Ambushing the Indian Screen: Vernacularisation, Semiotic Tactics and Magical Realism.

This article critically examines the category of magic realism in Indian cinema through a comparative study of Kamal Swaroop's *Om Dar-B-Dar* (1988/2014) and Anamika Haksar's *Ghode Ko Jalebi Khilane Le Ja Riya Hu* (2018). It situates these films within global and Indian contexts of magic realism, highlighting their fusion of avant-garde, documentary, and digital aesthetics alongside vernacular linguistic strategies such as chutnification—a polyglot mixing of languages—as a decolonial and subversive device. Anchored in postcolonial theory and the concept of semiotic guerrilla warfare, the article traces magic realism’s circulation in India through literary, cinematic, and political histories, emphasizing how these films repurpose religious and political symbolism through obfuscation and playful irreverence. It also explores the films’ connections to Indian avant-garde traditions, particularly the prayoga cinema lineage, and the role of digital technology in shaping contemporary experimental filmmaking.