|P R A V A S I F I L M F E S T I V A L |
Indian diaspora cinema has apparently had more enduring global success portraying genuine diaspora issues. Is this a beginning of a new sojourn for Pravasi cinema? Pravasi Today seeks some answers‌
Indian Diaspora and Cinema PANKAJ DUBEY
The crossover success of Mira Nair's Monsoon Wedding (2001), whose characters speak English, Hindi and Punjabi, lies in the skill with which the film acquaints a Western audience with the sights and sounds of the new global India. Set in a burgeoning New Delhi suburb, the film uses a lavish Punjabi wedding as an occasion for reunion of family members scattered across the globe. The past two decades of the twentieth century have seen a new movement in mass media with the work of South Asian Diaspora filmmakers in the West. Asian films no longer lurk at the periphery but have entered the mainstream, with the stupendous success of films like Bend It like Beckham (2002). British Asian filmmaker Gurinder Chadda turns this BritishAsian film about a clash between traditional values PRAVASI TODAY | SEPTEMBER 2009
and the modern world into a fantastic feel-good movie. Chock-a-bloc with wonderful characters, the plot features Jess' long-suffering mother, her promiscuous sister, and her fellow teammates. The protagonist Jess, an enthusiast soccer player has to battle ethnic and social prejudices. Gurinder Chadda is the first Asian woman to have made inroads into the mainstream movie sphere of the West. Her films focus on class, race, and gender issues and on marginalised outsiders, the working classes of the Western metropolises, made up mainly by people of colour from Britain's former colonies in Asia and Africa. Take Bride and Prejudice. The novel revolves around the conflict between Darcy and Elizabeth arising from their social status, whereas the Bollywood version portrays cross cultures acting as negative barriers 48 çoklh VqMs | flrEcj
2009