Carry on Stereotyping

Bollywood seems to be stuck in eternity, Golden globe notwithstanding, when it comes to the same old archaic formulas of Love -Marriage- family retribution-rebirth etc ,etc .. and the usual stereotyping of characters & cultures. Take the latest flick ‘Chandni Chowk to China (CC2C)’ , the chink in the movie is the usual flat faced funny looking character who wildly swings his hand & legs in martial arts mudra and grunts ‘haiee yeaah’ when he is not mouthing ‘ching chong choo’ or something to that effect . This stereotype is much like any south Indian character in Hindi film , being in a Lungi with a forehead smear & yodeling ‘aiye yaye yao’ and mouthing Hindi in funny accent & flavor. And he is usually dark skinned. Similarly a Pakistani in our movies have to be a bearded slimy Mulla or an evil character in Uniform while a white foreigner is usually some dumb crook or a sidekick in a song & dance party. The list goes on.

Cut the chase to Hollywood & you'll find it no better when it comes to stereotyping us, notwithstanding Elephants, Snake charmers , Idols, turbaned despots ,Sitar etc (remember Steven Spielberg’s Temple of Doom & its ilk?) nothing excites their sensibilities better than Slums , rags, poverty & deprivation in all its Indian glory. The current movie ‘Slum dog millionaire’ based on such ‘researched’ formula have always found favour with the western media & critics and somewhere reinforces the usual stereotype about India. Perhaps Arvind Adiga also scored a Booker prize recently riding his ‘White Tiger’ with a similar theme on India’s underbelly and found favour with western literary critics. In both these instances what i find is a common thread that somewhat mirrors the way foreigners especially the western world have been getting to read & know about India of late ; its economic progress & the rags to riches stories, the Urban-Rural & Rich-Poor divide etc.