The latest Akshay Kumar release this Friday reminds me of the yester years’ Manoj Kumar flick “Purab aur Paschim” to a great extent. In many ways, Namaste London is an inspiration from the classic in its theme of east-west divide and the desi-boy-wooing-english-girl which was evident in Purab Paschim as well. Decades have passed, but Bollywood continues to bring the great cultural divide to the big screens near us.
So, what is cultural divide at all? Being an Indian many of you may well understand but for those Indians living abroad, it is just a bit too clear. The cultural divide is the gap evident among the traditional Indians of yesterday with the modernized new generation of today. The concept of cultural divide is applicable between any two contrasting cultures in the world, but in Indian context, cultural divide focuses on the shift of the psyche of the Indian youth from its tradition towards the western culture mostly because of the globalization.
In the past, many films have been based on the east-west divide and have highlighted the lives and ways of the Indians settled abroad. And more recently, films like Bend It Like Beckham, Bride and Prejudice, Hollywood Bollywood, East meets West etc. talk about the struggle of the younger generation in striking a balance between their cultural roots and the culture that they are brought up in. Even in India itself, the influence of the west has deepened the cultural divide and even the Indian attire is giving way to or is being thrown out by the stylized Levi’s Jeans and Tommy Hilfigher skimpy top.
In Namastey London, Akshay Kumar plays the role of a Punjabi boy who is trying to win the heart of his London born-and-brought up wife played by Katrina Kaif. The film in many ways traces the struggle of an Indian trying to keep up the national pride in an alien land. Akshay is the desi Indian who has to prove to be as classy as his wife who prefers the more western and hip life of London.
The cultural divide which has its basis in the contrasting cultures of the more traditional east and the more modernized west has been on the decline due to the concept of global village. Earlier, for the west side, east was as stagnant an economy as was the mindset of the people of this region. West considered east as a mere sniffer of its leftovers. And for the east side, west was as alien portion of the planet where nudity and outlaws were at full blast. But with the globalization and world trade expanding to far-flung corners of the globe, the cultures have suddenly started to appreciate and tolerate each other’s co-existence. Today east stands as the epitome of rich cultural heritage and spiritual pursuit for the west and the west is more of a distant dream for the east side who are collaborating and investing to lessen that distance.
Coming back to Bollywood, the films which discuss this divide are more of a success in the Northern India than in other regions. The reason is simple as the films cater to the Punjabi, Gujarati and Bengali sections in the Indian society. Such films based on the east-west divide will generally have a Punjabi or Sikh family living abroad or to some extent the Gujarati and Bengali sections who try to stick to their origin. Many of these are generally overseas production made by directors of Indian origin whose family have settled abroad. The NRI population most definitely identifies with the theme of such cinema and appreciates it as well. One of the recent examples is Mira Nair’ ‘Namesake’.
The film again has the elements of the search for one’s cultural roots and fighting the cultural divide of east-west. Mira Nair is a Canadian film-maker of Indian origin, settled in Canada. Vipul Shah’s Namastey London is one of the few domestic productions dealing with the cultural divide with a pinch of comedy in it. Many more such films continue to bring the divide to us with an underlying effort of uniting the various currents of the Indian population settled here or abroad. Bollywood more or less plays the uniting factor again through these movies and brings the feeling of national pride to the forefront while celebrating the Indian culture as well.
Tanushree Chatterjee
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