Bombay Talkie
A blog I’ve been really getting into lately is Maria Giovanna’s Filmiholic blog. Maria is spending her summer watching Bombay films and chronicling her experiences. She’s got some great reviews in there.
I watched Merchant & Ivory’s “Bombay Talkie” based on her description of the film.
I’ll let you read Maria’s review yourself because I found it pretty spot on. It’s an interesting film to watch for many reasons. It’s a send up of Western visitors who go to India to find themselves and of the Indian men who are willing to drop everything for a “chance” with a white woman.
As I watched the movie I started thinking of all of the white woman / Indian man relationship movies that I’ve seen. There’s Jewel of the Crown, Passage to India, Heat and Dust, the Guru, just of the top of my head. The only films that I can think of with the reverse are Bend it Like Bekham and Bride and Prejudice. Can you think of others in either camp?
In the end though, I found the film too tedious. The characters were so annoying to perfection I just wanted someone to die. Luckily,… well, I won’t give that away.
There’s the Naveen Andrews romantic subplot in The English Patient (white woman, Indian man).
The movie “Flavors”, which is essentially a mixed bag of stories, has a relationship between Anupam Mittal and “Jenni” (indian man/white woman).
ah, yes, the english patient one. forgot about that. thanks rakesh.
jesal, did you like “flavors”? i haven’t seen that yet.
Soham – I’m at my parents house in Dallas, taking tomorrow off to see the doctor for a second time because I’m still sick. I need some entertainment. This is where your blog comes in…
Mississipi Masala, Mira Nair film, but this is with Denzel Washington, not really a white man, but an interesting combination. Then you have the film Chutney Popcorn, which features an Indian Lesbian with a white woman.
This is branching out to television shows as well. On the show Lost – though Naveen Andrews portrays an Iraqi, and even in ER, though once again this is with an african-american.
I think the idea of indian men dropping everything for chance with a white women, and so forth, issues dealt in bombay talkie, are becoming more and more outdated.
Interracial relations portrayed in films is on a steady increase, and I think not to epitomize the western and white culture as being the goal to achieve, but perhaps it is more of an observation of the continuing integration of our culture into another, or the western culture into ours.
Look then at films like Harold and Kumar, where the interracial relationships and strive to achieve one, for Harold at least, are existent. Yet the stereotypes of the culture for employment and such exists. Mira Nair is releasing a film named “The Namesake” based on the book where the protagnoist has a relationship with a white woman.
Anyways, these are just my comments. Interesting blog, my first time to visit since you sent the links out.
Hope you can check my production team’s effort for our “hope-to-be” film at http://www.fightingforrichter.com
We’re basically blogging/keeping track of updates on our progress and process of making our feature.
Alright. laterbye
hey tej,
just checked out the website. good luck with the project!
soham
I did like Flavors… It was a more complete film, in the sense that it dealt with several aspects of South Asian life – newly-weds, parents, work, single-life, etc.. Its been a while since I saw it, but I vaguely remember thinking that it capitalized on the FOB experiences. I think its sheer honesty made me laugh and unfortunately think of a few friends and myself sometimes (but I am not going to admit that in public
cool. i need to check it out. although, i’m not going to subscribe to netflix just yet in austin. there are enough movies in the film department here that i can see for free.