with the focus on her fair, slender legs. Her gait is further traced with the focus on her waist that roughly occupies one-third of the screen. Her waist acts as the divider in the screen space with each side showing some asuras ogling her. Then, a close-up of her eyes is captured and the frame moves vertically downwards to take a close-up of her gesturing lips with a mole on the top right corner. This sequence of shots used for introducing Mohini reminds one of the ways in which the Bollywood “item song” dancers are introduced. Such introduction is also indicative of clear objectification, in both the cases which shall further become prominent by observing the way in which language has been used when the asuras and the devas address Mohini in the film and in the song.

Mohini walked to the asuras and took away the pot of amṛta from them and promised to distribute the amṛta among the devas and the asuras equally. The asuras who were keen not to give the amṛta to the devas neither objected nor attempted to take the pot back: her charisma had already clouded their judgement. In turn, one of the asuras appreciated her beauty while another said, _“Iski hasi toh hume maar daalegi”_ (her smile will kill us) and another asura added, _“Arey amṛta bhee nahin bancha paayega”_ (even the amṛta will not be able to save us). The Hindi word _“iski”_ (feminine) is used to denote ‘her’ in common parlance but the word carries a reductionist connotation. An addresser generally uses this word to refer to the addressee when the former treats the latter as an inferior. Coincidentally, the asura had predicted the fate of his tribe and described appropriately the relationship between fatality and a femme fatale. Despite Mohini belonging to the godly order, she was treated ignobly as she came across as a soother of senses. This is the same approach with which Bollywood “item numbers” are composed.

The aesthetic use of language in the song could also be examined to substantiate the previous point. Certain words in the song have been used to describe Mohini’s physical attributes whose visual representation points to objectification. One such word used to describe her is _kāminī_ (feminine) which means a gesticulating, lustful woman. From her ways, it is presumed that she is lustful and willing to reciprocate. Another word, _gajagāminī_ (feminine) is used to equalize Mohini’s gait with the majestic gait of an elephant. It has been visually represented by focussing on her waist turns to which the swinging rhythm has been stitched. Furthermore, the devas, in her praise, commented, _“Sooraj si tu chamke hai”_ (you shine like the sun). However, the condescending Hindi connotation gets lost in translation. The Hindi original conveys that she shines as lustrous articles do.

The difference in usage of language in conversation and in the song can be evaluated further. In the introductory dialogues, the asuras address her as ‘tum’ but, in the song, she is addressed to as _‘tu’_. In English, both these pronouns translate to ‘you’. However, in Hindi, _‘tum’_ is used to address someone with a degree of respect while _‘tu’_ is the informal variant of the same. Song, which is considered an expression of the stimulated mind, in this case, uses an informal vocabulary that reduces the godliness associated with Mohini and makes her more pursuable.

The musical arrangement of the song could be closely studied next. The song starts with a drum roll followed by a swung blues scalic progression to whose main beats the rhythm of Mohini’s waist’s turns are matched. With this pendulous rhythm, the asuras sway and dance. The voice that represents the asuras in the song is that of Kunal Ganjawalla. While he sings, he tastes every word that was intentionally done as it conveyed the asuras’ desire. Contrastingly, the devas were voiced by Rattan Mohan Sharma with an Indian traditional backing track that included instruments like the tabla and the harmonium. In the three-minute composition, the female voice was used to articulate a pleasurable groan from Mohini’s side that lasted for a few seconds.

This dichotomy to depict the two worlds can be further translated in terms of the colour code used. The devas who represent good have been placed against a traditional Indian light with fair complexion and white attire whereas the asuras who represent evil have been shown in the western light and darker shades. To a pair of Indian ears, the musical arrangement employed when the devas sing would be more familiar (and acceptable) than that employed when the asuras sing; and to a pair of eyes, the fair complexion of the devas ¬is preferable over the darker complexion of the asuras. So, the colour code and musical arrangement used to portray the devas are at an advantage when weighed against those used to portray the asuras (and of course, fair brides and grooms are always in demand). It should be noted that western culture and music are still seen with a tinge of contempt in the conservative sects of the Indian society that is evident in the fashion and cosmetics employed to sketch Mohini.

Mohini is fair, has (untied) orange hair who wears a pink blouse and saree worn like a knee-length skirt. Along with her, two other female figures appear (one of them being a child). The other female figure, the apsara, wears white, possibly because she is godlier (and not an enchantress) and has tied orange hair, probably because of her relatively sober disposition. Mohini’s attire is accepted by both the devas or the asuras; but Indian women still must deal with several glares in case they dye their hair or wear knee-length dresses that reveal less than the more acceptable Indian saree for these practices are held western in spirit and remain largely alien to the Indian sense.

The various symbolic elements in the song could be variously interpreted too. The asuras, who literally denote the opponent party of the devas connote evil and can be interpreted in different ways: they could represent the section of the society whose voices remain unheard; they could represent the commoners who are prone to being deceived and manipulated by those in power. The evils in human beings could be interpreted as those traits that lead to doom – greed, jealousy, hatred, prejudice, etc. Evils in today’s world lie in terrorism, racism, and in other such differentiating markers. Mohini might be interpreted as any such distracting factor capable of driving one away from the logical path. Mohini also represents the systemic oppression faced by women but the song seems to have matched the horizon of expectations of the adult audience (as evident from the YouTube comments) and the hypocrisy of the Indian mind also can be reflected via the same.

The Indian sense still considers professional enchantresses – the sex workers – inferiors and no Indian household would ever want their daughter to pursue the same as a career but Mohini’s portrayal in the film seems to have won the hearts of the audience. The repeated reference to Bollywood, in this case, is important because Bollywood too has shown the item dancers in a problematic light – as a set of women who can be objectified and held responsible for doom and it is even more interesting to look at how the archetypal figure of a femme fatale became a widely used means of crisis resolution in literature and media. Does such a portrayal of Mohini and all other femme fatales not throw a romantic light on the oppression that the women have historically internalised? Moreover, a child who watches this film would most certainly enjoy it but also be subjected to a number of chromatic, linguistic and fashion binaries that could extend to the development of racial and gender prejudices, and cause them to be blind towards women’s voicelessness and their portrayal as the cause of logical lapse. This is also a sad reality for animation as a medium of expression only emerges as the cartoon version of Bollywood.

The study of O Mohini O Kamini appropriately demonstrates that myth can be interpreted in terms of today’s reality. Although myths do not rely on historical evidence, they are representatives of social reality and continue to remain relevant.