13 Jul 2007

what the other half sees

in the discussion about the other India
we are always told about the economic and social divide
what about cultural?

A few days ago i was returning from lansdowne
and i passed a cinema in najibabad
there was a hoarding of neha dhupia
staring at me with the words "Sheesha"
alongside
this was one of the forgettable films she had done
but curiously on the same hoarding there was another
woman in a bikini sitting at what looked like a beach
with the words "Yaara da Tashan" alongside
For a passer by it looked liked one film

Cinemas in towns all over North and Central India
have these strange combo films where they insert
reels of a English flick in between a C grade hindi film
(in the south they always have have mallu films soft porn)

What is interesting is that the two films
have no connection and the reels alternate
while the audience does not bother with a story

The other posters on the walls were
Qayamat (yes they are running a morning show)
Awarapan
and
Himesh the Resham the movie

How in the hell are we going to get these two worlds to sit down and talk?

1 comment:

manythoughts said...

It's not just soft porn or C grade 'hot' films. On one trip to Daman, we saw posters of 'Paap ka Anth (Dharmendra)' and one of Akshay Kumar's Khiladi movies. This is an India we see only through the windows of a moving vehicle, an India of which we know nothing. But, in dreams and aspirations, I don't think there's that much difference. Thanks must go to cable TV for this, which feeds the same fodder for thought (or lack of it) to the entire nation.