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sitaraI rewatched Veer-Zaara with my roomie effex the other day and forgot how much I liked some of the songs and also how boring a lot of it was. But! Pretty! Bollywood! Angst!
Also, EVIL Muslim men. EVILLLLLL. It's always interesting to me to check out the different flavors of Islamophobia/Orientalism. Europe-- freaking out that formerly colonized subjects are now coming to your country cuz they know your language and you screwed over their country (yum). U.S.-- rationalizing neocolonialism. And India, the particular strange and sad communalism of the subcontinent where we had notions of difference and yes, some hatred and tensions pre-colonialism, but certainly not genocidal notions of racialized nationalism that were linked to a static definition of religion.
The thing that is sort of great about Bollywood is that there is absolutely no subtlety in their military allusions. The hero of the story is LITERALLY in the Indian military (Air Force). Though-- irony! Played by Shah Rukh Khan (Muslim background).
And now we enter into the "four-stage gendered logic of empire:"
This movie is literally textbook Gayatri Spivak style saving of brown women, except everyone in the movie is technically "brown" by white supremacy's standards-- which makes it all the more tragic, because here we have the racialized legacy of the nation-state pitting the people of color against each other in horrible, horrible ways.
Rani Mukherji plays the Western-style lawyer upholding post-Enlightenment liberal "universal human rights" rhetoric who is inspired by the legacy of her dead father (the only semi-developed "Good Muslim" man in the film). The Good Muslim women of the film are all ones who help/enable/fall in love with the Indian Hindu man. Preity Zinta is the cute, rich, spoiled Pakistani Muslim woman who is put in check by the Indian Hindu with whom she falls hopelessly in love.
Dude, she and Shabbo literally go to India and become "theirs" through this process of glorifying the Indian military.
There is a lot of interesting gender stuff about women "softening" men a la Beauty and the Beast, but there is also some room to actually interact with some of that material in a nice way. I do like that when Preity Zinta calls Amitabh Bachchan out for not having a girls school he doesn't just wallow in guilt, he actually starts working on fixing shit right then. Though DEAR LORD Amitabh Bachchan YOU ARE SO CREEPY WITH YOUR FAKE SON'S LOVE INTERESTS. We need to establish a no-touch rule for you, ok?
I'm actually a bit curious about the Sufi qawwali scene at the engagement. (Devotional songs in an Islamic spiritual tradition. Signifies longing for the Divine.) I don't know enough about how things go to know if that's something that would actually happen or if that's a weird bit of commodifying Sufism. Or is that a bit too much regulation on the popularization of Sufism? I guess I can just ask someone. EDIT: I have asked an Islamic studies grad student friend, and she tells me it is true/ possible! WEIRD. Though of course, people get all upset over "real" sufis singing "real" qawwalis and vs. the commercialization/popularization of it all, so I should probably step out of that regulation/authenticity debate (since me = SO TIRED of poc/religious regulation/policing of authenticity, lemme tell you).
Also as I am writing this King of the Hill is teaching us a nice lesson about the dangers of regulating masculinity with violence (as well as trying to challenge hegemonic masculinity with violence). There are some decent storylines in this show at times. Like their ep on gentrification.
And now Scrubs is on and they have awkwardly racialized Turk in a way that was not like they did in the first three seasons. I used to like you a lot and then you got so weird Scrubs. Why does this always happen?
effex the other day and forgot how much I liked some of the songs and also how boring a lot of it was. But! Pretty! Bollywood! Angst!Also, EVIL Muslim men. EVILLLLLL. It's always interesting to me to check out the different flavors of Islamophobia/Orientalism. Europe-- freaking out that formerly colonized subjects are now coming to your country cuz they know your language and you screwed over their country (yum). U.S.-- rationalizing neocolonialism. And India, the particular strange and sad communalism of the subcontinent where we had notions of difference and yes, some hatred and tensions pre-colonialism, but certainly not genocidal notions of racialized nationalism that were linked to a static definition of religion.
The thing that is sort of great about Bollywood is that there is absolutely no subtlety in their military allusions. The hero of the story is LITERALLY in the Indian military (Air Force). Though-- irony! Played by Shah Rukh Khan (Muslim background).
And now we enter into the "four-stage gendered logic of empire:"
1) Women have inalienable rights within universal civilization;
2) civilized men recognize and respect these rights;
3) uncivilized men systematically abrogate these rights; and
4) such men thus belong to an alien (Islamic) system.
Imperial logic genders and separates subject peoples so that the men are the Other and the women are civilizable. To defend our universal civilization we must rescue the women. To rescue these women we must attack these men.
2) civilized men recognize and respect these rights;
3) uncivilized men systematically abrogate these rights; and
4) such men thus belong to an alien (Islamic) system.
Imperial logic genders and separates subject peoples so that the men are the Other and the women are civilizable. To defend our universal civilization we must rescue the women. To rescue these women we must attack these men.
This movie is literally textbook Gayatri Spivak style saving of brown women, except everyone in the movie is technically "brown" by white supremacy's standards-- which makes it all the more tragic, because here we have the racialized legacy of the nation-state pitting the people of color against each other in horrible, horrible ways.
Rani Mukherji plays the Western-style lawyer upholding post-Enlightenment liberal "universal human rights" rhetoric who is inspired by the legacy of her dead father (the only semi-developed "Good Muslim" man in the film). The Good Muslim women of the film are all ones who help/enable/fall in love with the Indian Hindu man. Preity Zinta is the cute, rich, spoiled Pakistani Muslim woman who is put in check by the Indian Hindu with whom she falls hopelessly in love.
These women are to be rescued not because they are more "ours" than "theirs," but rather because they will have become more "ours" through the rescue mission.
Dude, she and Shabbo literally go to India and become "theirs" through this process of glorifying the Indian military.
There is a lot of interesting gender stuff about women "softening" men a la Beauty and the Beast, but there is also some room to actually interact with some of that material in a nice way. I do like that when Preity Zinta calls Amitabh Bachchan out for not having a girls school he doesn't just wallow in guilt, he actually starts working on fixing shit right then. Though DEAR LORD Amitabh Bachchan YOU ARE SO CREEPY WITH YOUR FAKE SON'S LOVE INTERESTS. We need to establish a no-touch rule for you, ok?
I'm actually a bit curious about the Sufi qawwali scene at the engagement. (Devotional songs in an Islamic spiritual tradition. Signifies longing for the Divine.) I don't know enough about how things go to know if that's something that would actually happen or if that's a weird bit of commodifying Sufism. Or is that a bit too much regulation on the popularization of Sufism? I guess I can just ask someone. EDIT: I have asked an Islamic studies grad student friend, and she tells me it is true/ possible! WEIRD. Though of course, people get all upset over "real" sufis singing "real" qawwalis and vs. the commercialization/popularization of it all, so I should probably step out of that regulation/authenticity debate (since me = SO TIRED of poc/religious regulation/policing of authenticity, lemme tell you).
Also as I am writing this King of the Hill is teaching us a nice lesson about the dangers of regulating masculinity with violence (as well as trying to challenge hegemonic masculinity with violence). There are some decent storylines in this show at times. Like their ep on gentrification.
And now Scrubs is on and they have awkwardly racialized Turk in a way that was not like they did in the first three seasons. I used to like you a lot and then you got so weird Scrubs. Why does this always happen?