Postcolonial studies & Bollywood

 Hello readers...

This activity is a part of my academic writing.Here I had explained the postcolonial features in the 2 iconic movies,

1.Lagan.

2.Rang De Basanati.

The postcolonial studies denotes a loosely defined inter-disciplinary field of perspectives, theories and methods that deal with the non-material dimensions of colonial rule and, at the same time, postulates the deconstruction of colonial discourses and thought patterns that continue to exert an influence up into the present. One of the reasons for the importance of this current for European history is that its adherents define colonialism as a cluster of reciprocal relationships that has shaped not only the colonised regions, but also the European metropole. In addition, the nuanced methodological and theoretical apparatus developed by "postcolonial studies" to describe and analyse asymmetrical power constellations and hierarchical modes of representation in colonial contexts can also be transferred to primarily internal European questions .

Postcolonial Literature Characteristics

• Appropriation of Colonial Languages. Postcolonialwriters have this thing they like to do. 
• Metanarrative. Colonizers liked to tell a certain story. 
• Colonialism. 
• Colonial Discourse. 
• Rewriting History. 
• Decolonization Struggles. 
• Nationhood and Nationalism. 
• Valorization of Cultural Identity.

1. Lagan

Lagaan is a blockbuster Bollywood film directed by Ashutosh Gavarikar. This movie is about a struggle faced by the people of Champaneer village during colonial rule. There can be various postcolonial aspects, few of them are:

In in this film the colonizers are portrayed as the centre or the super power and the colonized portrayed as the other. It gives the colonized the perception that they are inferior to the colonizer. England was one of the super powers during colonization in India, and this is very evident in the film. For instance in the movie the antagonist, Captain Russell, is the decision maker and the villagers have no other choice but to follow them. There is a cultural transition that cuts through Gili-danda to cricket.

Hybridity here is portrayed here when Elizabeth the sister of the antagonist teaches the Indians how to play the colonizers sport (cricket) and she intern learns the local language to talk to the localities nonetheless there are instances where in she tries on the Indian attire. This is the exchange of culture that takes place. The villagers find a way to turn the most British of customs into an Indian creation and this further introduces the concepts of  mimicry where in the villagers try to create the sports gear just like the Britishers, they try to learn the rules of the game and follow it. There are lingering effects that offer both the chance to beat the colonizers at his own game and the chance to join the colonizers game, playing by his rules. Likewise fervent, frantically almost religious attachment to the game is given by colonialism.

Reverse colonialism, the rejection of white feminity is highly apprehensive here. The religious story is added perhaps as an attempt to make sense of relationships that’s about colonialism without use of colonialism. In other words it’s trying to disguise the facts that is about race and colonialism by using religion as an alternate framework. Elizabeth represents the goodness of colonialism and Russell on the other hand represents the evilness of colonialism. The winning of the match at the end, constructs an overall view of decolonization.

2.Rang De Basanti

The intersecting of time, history, narrative and subjectivity unfolds an intermeshed trajectory of notions about history's role in shaping views about nationalism and identity in Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra's popular film, Rang De Basanti (2006). This article addresses a confluence of the pedagogic and the performative modes of history in relation to nationalism and modernity in the film. History, taught via return, is experienced as otherness and eventually performed via a remediation of this otherness, thereby making it relevant to contemporary times. Offering diverse theoretical arguments about history and its narration, I also propose that history, although laden with mimetic impulses and desires for the male characters, excludes the women from mimetic agency. A Levinasian reading of the film's conclusion ultimately resolves the confines of historical determinism and reveals an aesthetic of mimeticism premised on ethical desire for transformative imperative that effectively displays history's otherness as well as its subjective performance.

Notes

 1. I borrow the idea of the pedagogic mode and the performative mode from Homi Bhabha's essay, ‘Dissemination, Time, Narrative and the Margins of the Modern Nation.’

 2. Her project does not get approved by the producers who believe that ‘Gandhi sells.’ Refusing to forego it, Sue decides to continue with this project on her own as she decides to go to India and make the film.

 3. When Sukhi is shot, DJ is genuinely surprised that they are being attacked with bullets. Earlier as they hug each other, they sincerely believe that they will only go to jail after having their voice heard by the nation. This plan echoes Bhagat Singh's plan when he discusses with Azad how they should cause an explosion in the parliament and have their voices against British imperialism heard; Bhagat Singh believed that they could have a huge impact with this strategy. Karan Singhania and DJ, likewise, believed that they would be able to bring the real story of the cause of Ajay's death.

 4. Bolter and Grusin's theoretical explanation of the distinction between immediacy and hypermediacy, although pertaining to new digital media, is meaningful in understanding the film-within-the film strategy in Rang De Basanti.

 5. In ‘The Storyteller,’ Benjamin articulates how the ‘Counsel woven into the fabric of real life is wisdom’ .

 6. A scene when she looks at the poster-chart with pictures of the revolutionaries (characters) and the pinned-up pictures of DJ and his friends (actors) suggests an iconographic superimposition of personalities and experiences. The roles of Bhagat Singh ascribed to Karan Singhania, Chandreshekhar Azad to DJ, Rajguru to Sukhi, Ramprasad Bismal to Laxman Pandey, and Ashfaqullah Khan to Aslam are designated by Sue based on her grandfather's views about the historical heroes and her emotional interactions with the modern day actors.

Thank you...