15/09/09
old wine in a modern bottle
upper caste boy can't marry lower caste girl, so he drowns himself in drink. people say that isn't rational. and they usually refer to the boy's actions or reactions. and this modern day take on that story says the same thing: the boy is weak. modern is to avoid discussing irrational constraints on girls and boys?
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7 comments:
ahem ! it is not that he can't marry. he chooses not to marry her- blames society and drowns himself in drink.
check - ganga aur jamuna - same issues but Dilip kumar's character acknowledges the issue - takes it head on and marries her.
we keep ignoring the matter of choice - to take a stand and stand by it is difficult. to take the easy way out, blame society and drown yourself in drink is easy :)
my response is longer than the post :):)
Am not a movie buff at all, specially not B'llywd. But wondering: are there films (mainstream) portraying upper caste women marrying lower caste men? Or Hindu women marrying Musilm men?
SS, there are numerous Tamil movies in which Brahmin women marry non-Brahmin men.
As for the original post, at least it has the merit of novelty, because if I was going to guess whether Kufr's edict on Devadas would be a) gutless fc alkie or b) fc victim of irrational constraints, I would not have expected b).
@ Anonymous:
That so? Is caste clearly delineated? I'm aware that "class conflict" is fairly well-represented in mainstream cinema. 'Lower-class hero tames upper-class heroine' is a well-established theme. I tend to read that as assertion of patriarchy: man shows woman her place. Would the caste configuration alter such an interpretation?
harini,
marriage itself is, as ss would say and i would agree, a patriarchal imposition- he chooses not to marry the girl. it is unclear whether he is rejecting marriage itself. maybe he is.
'my response is longer than the post :):)'
thanks:). i was hoping this would generate exactly such responses, and i'm still thinking over your response.
anon,
yes, b) is right. you'd see a lot more 'merit of novelty' here if commenters like you actually tried to read what i am trying to say, always: caste affects everyone. it's only that those castes, the brahminized classes, which find the benefits (from caste) more than the costs, tend to underplay the role of caste in indian society.
SS -- yes, the castes are explicitly delineated.
Kufr, you are so quick to strike a pose. I didn't say anything about how frequently I found novelty in your posts, the mere fact that I read them at all should have helped you draw a different conclusion. But I think you take anything but YES SIR in caps as invidious opposition to denounce, so I will end my comment here.
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