No I will not link you to it. If you go to see MNiK, you will get to see it. Else, its somewhere on Youtube.
There is a scene where Barbara Mori's character asks Hrithik's character for the Hindi translation of a particular sentence. In classic Indian-male-wearing-smartie pants style, the smug Hrithik gives the wrong translation to Barbara's character.
I know it seems frivolous and many of you may have done something similar with your female friends. Especially if you think if they dont know the gist of a particular topic. Age old example : when guys give out wrong information to girls in matters of technology ( to those girls, please utilize Google. It has answers to life's many many questions ok ? ). To me the very act of giving out wrong information to test a person, or to take sadistic pleasure in their confusion is disrespectful.
Basically, Indian directors think that foreign women are sluts, stupid or make bad mothers. And invariably, the Indian guy will come back to his 'sanskriti'. After acquiring the green card of course.
Example : a very regressive movie called Aa Ab Laut Chalen, in which Rajesh Khanna abandons his wife, marries a foreigner,buys bangla gaadi and then realises that she is wortheless. Meanwhile, his wife and son struggle to create an existence for themselves while he is enjoying the luxury life in US. But hello! An Indian woman's heart is soft and soppy.So white sari wearing Maushumi Chatterjee accepts him after two decades of abandonment.
Again, a way of keeping the woman in a state of confusion and disrespecting both the foreigner and the Indian by abandoning one or the other.
This bit about taking women for a ride and taking advantage of ignorance is a deep seated problem. The general problem with male class is that they test if the girl has the requisite knowledge and then go on to explain something seemingly complex. If you feel that the person in front of you will not get the relevance of the topic, make it simpler. Dont test it and then present the wrong information!
I can vouch for this because there have been times when I have silenced men on decidedly 'guy' topics. Dear men,it is a sad way to seem humorous and make a very bad first impression. Especially if that impression ends with ' Just Kidding Yaar!' (someday, a big rant on 'yaar' will be published. I can feel it.)
Which is why this scene of treating a foreigner in a stupid manner is not required. Even if it was included for comic relief, I dont see the joke in it. Its a common way, Indian directors treat Westerners in their movies. Some respondents have come up with ' They treated us badly before Independence' arguments!! Indian directors have a problem with African Americans too. That class is reserved for sleeping with leading ladies( Fashion) or for being very very obese and poor (MNiK and one obese lady who sings a line in Yuvraaj). The end result being that these stereotypes affect us on a subconscious level.
I dont have stats or research to prove this, but the classic effect of a foreign woman on an Indian male is that of 'use and throw'.All of them are not in a relationship for the long-term and divorces are normal. (Its a completely different story that Indian men are largely divorcable. That, a woman stays on for kids or society is subject for a another post.) It may well explain the reason why there are so many rape cases involving a Westerner!
Another problem is the way we make Western characters behave in our movies. We always have the European girl ( who,btw, is always a double D) being seduced by the Indian guy. The Westerner will never say no to a one night stand. Neither will the guy. His engaging in the act is also forgivable. Heck, even Kylie Minogue was reduced to a prop in a largely godforsaken Bhangra number!
The female Indian character, however, will wear the skimpiest outfits, but will be well aware of that mystical thing called 'sanskriti' (the definition of which is highly debatable)
To me its unclear if the issue is of age-old male chauvinism or of treatment of Western women. Its a blurry subset of the larger issue I guess, but needs to be tackled right away.
Update : This is an excellent post by a_traveller: Wild Wild West. Love the quote by a lady called Daniela.
28 comments:
While I agree with the larger tone of your article about stereotyping in Hindi movies and Indian men being divorce-able, you might be over-reacting a touch about the trailer.. given that you haven't watched the movie. It seems to me that she goes on and on in Spanish in a fervent temper knowing how he doesn't speak the language.. so maybe he was just being passive-aggressive.
Well said Vallath.
Why the blog author is getting so senti over such small segment of a movie trailor? Surely the stereotyping and MCP-ness is too prevalent in Indian society and hence in the movies too, but one has to be able to watch trailers and still not go so ballistic.
I think all cultures (Easters, Western, Indian, Chinese... Gujarati, Punjabi... and so on ad infinitum) takes pride in their own culture and looks down at other cultures in ways that ranges from comic-relief at its best and prejudice at its worst.
Having said that, I do share your frustration to an extent.
Is it a male bashing post? Definitely not.
Its an Indian directors mistreating foreigners post!
Of course there is the blurry line of male chauvinism there. But then male western characters are created in terrible ways too.So no one is being sidelined here.
Why attack the trailer? Because that part of the movie is shown in the trailer! Clearly that segment was chosen to be included. I would have done the post after seeing the movie, if it was otherwise.
Its the larger issue of repeated mistreatment of those that dont belong to our culture.eg: the treatment of the African American identity in MNiK.
I am surprised that Indians had much to say about poverty display in Slumdog and nothing about incorrect Western portrayals in our movies?
i think the stereotyping doesnt happen on purpose... it just happens because we see them that way... we see the foreigners as more open than us, therefore we portray them as what you refer to as "use and throw"
similarly, I believe indians and africans are always depicted stereotypically in western movies... indians dont sit outside taj mahal praying in their turbans... and africans dont sit in perenial hunger all the time and all of them are definitely not gun toting thieves...
its just what we perceive about the other culture... people(movie makers) just do it to suit theirselves...
so much just from a trailer...wow...
may be u r getting too much feministic...
please dont argue about white girls being used and thrown away, most of them just dont mind so why create a fuss about it...the message u trying to convey is clear and i agree to a part of it but getting it from a trailer is too much, keep it real girl.
Glad to see this post. This attitude towards white women (the commenter above) is despicable. I saw the trailer too and noticed the scene. I get your point. Well said!
@Rehab: I think what you're missing here is context. Maybe placed within the larger context of the movie it may not be as devious as you think.
@Anonymous#2: I love how you automatically assumed that Rehab is a girl just because the author "appeared" to defend women. And white women don't mind being used and thrown away, huh? I wonder if it has something to do with them not having "culture" and "bharatiya sanskriti". You're the perfect embodiment of the male chauvinism, Rehab wrote about. You know.. the very divorce-able Indian man.
@Iyer Studies--you seemed to have summed it up in the most balanced way possible! Thanks for the comment..
@Anonymous--"Getting so much from a trailer"? I AM analyzing the trailer! This has nothing to do with the movie. Neither does this mean the movie will be a hit/flop/racial. It isnt about being a feminist. If a male character would go through the same thing, I would comment on that too.
And you may want to rethink that 'use and throw' thought about foreign women!
@Vallath--I hope the movie proves me wrong. Plus key/funny/intense scenes are always included in the trailer. I really am curious to know its placement..
@Rehab - I am completely with you on the stereotyping of foreigners, especially women and African Americans. I, however, do not see what is wrong with Hrithik's prank in the movie. My wife and I belong to two different cultures from India. When she was trying to learn Gujarati, she always ended up saying funny things to my parents. When I would try to speak with her parents in Tullu, she had her share of fun. I think it is all in good humor
@Anonymous2 - Dude, you obviously have never come in touch with any white women ever!
@anonymous#2
You said, please dont argue about white girls being used and thrown away, most of them just dont mind
I don't think you've left a lot to personal interpretation or imagination. I don't need to know you personally to understand how you view the world through your myopic lenses.
You have no idea how much I have travelled around the world, where I have lived and how many white women I have met. So shut the fuck up!
Being in transit lounges at airports don't count as travelling. And meeting white women isn't necessarily knowing them as your line about white women clearly indicate.
@Vallath -- Good response. I have deleted that comment now.
@anonymous #2--
You have been given the privilege to be anonymous. Use it judiciously. There is no need to abuse other people who are providing reasonable arguments to your points. And please take your abuse towards individuals somewhere else. Especially since its unwarranted.
My only thought on seeing the trailer was that I am willing to bet a truckload of money on the fact that at some point towards the end of the movie, the girl will be shot or dying or some such thing, and will want to tell the guy she loves him, and she will use that line.
Guaranteed.
With reference to your point about stereotypes however, there was an excellent comment once raised by a Tehelka reader which may interest you:
http://dustyrain.blogspot.com/2009/03/wild-wild-west.html
(Sorry about the self-plug type link; I can't seem to find the original comment on their website)
@a_traveller-- I think you may have a really valid point there! :P All this commenting is getting all of us curious you know?
Have linked to that post right away! Better to hear it from a different perspective.
as a "white woman", can I share my perspective? first, on the trailer, I liked it, and hope for the best. the line in question (after a friend translated it into English for me) seemed funny and not offensive in the least. as far as white women being "easy" or not minding be used and thrown, i can assure you that white women come in just as many varieties as indian women or any other ethnicitiy or nationality - same with men by the way. there are good and bad everywhere. Much safer to judge people as individuals - based on their actions - and not as groups, based on perceptions. that said, i do think Westerners in general are shown in a very bad light in a lot of Bollywood productions i have seen. It seems the girls are always very plain, the people rude, and generally shown with very loose morals. it makes me sad that that seems to be the perception of many inside India of Westerners. I can assure you we're not all like that. Some of us even watch bollywood because we prefer not to be bombarded with violence, bad language and sex as shown in most hollywood productions nowadays.:) in this way i have learned a lot about india and am now even learning hindi. IMHO you have a beautiful culture!
this post seems like an over-reaction. at least w/ respect to the kites trailer
@Sneezy Melon-- Hello Troll. See this how your clan behaves. You check out the entire post. Check the profile. Then you systematically point mistakes in the post and profile and take the time out to post a comment.
In the end of it all, in classic hypocritical fashion you say 'Kudos, nice read'.
A troll's comment will never add to a discussion. It will always be peppered with sarcasm and needless blindness. I am criticizing the trailer. How difficult is that to understand? A trailer is different from a movie. A trailer is a snapshot of the movie. This post is unrelated to the movie. Get it?
And you know what? I have no place for comments that add no value. Hence your comment has been deleted.
going thru your posts.
it's surprising this, your silliest off the posts, of which i like quite a few, has got the max comments.
think staying topical is more important than content.
too many comments deleted here - any salon des refuses? :)
hahaha ok i see where you are getting at.. but as far as western stereotypes go, i am in spain right now (for 2 months) and to put it mildly, the films are not THAT biased. there is a semblance of truth in that particular portrayal. :P
but nice post :D
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