PCA Romance Panel 1: Romancing Bollywood

(Brief notes on papers given in the Romance Area for the 2010 PCA-ACA Conference in St. Louis)

Thursday April 1

Romance I: Romancing Bollywood
Session Chair: Eric Murphy Selinger, DePaul University

“Reading Bollywood Reading Romance: Jaane Tu Janne Na”‖ Eric Murphy Selinger

Jaane Tu Mera Kya Hai (Know it or not), a romantic comedy. Eric notes that he is at a double remove from his subject, both as one of the 10% minority of readers who has curly hair, and as a US scholar. Later he breaks out into song.

Romantic love / romantic fiction / premodern narrative pleasure  — the film brings all three together.

This is a very detailed examination of the film,  and thus not easy to summarize, even briefly.

Citing Barthes. Mass culture is a machine for showing desire. That’s what this film does: there are certain types of men and woman who interest us, certain types of music which do, and above all love stories must interest us, especially those with an HEA.

But, adds ES, there is no foreclosing the irreducibility and multiplicity of self-reference. For example, love stories are ways we recognize and articulate messy experiences: Where is that world where my life is not such a stranger to me? Whatever their medium representations of romantic love are a push back against the tyranny of fact. The more we have, the more we can play them off against each other in non doxological ways.

We already know this imaginative and cross cultural work is done by high art. So it is in popular romance, whatever the medium.

Found in Translation: Hindi Cinema‘s Take on Romance in English Language
Film”‖ Jayashree Kamble, University of Minnesota

JK focuses on differences between two films, Love Actually (2003), and Salaam E Ishq (2007). For example, Indian film shies away from sex outside context of marriage. India filmic tradition should not be confused with Indian cultural mores, which it often contests. And this film innovates on Indian cinema itself, for example, by keeping the camera on a newlywed couple who attempt comically to consummate their marriage.  The newlywed storyline is an adaptation of the John and Judy storyline in Love Actually. John and Judy met by serving as standins for sex scenes in film, not a scenario that would work in Indian cinema.

JK goes on to show how the different storylines in LA are transformed in innovative ways by SI, drawing in interesting creative ways on both the source material – Love Actually – and Hindu cultural traditions and Indian film techniques and tropes.  The sacrificing lover, the rich girl falling in love with the nice poor guy, etc. are common themes in Indian cinema which are utilized to transform storylines in Love Actually.

JK notes that Indian cinema is always changing. For example, SI portrays emotional and sexual compatibility across cultures, and the reality and import of sexual desire, two themes traditionally eschewed. She relates this to the form of English language romance novels – via Bakhtin –  and concludes that these kinds of studies will not only help us to understand Indian cinema but romance novels as well.

“‘My Heart It Speaks a Thousand Words’: Language, Race, and Romance in
Bollywood Cinema”‖ Pavitra Sundar, Dartmouth University

Lagaan: Once Upon a Time in India  (Land Tax 2001):

Best selling soundtrack for the film includes lyrics sung by Elizabeth in English. Very unusual.

Usually singing is done by hero and heroine in Hindi cinema, figures of goodness, upholding of moral universe.  The character of Elizabeth represents a key change in Hindi cinema’s representation of white women. Not a vamp, but pure of heart and morality. All of this is signaled by the accent, lyrics, musical structure, setting of her singing, etc. Her desire is signaled by conventional love tropes of all cinema and of Hindi cinema in particular. But she is set apart as well.

Also explores the importance of language to communication of love. Elizabeth can only voice her forbidden desire in English. Bhuvan, the object of her desire, seems to suggest Hindi is the language of love.

Notes that Elizabeth’s voice is both an advance but also limited. In a longer paper she discusses split between aural and visual messages of the film, with the latter giving us a glimpse of a world with fewer boundaries, suggesting Bollywood’s portrayal of romantic love is not as straightforward or utopian as often thought to be.

Disclaimer: These summaries are just one person’s interpretation, which is fallible. To follow up, click this link to contact the speakers for more information.