Monsoon Wedding: Still far, but hopeful

by Aylin Sayın /

The movie “Awara” directed by the Indian director Raj Kapoor has been repeatedly adapted in Turkey. Furthermore, if you happen to encounter its original in Indian, perhaps you will not be able to easily recognize that it is a dubbed version, because the voices of the same men and women in the early years of Turkish cinema makes the movie so natural for us, who are very familiar with the movies of Yesilcam (The Turkish Holy wood), that if it weren’t for the Indian music in the movie, you would think it to be a typical Yesilcam movie or vice versa.

Of course, the reasons for this fact can be attributable to Turkish film industry sector’s borrowing its melodrama tradition roots from its Indian counterpart. Following the Lumieres’ first public exhibition of the moving pictures in India in 1896, the first Indian film which was shot three years later and India has become the leading movie producer in the world as time went by. Some 800 pictures are shot a year and the cinema has practically become the sole entertainment source for the poor people of India, the population of which is almost 1 billion. The cinema is so crucial for the Indians that, “An Indian would die, if he/she did not go to the movies”, we could easily say. For them, the cinema where they sleep and have rest can also be called a shelter that they take refuge against both the hot and the cold.

In post-World War Two, the Indian cinema has considerably affected not only Turkish cinema but also that of many other countries in the world through its original films and adaptations. These adaptations have made their public appearance in two ways, that is, either by the screenplays or the songs and the lyrics dubbed in Turkish. This was the case for most of the countries, which did not have the strength for shooting any film in post-World War Two. Cinema is the most popular form of entertainment among those imported following the India’s declaration of independence against the English. Besides, new films being attractive to other countries in which the songs were being singed and the dances performed started to be shot as soon as the sound had been added. So, the cost has increased because of the introduction of the voice and the theatrical dialogs have started to sound. While the sound ensured the protection of regional productions, it strengthened the Indian cinema in the field of competition with the other countries’ film industries. In the aftermath of the world crisis, a formula of “a star, six songs, and three dances” was devised so as to revive the cinema. As it is the case today, the Indian cinema has significantly affected Russia, the Middle East, Asia, Africa and accordingly established its hegemony in most of the Asian countries. The cinema, which had been addressing mostly to the urban middle class during the period of dependence, won an enormous mass of new spectators of villagers who had left their regions and settled down in cities. The Indian cinema is the only one which produces Hollywood-like movies, but which the Hollywood films could not financially take under their dominance. Since the Indian cinema is a huge sector and frequently imitates Hollywood, it is also called Bollywood as film production companies have their place in Bombay. Protection of the national cinema in India is not attributable to a social progressiveness, but melodrama and dance passion of Indian people. Because, Bollywood is very successful in the field of shooting easily the local version of Hollywood films rather than expressing its own realities. India is the only country where Hollywood has no material dominance but only cultural as its Indian imitations are shot with the local cast. This is much more obvious within the framework of the new world order shaped by the recent changes.

Let us come to the new Indian cinema from Indian arabesques such as “Awara”. Social cinema examples had started to appear in India thanks to Satjayit Ray and subsequently dimension of poverty in India was thoroughly displayed. Ray shot his first film Pather Pançali in 1955 as the first of the Apu triology and addressed the real India. Thus, the first qualified Indian movie excluding any songs or dances has been shot. The new Indian film industry pursued the tradition of Ray and continued to make productions in addition to the commercial Indian movies thanks to its famous film producers such as Mrinal Sen, Ketan Mehta, Grish Karnard, and Shaii Karun. The films of “new movie makers” are both a view on the poor India and a means aimed at eliminating the traditional values and the superstitions. In view of the fact that the social life in India is structured by the system of caste and that the religious beliefs are deeply rooted, one can easily realize that what they try to do is a difficult one to accomplish.

The changes in all fields in India take place more slowly than those in Turkey. Thus, production period of the commercial pictures in India resembles ours, which were once shot by the cooperation of producer and manager. As mentioned by Shaji Karun, first an agreement is concluded with the actor/actress and then the money is received in advance from the owner of the movie theaters. Thus, movie theater owners have the release rights of the movies in the beginning. Today, the Indian producers who want to make films against the commercial cinema can stand only by means of festivals and national contests. However, their films barely have the chance of release. Seeing that India is an enormous country and that there are virtually 200 different spoken languages, it is almost impossible to address the whole country. Therefore, film productions take place regionally. These films are even more effective where the communists rule.

Besides, the common problem of the third world countries is that the films and their producers& directors whom we know well and who win awards in the festivals abroad are not well known at homeland. This is the case for not only Monsoon Wedding which was bestowed Venice golden lion award, but also Turkish and Iranian cinema that have enjoyed great successes in recent festivals. So, an inevitable question comes to the mind; “Is the festival cinema the concern of the west towards the east, or is it the one which emerges by the presence of this concern?”. The reviews of Mira Nair regarding her own country from a western point of view are much criticized at homeland. Mira Nair who still lives in New York is a director who pursued her education in the United States. Her latest film Monsoon Wedding got the biggest award in Venice Film Festival. She is one of the most renowned Indian directors abroad who successfully treats the cultural values of India by a contemporary interpretation and attracts the attention of the West through the rhythm in her films. Nair has entered the film industry by the documentaries. Following her first long film “Salam Bombay”, she shot “Kama Sutra” and “Mississippi Masala”.

Mira’s latest film “Monsoon Wedding” tells the story of the wedding preparations of an upper-class family living in New Delhi, the problems among its members and the wedding itself with a happy end. The parents get off their daughter Aditi with a computer engineer working in the United States whom they have never seen. The extended Verma family reunites from around the globe for a last-minute arranged marriage, which coincides with the monsoon rains. The film also includes the additional events such as the revealing of the love between the maid and Dubey, who arranges the marriage, and the harassments of the uncle from the United States. And the other India…..Nair turns her camera to the daily life during the flurry of the wedding preparations. Beside the enormous expenses for the wedding, she displays the other face of the city in poverty. And it is what the “original” is for the film. On the other hand, upper-class Indians live in prosperity behind the high walls of their big houses with and immense garden after the colonial rule of the British. Although organized in accordance with the traditions of one of the poorest countries in the world, the marriage ceremony is ostentatious for such a culture whose members wobble between leading a British or Indian lifestyle and in which the cliff between the Indian social classes has widened since the independence was declared against the British colonial rule. Even if cellular phones, American magazines as well as the latest-design cars in the film show what kind of changes India undergoes, the dominant part of the traditions also appear, i.e. spouses taking part in traditional arranged marriage and the narratives regarding the love between two teenagers (Dubey and Alice). Apart from the streets and the avenues in which the poverty is displayed, the cameras stroll through them for two purposes; the former is for shooting an ordinary television show and the latter for showing the pretended relationship of the upper-class Indians who came together during the golf. Nair shows for what cause India has changed by the banality of the show and the requested loan on the golf pitch. On the other hand, she contradicts herself to the extent that she would justify the critiques as the traditional arranged marriage in India, where much pressure exists on women, seems to be very easy and free of problems in her film.

“I did not watch Salaam Bombay, however Mira Nair’s Kama Sutra was just like an exotic Indian goods ” said Fatih Ozguven from Radikal (a Turkish daily) in his article on Monsoon Wedding. It is the case for Monsoon Wedding, as well. “You could easily get something like Mira Nair’s Monsoon Wedding if you combine the Turkish serial Kaynanalar (Mothers-in-law) with the uproar of Robert Altman together with the objectionable themes of The Festival ”, he adds. I am not prejudiced against Mira Nair, because Kama Sutra is the latest film of the director that I watched. Besides, “Salaam Bombay” is the continuation of Ray films. Kuma Sutra appears to be an Indian fairy tale which does not tell anything about the life of the Indians. However, Mira Nair proved to be more careful in Monsoon Wedding than Kama Sutra. To see the difference between the people having a Mercedes and those sleeping beside the Ganj makes a good example to show what happened to India in the near past. Because, this country possesses many engineers who are exploited on a low-based salary by the international market and the golf pitches in each city at the same time. Moreover, Dubey, who organizes the wedding preparations and is a member of the Indian middle class that is steadily developing, is the concrete example the changes experienced. At first sight, he is not attractive because of his cellular phone and diligence. We start to feel sympathy towards him with the love between Alice and him. After Alice asks “Is it tap water” (because lower classes neglect cleaning with water in India), he notices her and then he is much affected as she knows about e-mail and such things. Only the loves in this film may be coverted into a soup opera. And what is more is that the director continues matchmaking until the end. Many songs are signed and dances performed as it is the case in Indian melodramas. However, the songs signed in Indian melodramas are related with different times and places. They are outside of the life itself and theatrical. On the other hand, those in “Monsoon Wedding” are inside of the life because a wedding ceremony is narrated. Furthermore, festivals have always been very important for the Indian people despite all the troubles.

As far as I am concerned, whenever I think about India, the color orange comes to my mind. This feeling has strengthened with this film. Of course, the clothes produced there are original and the soil colors are dominant. So, the orange flowers which decorate the garden during the wedding ceremony strengthens this impression. The reason why I mentioned all these is that everything in the film belongs to the Indian culture, including the names Mira Nair used. It can be easily understood that Mira Nair will continue to transfer the Indian culture to the West with all its rhythm. Additionally, that the uncle from America was send back to his home and the people who had wobbled between Western and Oriental traditions chose their own cultures expresses much for the Indian cinema as regards the present traditions.