Another take on the latest flick
Try as you might, you can never escape the enigma of the East. When Columbus wanted to know more about the land of spices, he set sail for India. When Huen Tsang wanted to comprehend the cultural variety of India, he started on foot. These days, when someone in the west wants to know more about India, he buys a film. And if he visits a video store with this in mind, chances are he will be lent a copy of Slumdog Millionaire, the West’s latest attempt at portraying life in metropolitan Mumbai.
While the rest of the world is acclaiming the movie-makers’ taste for mixing reel-life with real-life, and Indians are gung-ho about getting international attention, one wonders whether all this hype really will translate into some tangible increase in awareness of India’s position vis-á-vis the world today.
Mis-understanding of Reality
In the past too, people alien to Indian thought and culture have attempted to make films on Indian political leaders and Indian society. But when you watch these films, you can feel the inability of the film-makers in sensing and conveying the unique values and cultural nuances of the delicate social balance that is called India. It ends up as much Indian as can be a Tandoori Pizza. The result? You get a film about India but totally non-Indian.
Such an abundance of languages, dialects, cultures co-existing and even lending their shades to the overall social fabric of the nation is singularly possible only in India. Ask any Indian and he will tell you about how he grew up absorbing impressions from people of diverse cultures in the course of his growing up. Even in the post-riot scenario, it is not uncommon to witness Indians from varied social settings celebrating festivals together. People here talk in a particular way, eat in a particular way, walk in a particular way. And there’s always a story to all of this.
How then can someone having not experienced any of this, understand and get the idea across to distant and unexposed audiences around the world? Moreover, for such audiences, these films are probably the only opportunities to get to understand the faraway land of spirituality. Film-makers would do well to realize the immense responsibility on their shoulders in portraying cultures from across the world.
Mis-portrayal of Reality
When we speak about Mumbai, the first picture that comes to our mind is that of a sprawling metropolis graciously accepting each and everyone who seeks shelter. Thousands come here everyday and try their luck at earning their living here. In this quest, many have to forego their choice of living conditions. It is only natural that slums exist in such a city. For that matter, all major world cities viz. New York, San Francisco, London etc. are home to slums and the resultant exploitation. One may call these areas by fancy names like a Ghetto, Skid Row, a run-down neighbourhood etc. but this doesn’t make the reality any better than it is already.
Showing juvenile exploitation may only result in raised eyebrows around the world, instead of raised concerns and awareness of the factors that lead to such frightful situations. Depictions of illiterate, penniless orphans escaping the filth and squalor by making it big overnight certainly do not have positive inspirational effects on those who watch it. One, this doesn’t happen to everyone. Two, this doesn’t happen everyday. Three, this is a fairy-tale being glamorized as a showcase of reality.
Mis-representation of Reality
The West has always been the seat of materialism and the East has historically been the seat of spirituality. When one sees the world through a colored lens, it appears colored. Similarly, when the money-minded West attempts to visualize India, it cannot but see India only in that light. No wonder then that poverty, illiteracy, exploitation, so much characteristic of any city are highlighted more than anything else. On the other hand, any movie presenting life in the West is set in a stereotyped western city with all its fabulous facilities and easy luxuries. The West has an innate obsession at presenting the East as a wasteland trying to limp to sophisticatio unsuccessfully. Limiting truth by superficial renditions has never given anybody the real picture. The West has its sad stories and the East has its bright. Both somehow fail to make it to the silver screen.
Correct Vision
Using Srila Prabhupada’s concept of “the lame man leading the blind man,” one could use the strengths of both parts of the world the West and the East for benefiting both, while taking into account their limitations. This approach of coming together is to combine strengths by pooling resources in a positive way. Instead of making films predisposed towards certain beliefs and propagating it to audiences unfamiliar to the cultures and winning awards, the filmmakers could, to start with, make films to highlight the uniqueness of the East, and India in particular, with regards to cultural broad-mindedness. What is it about the poor East that equips it with social suppleness and lends it ability to adapt to changing economic and social situations while the West with all its splendor and grandeur grapples with questions of widespread discontentment and increasing social inequality? Is the East’s vast treasure house of spiritual knowledge and practice acting as a backbone, lending it support? Is the value assimilation inherent in any spiritually-oriented culture the cause for social flexibility in the East? Probably, a film investigating this could contend to represent truth about India in an honest way.
So Yes, the westerner’s version of India has changed from being a land of snake-charmers. But it still has a long way to go. And the problem is there is still confusion about which way to go.
Nanda Dulala Dasa has a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering. He is a part of the editorial team of Indian English and Marathi BTG. He stays at ISKCON Mumbai where he teaches Krsna consciousness to college students