The films trade visual shorthand and stock characters. An evil clinginess in the dress, a charming redness on the lips. A Swaminathan made a funny presentation with his Tamil accent, a Ms Braganza led a convent school choir Hymn. The films take liberties in terms of portrayal and stereotyping – a modern young woman is made a Christian or a Parsi to justify perceived Westernity (recent films, such as those of 2012). cocktailGive their free-spirited heroine a Western name, as if to provide pleasing justification to the more conservative).
Some, perhaps braver, filmmakers have ventured into more nuanced territory, delving into the world of minority communities who are often relegated to the background of the film industry. Of these, some narratives focus on the Anglo-Indian community, a rapidly shrinking group of people in India who claim both British and Indian ancestry.
‘air of approval’
1975s Julie These visual metaphors are traded. Like many minority portrayals, it both describes and delimits. The Anglo-Indian heroine Julie, played by Lakshmi, is sweet in face, charming in nature and has a short skirt. His characterization is what old-timers considered everything wrong with “kids these days”, a reflection of a persistent prejudice with very obvious roots. Her father is an alcoholic and her family drinks to celebrate. As with all heroines, many people flirt with her, but her Anglo-Indian identity makes it clear that she has a generous spirit.
In ‘Julie’, the Anglo-Indian heroine, played by Lakshmi, is sweet in face, charming in nature and short in skirt. , Photo Credit: IMDb
a similar sentiment is evident Bhawani Junction (1956), a Hollywood adaptation of the eponymous novel that follows the path of Anglo-Indian Victoria Jones (played by Ava Gardner) on the cusp of India’s independence, as she struggles to find the place where she belongs . Multiple abuses (along with shocking words like chi-chi for Anglo-Indians and wog for Indians) further spice up the dramatic story, which weaves through a web of romance, intrigue, patriotism and the (mis)use of the saree. Increases attractiveness. Ava Gardner and her identity crisis. It makes an honest attempt to portray a fraught identity caught in the cross-fire, but is somewhat let down by the choice of white actors to play multiple Anglo-Indian and Indian roles. The actor playing the town collector Govindaswamy – Marne Maitland – is the only person of Indian heritage with any significant screen time.
different illustrations
Coming back to the subcontinent, Aparna Sen’s book offers a more restrained portrayal of post-war Anglo-Indians. 36 Chowringhee Lane (1981). Lonely Violet Stoneham is a widowed English teacher who is fond of Shakespeare and lives quite alone with her black cat Toby at 36, Chowringhee Lane in Kolkata. His brother Eddie is ill and in an old age home, his niece Rosemary has married and moved to Australia. Companionship and warmth come in the form of old student Nandita and her boyfriend Samaresh, but they too have better things to do than put up with an old English teacher. Violet’s loneliness is not simply a result of social exclusion, but her belonging to the Anglo-Indian community brings her plight into sharp relief. She is left more alone than ever, otherwise she might have been more naive to the charms of a friendly face.
Miss Stoneham is portrayed with utmost poise and composure by Jennifer Kendall, the British actress who is married to Shashi Kapoor and founded Prithvi Theatre, bringing a touch of authenticity to the story.
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Konkona Sen Sharma moves ahead following her mother’s footsteps one death in ganj (2016), His directorial debut was set in McCluskieganj, an Anglo-Indian town in Jharkhand in the 1970s. The film slowly unfolds the story of Vikrant Massey, a young student named Shutu, who is on holidays with his extended family. Here heritage serves to set the scene, explaining some of the colonial differences between families, and exerting a deliberate class demarcation effect that is exactly the same as parasiteNevertheless, there is a satire against Kalki Koechlin’s Mimi, in which Shutu’s aunt says something about her narrow-mindedness and a foreign mother.
The most recent and (unintentionally) camp of Anglo-Indian depictions comes Archies (2023), a “nepo-baby-filled” venture set in a fictional, idyllic Anglo-Indian town called Riverdale. The choice of an Anglo-Indian setting here seems to justify the pastel-coloured settings and the uncertain Hindi of the lead cast, with a slight dash of patriotism to balance the very obvious nostalgia for colonial-era aesthetics . The fact that its characters radiate South Bombay vibes is also a revelation of some of the colonial class coding that has seeped into current notions of the glamorous, the rich and the elite.
an old story trick
The use of outlandishness to portray perceived immorality or lack of integrity is an old narrative trick, and most of these films use it in some form or another. The goals of this narrative feel like they are often emphasized in films, with Julie’s mother wanting to move with her son Jimmy to London, to Patrick Taylor. Bhavani considered himself more associated with British interest, and even Archie Andrews wanted to study abroad.
The linguistic choices are interesting, even if not entirely representative: they include a casually thrown-in “man” or “will happenMiss Stoneham’s crisp, clipped accented vocals are reminiscent of ghosts-of-a-rain-and-martinis past. It is difficult to determine a uniform Anglo-Indian accent from this sample, but some rhythms are deliberately chosen.
Some professional similarities also emerge in some films. Julie’s father is an engine driver in the railways, while Victoria’s father and Patrick also work in the railways. As revealed in a paper Bhawani Junction By John Masters (the book on which the film is based), Anglo-Indians during the British period had a close relationship with the railways as well as elements of the infrastructure built by the British.
Whether films provide a clear picture of inherently complex identities is questionable. But in reality, the very idea of who can be described as Anglo Indian is loose, a little uncertain. Before independence, the Government of India Act of 1935 described an Anglo-Indian as a person “whose father or in whose male line any other male ancestor was or was of European descent, but who is a native of India Is resident.” This definition was more or less retained when Anglo-Indians were listed as a minority in the Constitution in 1950 and two seats were reserved for the community in the Lok Sabha (this was abolished through a constitutional amendment in 2020 .) Does this fall within its scope? Those people of Portuguese-Indian, French-Indian and British descent who remained in India? It will include a wide range of immersive experiences beyond the misty Mussie stories of Ruskin Bond and the popular stories of William Dalrymple. white mogul,
A scene from ‘Heat and Dust’.
Other famous films based on the equally complex equation between British subjects and Indians during colonialism include several Merchant Ivory productions Heat and Dust (1983)Or a route to india (1984). Others refer to Indians who benefited or prospered under the Raj. There is a contemporary current that seeks neat divisions of before and after, ignoring the presence of a complex interrelationship that cannot be so easily resolved or forgotten. Sadly, history was never that clean. Movies like Julie have dialogues that wouldn’t sound out of place today, almost 50 years later. Perhaps what we really need is a clean slate of these films to satisfy our colonial hangover.
published – December 27, 2024 01:09 PM IST
