Week 10, Nov. 8: Postcolonialism, I: Nationalism, Humanism, Exclusions
SCREENING: Dil Se (a.k.a. “From the Heart”) (dir.: Mani Rathnam, 1998. 163 min.)
Readings:
1. Loomba, 180-204 (on “Can the Subaltern Speak?”)
2. DO watch this movie-- it is a long, Bollywood style one so allow three hours for that.
3. Recommended : Kabir, Ananya J. “Allegories of Alienation and Politics of Bargaining: Minority Subjectivities in Mani Ratnam’s Dil Se.” In the Coursereader
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_LjGizhJG8
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xa3ymz_dil-se-1_shortfilms
DIL SE aka “FROM THE HEART”
A Commercial/art-house hybrid that makes some bold statements about terrorism, the failure of the nation, and then impossibility of talking past some ideological boundaries.
some Bollywood/commercial Indian cinema traits: world’s largest cinema– more made than in US. Dil Se was a huge hit abroad (and eventually did fine in India).
Bollywood films are almost always an assemblage of: Melodrama, Action-flick, Romance, Crime or Mystery (often mistaken identity), and of course Musicals. Offers something for everyone, or partakes of all the popular and well-loved genres. A very accessible genre/form, despite the amount of specifically Indian references/contexts
Shahrukh Khan .... Amarkanth (“immortal”) or Amar Varma Manisha Koirala .... Meghna
Original Music by : A.R. Rahman
---Mani Ratnam says of the film “I am trying to take this issue through individual characters.... We were looking at fiftieth year of Independence. Being in the heart of India, we get this feeling that we have achieved so much. But in a corner of the country there is a lot of dissatisfaction. We were trying to have two characters from these two Indias, conflicting with each other."
HISTO-CONTEXTUAL INFO AND REF’S IN FILM:
NEFA = North Eastern Frontier Administration. (Indian Govt. term for the 7 Sisters, i.e., the 7 states of the north east of India’s national territory. Incl Manipur, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Tripura, and Mizoram. The peoples of these places, as obvious in film, are not of “Indian” ethnicity, but rather composed of “Chinese”/Han/Mongol origin, but also include so-called “Tribals” or indigenous people. (They speak their own languages, not Hindi, Chinese, etc, but Manipuri, Assamese, etc.). These states are quite different,
culturally, ethnically, etc from the rest of India. In short there is no “organic” reason for the Sisters to be part of India and these “minority” regions did not “choose” to be part of the dominant nation-state”.
They will attack/bomb the Parade, b/c they were screwed by the 1953 Constitution....
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION:
WHAT IS THE FILM SAYING ABOUT INDEPENDENCE – i.e., INDEPENDENCE AND LIBERATION FROM COLONIAL BRITISH RULE?
WHO HAS BEEN LIBERATED OR NOT? WHAT DO MEGHNAET AL.’S VIEWS SAY ABOUT ALL THIS? How does film show racism/ethnic discrimination (the way Amar treats/talks to Meghna), as well as Indian domination of NEFA territories?
WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE B/W TERRORISM AND REVOLUTION? IS NOT ONE PERSON’S TERRORIST ANOTHER PERSON’S FREEDOM FIGHTER? IRONICALLY, DURING THE QUIT-INDIA LIBERATION MOVEMENT, GANDHI WAS OFTEN CALLED A TERRORIST BY THE BRITS AND SOME COMPRADORS.
TO WHAT EXTENT IS THE FILM SYMPATHETIC TO THE
SEPARATISTS/TERRORISTS/REVOLUTIONARIES’ PERSPECTIVES? HOW DOES AMAR VIEW THEM & MEGHNA?
HOW DO YOU READ/CONFIGURE THE ENDING IN THIS REGARD? A POX ON BOTH THEIR HOUSES? DEEP AMBIVALENCE/AMBIGUITY?
WHAT ARE THE SIGNS IN THE FILM THAT SUGGEST THAT COLONIALISM HAS NOT ENDED?
TO WHAT EXTENT IS THIS AN “ANTI-NATIONALISM” MOVIE/MESSAGE?
CAN YOU CONNECT ANYTHING IN THE FILM TO THE PROBLEM OF “UNDER-DEVELOPMENT”?
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GENDER POLITICS OF THE FILM: TO WHAT EXTENT IS MEGHNA A STEREOTYPE (hyper-feminine) , OR NOT? DOES THE FILM CRITICIZE AMAR’S VIEWS OF WOMEN, i.e. MEGHNA?
Not unlike SERGIO in MEMORIES: Amar sees “true love” or a relationship as the ultimate good, and only way to resolve his conflicts (Meghna’s conflicts).... but the film refuses this, b/c they explode.... no resolution to the film, their love, and her dilemmas of being torn b/w revolution and “love”/the personal or domestic
Some helpful info. from Philip Lutgendorf, U. Iowa Prof.:
One reading of the film is as a gendered anti - nationalist allegory in which "All-India" Amar represents the Hindu-majoritarian centre and Meghna the alienated ethnic and religious minorities and peripheral states. In this interpretation, Ratnam ingeniously turns Khan's
trademark bouncy, self-centered screen persona against itself, to craft a political commentary on the hypocrisy and ultimate failure of centrist programs of "national integration." The hero labors manfully to lure the heroine into a lasting union based on (his) ideals, asking her to forget past injustices and (literal) violations; his implicit message—"Just love me and everything will be all right!"—appears increasingly idiotic as we learn more about her life. His love is as selfish as it is passionate, and both blind to and seemingly uninterested in the reality of Meghna's traumatic past. The result of his unrelenting pursuit of his romantic dream is not a happy ending, nor an optimistic portent for the nation. http://www.uiowa.edu/%7Eincinema/dilse.html
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a highly contested and contingent or arbitrary issue: the moment India becomes India, Partition (and NEFA) happens, cutting its territories into three removed regions (Pakistan and
Bangladesh), and causing much death and disruption. Therefore this basic sub-text or part of Dil Se – 50 years of independence, what is has or has not meant – would be something immediately appreciated and “controversial” for Indian audiences.
Subaltern:
the figure of the subaltern. We cannot “hear” or “know” her because we literally cannot understand her (or “it”) world, her life, her experiences—as if she/they are aliens, strangers, etc. AND b/c we are politically, economically, socially separated – or “segregated” from her/them. That is, they are outside the social/legal/political system in a sense. We cannot really address them, or redress their miseries, in political/legal terms. We fail them even when we try to help them through reform.
