KHNH is only a movie - it is not trying to teach about life, Anitha. If you do not need "any cool Indian actors in quasi- American clothes to teach you about the meaning of life", don't watch the movies - it is as simple as that.
But if you insist on watching them - pay closer attention - neither Hrithik's character in MDK, nor Abhishek's character in Kuch Naa Kaho were looking for a girl from India (Hrithik was just looking for his confidante and friend who he e-mailed his entire life, Abhishek's character was infact adamant not to have his family find him a nice Indian girl). And which one of your Indian-American categories does Naina (of KHNH) fall into? Or Rohit (Saif's character?). Maybe Indian movies do show some diversity and understanding of Indian-Americans after all...
I personally think that KHNH was a good movie that depicted strong Indian-American characters like Naina, Rohit and Jenny (Jaya Bachchan's character) and we should applaud the effort that the Johars' are making to make better cinema.
I guess the writer has neglected to put Hindi ones into perspective. Most of these movies do not attempt to a. teach anybody anything about India/US or anything at all, b. Cinematic liberties of locales, dresses are not new, dances at the drop of the hat has always been around, I probably figured that out by the time I was 5. c. Plots do not to have to make sense, 2+2 can be anything the director wishes it to be. The writer's peeve seems to be about NRIs being misrepresented, I guess she should be reminded how 'regular indians' are equally faithfully misrepresented in these movies, maybe that will soothe her feelings a bit.
For most of these movie directors, a happy 2 1/2 hours spent in a auditorium listening to loud but cute songs, with cool heroes and hot heroines and some laughter and tears is all they want to provide, and for the audience to look for deeper meaning and truth in such a movie is just a shortcut to getting heartburn (which can be easily and with more pleasure, obtained from eating some hot hot yum yum Indian food!). The writer needs to take it easy while watching 'comercial cinema' aka Hindi movies or restrict him/herself to 'artsy movies' from India.
i completely agree with ur views...indian directors need to learn from hollywood guys who take the pain of staying in a diff. country for a yr and then start filming.the only person who according to me can do justice to any movie is Aamir khan..please aamir..make a movie regarding NRI's. I can surely say people staying in US are more indian than anyone... i have never seen such helpful people going out of their way to help anyone who is indian. Not to mention about the bhajans, festivals which take place so often. India is fast changing...maybe in some yrs time..i will get a complex if i go back to india... the western culture has bit them. hope the traditions stay as that is the only thing left for people like us who stay in US.
It was with a lot of expectation that i started reading this article. It turned out to be disappointing and bad, for one the columnisit has been picky and boasts of her knowledge of New Yorks geography rather than the movie and she dosen't seem to be able to get over how weel she knows the place for most of the column. It is only at the end of it that she actually talks of a few relevant issues when she points out the regular mundame scripts of Bollywood where we have "Real Indians" coming elsewhere to preach our own values to us. It is amazing that 1 director after the other trots out screenplays of how only Indians living in India are moral and value our culture. Surprisinlgly, these are the directors who also aim movies specifically for NRI audiences. It just makes me wonder if the script writers are hypocritical or we the audience are, because we seem to lap up these movies anyway although we know that the premise on which the entire story rests is faulty. I can only request the coulmnist to keep her criticism to relevant things rather than devote spce to irrelevant criticism.
I read this article and found very interesting. Although I am born and raised in India, I have been living in big cities in US for last 4 years. I also have lot of cousins who are born and brought up in the US. I share the view with the author about Indian movies portraying wrong picture of Indo-American culture. I think most of the Indian-American kids are brought up well and they do not need any kind of teaching and preaching. In fact its the Indian kids in India that need some guidance now. I have been to India in last couple of years and found that the kids over there are too much under Western influence. In contrast, as author said, the AmericanIndian kids try to rediscover Indian culture. I agree that movies from Yash Chopra-Yash Johar-Subhash Ghai are totally junk and I dont know how they are appreciated by audience. If anybody wants to make a movie about Indian-American culture, they should follow example of movies like American Desi, Hyderabad blues.
I undestand where Anitha is coming from in her article but Movies are supposed to be meant for entertainment. I am from UK and Indo British as well as native British people love Indian movies here..in fact after Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gum, Indian movies seem to have gone into top 3 and they seem to be regular in this brackett.
Now having said that, it means most people outside India like Indian movies and other stuff in the culture that originates in India and still belongs there. So I find Anitha's comments a bit narrow minded and feel she finds it hard to digest the facts of cultural difference and the cultural loss Indians living abroad have had which has been truly depicted in all the Indian movies she has mentioned (I do not know the streets and parks of New York though)
Anyway, the sooner we try to understand that we need to do a lot to earn the pride of being an Indian..just because most Indians are poorer in India then us Indians living abroad, does not make us better Indians, does it?
I agree with the author as I also hate Karan Johar's illogical movies. Why can't we have Hindi movies that tell stories of resident Indians? We need more movies like Saathiya and Ishq Vishk Pyar Vyar. But regarding the title- "who's better- Indians or NRIs", I would like to clarify that NRI is not a real 'group' of people, it is rather a legal term. There is no homogeneous group called 'NRIs' having common characterstics. WE- THE RESIDENT INDIANS CREATED THIS CONCEPT CALLED "NRI" in order to facilitate inflows of foreign investment in our country (i.e. India) and it is working. But, as far as being Indian in its true sense is concerned, either you are one, or you are not !!! There is simply no third option like 'non-resident Indian' or 'partial Indian' or 'Half-Indian'. All these are terms of legal convenience. Loyalty to a country is either 0 or 100 and it cannot be 50-50.
