Negotiating Morality And Desire: Feminist Re-Readings Of Jayanti In Yaddanapudi Sulochana Rani’s Secretary And Its Cinematic Adaptation

Abstract

This article investigates Secretary—the acclaimed Telugu novel by Yaddanapudi Sulochana Rani—and its 1976 film adaptation by K. S. Prakash Rao, analyzing the way the transition from the page to the screen shifts how the female protagonist is represented and the feminist ethics of the original text. Utilizing Laura Mulvey's male gaze, Elaine Showalter's gynocriticism, and Linda Hutcheon's adaptation theory, the analysis concludes that while Yaddanapudi's Jayanti represents moral virtue and professional independence, Prakash Rao's Jayanti becomes a sentimentalized object of patriarchy that collapses agency within patriarchal visual regimes. By comparing textual evidence in Telugu and filmic representations, this article exposes systematized ways to temper feminist voices in commercial cinema while also exploring larger issues related to author respect, gendered authorship, and adaptation ethics.