To feel the wind run across your cheeks, shout out your joys to the world and wail out your woes to the heart’s content, these are the little joys of freedom that we keep seeking. But any individual’s right to these freedoms remain hidden away, under many layers of social, political and other reasons. Madhumanti, through her article on Highway, creates an enigmatic realm of words, and takes us on a journey towards freedom, reveals the costs and rewards of achieving this freedom and in the process remind us for a final time in this series that Bollywood speaks to us of life itself through its screens. The curtains fall with the story of victory and the celebration of life and freedom through Bollywood.
Highway: A Rendezvous with Life
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The bride, in the darkness of the night, stealthily unlocks the gate and goes for a drive with her fiancé`. Despite the beau’s reluctance, Veera the heroine insists him on taking the highway and they halt at an empty gas station. And here, the doom falls. A gang of dacoits kidnaps Veera and takes her away. Later, the dacoits are divided into opinions when they come to know that Veera is a daughter of the influential business tycoon Manik Tripathi. Without paying any heed to the imminent danger, Mahabir, the rough-rustic-ruffian sets out for hiding along with Veera. She was a ‘token’, a ‘sauda’ when the journey starts. She becomes the solace, probably a reflection of that ‘mother-figure’, he misses each moment, at the end of his journey- physical as well as personal. Veera represents that class which Mahabir abhors and he is bent on selling her at some ‘kotha’. But she becomes a classless face of humanity on whose arms he breaths his last. Thus the class-gender politics is interwoven in this movie and it shapes the emotional landscape of the characters as …show more content…
For Veera, the vast stretches of sand and the all encompassing sky are the most secure places on earth. She can do whatever she wants to do and Mahabir is there for her. She climbs up the tree; gets her hair washed in the road side tap, her toes touch the corn saplings. It was once-in-a-lifetime-experience for her, as, she always feels claustrophobic in the showy world of glitz, glamour and affluence. She gets her wish fulfilled having a house on the top of the mountain which she always dreamt to have. She cooks food, sweeps the floor, serves the food and probably had a peaceful sleep in the strong arms of Mahabir. The huge physical landscape, that depicts the Indian geography in its whites and blacks, comprising dark alleys to long and wide highways, is not only a journey from place to place, but a heart to another heart, a mind to another mind. It is a to-and-fro journey within and without; the ‘inside’ becomes the ‘outside’; the ‘outside’ heals the ‘inside’; In Veera’s
Throughout the world when many people think of India the first thing that comes to mind is Bollywood. Bollywood has created a major mark in India and around the world. In 2011 CNBS reported Indian cinema as being $2.2 billion industry which creates 1,200 movies yearly, provides over 1.8 million people with jobs, and has more than 14 million theater viewers daily (Jetley). People who have had little to no expose with Bollywood films may wonder what makes Bollywood films stand out in the global market, and the answer is easily the presence of songs and dances in the films. Song and dance is a creative form of art and has been embedded in Bollywood cinema since the 1930s (Marcoux, and College). Every popular Bollywood film has at least 3 songs and dances sequences , and these sequences allow the characters to freely express their emotions in what is seen to be a “dream sequence” (Marcoux, and College). In Indian films women are represented as the object of men’s desires, and are often seen and not heard. Song and dance in Bollywood cinema allows women to express their sexual desires in a non-disruptive way, specifically I argue that this is attained through women who are rendered as respectable.
Kothari employs a mixture of narrative and description in her work to garner the reader’s emotional investment. The essay is presented in seventeen vignettes of differing lengths, a unique presentation that makes the reader feel like they are reading directly from Kothari’s journal. The writer places emphasis on both her description of food and resulting reaction as she describes her experiences visiting India with her parents: “Someone hands me a plate of aloo tikki, fried potato patties filled with mashed channa dal and served with a sweet and a sour chutney. The channa, mixed with hot chilies and spices, burns my tongue and throat” (Kothari). She also uses precise descriptions of herself: “I have inherited brown eyes, black hair, a long nose with a crooked bridge, and soft teeth
The film’s theme is about the societal imbalance between Males and females in Pakistan. The superiority of the males in the society of Pakistan is very apparent and the film shows the horror of what comes with such a male-dominated culture
It is leading us on a voyage where motifs are intertwined with each theme in the clip, it opens our eyes to the comparable dramas we can also face. Although there is hardly a lightness tinged upon the storyline when haunting family secrets, flowering romances and culture clashes are un-vieled. Monsoon Wedding is focused around the preparations for a pending marriage arrangement of the youngest daughter in the Verma's family, Aditi. Throughout this particular foreign film though there was but a feast of exploitation that strives to a hitting truth, this appeared not only through the usage of symbolism but clashing cultural differences and the religions that are challenged through all societies. The 'other' are not so dissimilar to us.
One of Meena’s six older sisters, Harj, had run away after being attacked by a group of boys and this is once again another loss that she and her family must cope with. Such misfortunes having happened to the family cause Meena’s mother to be all the more cautious about their image in the judgemental Punjabi community that they are immersed in. Being a widow and birthing all girls, one of which has run away, is viewed as shameful, demeaning the family’s reputation, and threatening the potential for good Punjabi marriages for Meena and her sisters. Unlike in the West, traditionally arranged marriages are the norm in Indian culture and hence, Meena’s mother does everything in her power to ensure that Meena presents herself in a dignified
The film depicts the mesmerizing life of Ravi Patel, a middle-aged Indian man, who sets out to discover a long lasting relationship with a woman of Indian descent, particularly one with the commonly stereotyped last name “Patel”, as per his parent’s instructions. Throughout the course of the film, the audience is directed through the journey of Ravi and his sister Geeta, alongside his parents, Champa and Vasant, with a series of montages and voice-over narrations that illustrate unique Indian customs that play a vital role in the causation of the complex relationship between Ravi and his former girlfriend, Audrey. Audrey, a female of white descent is discreetly involved in a relationship with Ravi, something his parents hesitate to acknowledge. As Ravi’s parents solely approve and accept the marriage of their son with a woman of Indian origin, he is conflicted throughout his journey of discovery and is unwilling to inform his parents regarding his prior relationship with a white
She continues: “It was a deadly cycle. Dia had to understand that in her own small but tenacious way she could break it” (410). The irony of her efforts lies in the fact that Dia’s later efforts to resist fatalism in love and choose her own partner, destine her to tragedy because of others’ actions in the past, just as the citizens of Pakistan are hampered by the former actions of political leaders, both foreign and domestic, leaving few avenues, despite acts of resistance, to navigate a “happy ending.” Thus, Khan weaves the plots of mother and daughter together in her own fatalistic fashion, situating the novel within the context of a culture rooted in oppressions of gender and class, strictly governed by convention and expectation, and subject to the caprice of more powerful states, to parallel one of the warning signs she describes in the novel: “Trespassers Will Be Prosecuted.” (Trespassing
One statement in the beginning of the book was especially poignant to any one who studies Indian culture, It is easy for us to feel a vicarious rage, a misery on behalf of these people, but Indians, dead and alive would only receive such feelings with pity or contempt; it is too easy to feel sympathy for a people who culture was wrecked..
Whereas the relationship between Maha and Harb is one of passion and love, Ihsan and Nadia are the complete opposite. Nadia hates how Ihsan looks at her as a woman always and never a person. She struggles to prove her capability of being an individual and forming an identity of her own that is separate and goes beyond Mrs. Natour. She proves that she can ‘think and feel’ for herself and by herself. In the West where we have women out on the streets rallying for equality between men and women, fighting in the armies, present in the workforce, these victories may seem minute. However if one pays close attention to social structures and social norms in different cultures one can realize that this challenging and questioning is as important and holds as much weight as getting equal wages for women in America.
After that, they have been told by the milkman about their neighbor’s daughter’s wedding. The narrator’s family evaluated their neighbor’s daughter weeding as an ordinary festival celebration because they didn’t realize any kind of wedding traditions like fanfare or uproar or feasting (138). The narrator’s family watched the bride wearing a Sari and carrying a coconut. The girl didn’t show any sort of empresses Even though her mother kissed her warmly and her father patted her head (139). In addition, the girl couldn’t release any tears. The narrator’s mother surprised for the girl’s failure to cry and she said “the girl had become hardened by her education and had no real love or attachment for her mother and father” (139). Also, the narrator’s father has wondered and said “The old days are passing and men’s heart have become machines” (139). All members of the narrator’s family have been shocked because they couldn’t realize any felling from the parents to their daughter’s absence
People clinging to the sides of a train is a common sight in both Pakistan and India, and as one could imagine, they are clinging for their lives, for if they let go, they will fall off the train and quite likely be killed. She compares her desire to hold on to the henna, which represents the Indian aspect of her identity, and the Indian identity she discovered in the bazaar, to holding on desperately for your life on a fast train. This illustrates to the reader how desperately she wants to keep this experience and her newfound identity. Moniza Alvi employs a wide variety of techniques, from end-stopped lines and formatting in structure, to rhyme, tone, and even imagery and language to attempt to explore the vast concept of identity. She successfully manages to explore the concept of identity, and conveys to the reader the meaningful message that discovering your true identity is dearly valued and highly significant.
In this exquisite artwork named, “The Turning Road”, by Andre Derain, there are many elements of art shows many different type of lines, shape, texture, space, light, and color. This artwork has an automatic drawing that looks random and adventurous. I can see that the two-dimensional of the tree trunk and branches which have the outline of a cylinder and rectangle. There are vertical, horizontal, diagonal lines used to emphasize in this drawing like, the curvy tree trunk and the diagonal branches that stick out of the tree. Also the thin short lines are displayed behind the big thick tree trunk to avoid attention and let us in-version that there are many more enormous tree nearby. The lines were used in the picture to create a tonal variation and simulate texture. “The curving road, the tree trunks and branches, and the choreographed forms of villager all sway to an integrated rhythm”, that focus our attention of how the artist utilized lines to create a freeform way which add excitement to the design. He also applied different colors to shimmer in flat shapes in order to make the landscape come more alive and the expressive feeling of the villagers. The shapes of the house and road have a smooth and rounded angle that appears to be distorted. I don’t see any three-dimensional form that was use in this painting, however, the artist tend to portray a different angles that allow the viewer to see certain things like the trees and curved road to stand out and grab the viewer attention. The shapes used in the painting seem to be organic, because of the naturally outdoor environment and authentic of colors. In the representation of peoples, shape lend character to a figure by giving it more of a human-like structure, the human form d...
Mahesh Dattani writes on the burning issues that beset the post-independence Indian society, whether it is communal discord, politics and crime, growing homosexuality or the gender bias. He uses stage to condemn many of the drawbacks prevailing in society. His plays depict marginalized groups of society, people who are considered misfits in a society where stereotyped attitudes and notions reign supreme. His plays have varied content and varied appeal.
The book begins with an almost too detailed and too accurate a description of the squalid living conditions in which the Untouchables are forced to reside in. Most have come to accept such an unpleasant and unhygienic location as their abode; but Bakha, a pioneer in his own right, is apparently the first individual to see his home, unobstructed by the veil which covers the sight of the majority of those of the exterior castes...
Garg in ‘Hari Bindi’ discusses the story of a common woman and made it extraordinary by the active force she was experiencing in herself to live her life. The husband of the protagonist symbolises the power and control of patriarchy that had restricted her life in such a way