I attended a talk by Shyam Benegal today at a Spic Macay event. His movie credentials and his intelligence ofcourse do not need my approval but his mention even otherwise alwayz reminds me of his movie- 'Suraj Ka Satvan Ghoda'. What i personally find most interesting is that he picks up a text as complex as 'Suraj...' and transforms it into the masterpiece that he did. It enamours me even more so since it is based on an indian novel. The statement is not aesult of some engendered as well as blind cultural snobbery but a personal bias.
I am a great fan of Vishal Bharadwaj too. Only, i do not apreciate very much his insistance on shakespeare. His way of dealing with shakespeare is indeed very novel but why shakespeare???? Why not a Premchand???? Why not a Shrilal Shukl???? An intercultural transliteration is ofcours an interesting experiment in itself but, an inter-generation potrayal which then will ( in this case) become self-reflexive to a much greater degree than a shakespeare is or can be, is much more delectable for someone like me. Let shakespeare lie in his grave peacefully! This is like the frustaration i felt when i tried to comprehend (like so many others around me) why was shakespeare still stuck around like Nearly Headless Nick in the syllabus of english literature as a whole paper and just one paper which dealt with the enormous corpus of Indian Literature in the 20th century!!!! There was so much of our own culture and literature that was left unexplored!!!!
There are ofcourse many more movies like Pinjar which base themselves on indian literature, but as far as mainstream cinema is concerned, i cannot remember many. Then there is a movie like Jodha Akbar which does not even get right the dynamics or even more bas-ically the realtionship between the hero and his woman!
Not many people will know how, say Akbar and Salim were related but most will know the story of Othello thanks to Omkara. I am in no way opposed to the movie...its an excellent adaption( as if it needed my consent!) but seeing that the medium has such far-reaching effects, why not make a concious effort in the other direction??
How terrible is the fear of self-introspection???? A movie like Black Friday does not get released.....Parzania has'nt many takers! But i will in this post restrict myself to movies based on Indian Literature. Is this the effect of what is called mindless modernisation? Or is it simply the desperation to market ourselves as being globally active and aware. An average Indian teenager ( atleast in my knowledge) will know more about the Pearl Harbour attack than about the Naxal movement in the various parts of India or the impact of the two World Wars on India and on the Indian struggle( even my knowedge regarding this is quite scant!) . The ventures based on such themes are generally too pedagogical or moral or ethical or intellectually engaged to interst an average viewer. Mr Benegal said very interestingly, one cannot be global without being local and precise.
The construction of one's national identity can only take place if we can appropriate it through our own history. Tagore has a better way of saying the same thing.
It irks me that english is increasingly being established as the defining barrier between the enlightened and the rustic. Hindi is distant and archaic. It has been reduced to a school subject. A sentence in unadulterated hindi elicits a response akin to "are you studyin hindi literature???" A similar composition in english does'nt even make your pet lice crawl on your ear :)
Personally it seems to be a hypocritic issue to champion for somone like me being in the comfortable position of knowing just about enough english to escape being concious about it.
So for once i would like to use this space politically to further my propaganda of inducing everyone who even stumbles across this blog to read and discover our own literatures, not just hindi but other regional treasures too. Step out of the worn out and dragged-to-death mysticism of shakepeare and Rowling and Sherlock Holmes and explore alongside the likes of Shukl, Devkinandan Khatri (of Chandrakanta Santati fame) and Byomkesh Bakshi (the name of the writer escapes my memory just now! my apologies) . The effort is worth the pride and vise-versa :)
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2 comments:
i agree with you that our vast literature has been accorded second class status in our own country. but i guess the same thing is happening in other countries too. Harry potter book sales out numbered the combined sales of all literature ever sold in the west.
I feel teen agers or even older people, across the world cannot relate to the language, the idea presentation and the setting of the stories in the classical literature. This may have contributed to ,along with other factors in the decline of indian classical literature.
I also agree that a person who speaks fluently in Hindi is looked down upon. In school i was one person who ardently followed hindi only policy but falling grades in english, uncertainty about the future and peer pressure and in no small measure my own weak will forced me to change to english. The pressure to perform well and be accepted by others is immense. But i always credit english speaking mania with the prosperity brought to our country. To me who has been raised in a lap of luxury, the BPO's may be a lowly place to work in but these BPO's which harnessed our english speaking workforce, brought prosperity to many.
And hey "A similar composition in english does'nt even make your pet lice crawl on your ear :)" was very funny! a dash of humour in midst of a serious piece is a good thing.
At the end i would like to mention that the post is very well written.
I agree that people are uncomfortable when things get too personal and direct. I would like to add further to your comment. Even when people summon the courage to face things as they are, its not necessary that they would act to change it. That i guess is worse than not facing the short comings at all. That is why i prefer people not facing their inner demons than to facing them and then just letting them do what they do.
PS-- Continue posting such posts.
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