Why is it
that silence signifies dignity
and loudness boorishness?
are these just words?
Oh, and Oye Lucky is the most misunderstood movie ever made.
"Meethe Meethe, Tere Meethe Meethe Bol
Oye Oye Oye Oye
Saanu Kaat Gayi
Saanu Baat Gayi
Saanu Chhaat Gayi
Tu Jugni Jugni"
translation:
"pretty girl
your sweet talk
it's cut me
bled me
ruined me"
there's more to these lines than just unrequited love. I remember reading an article by Amartya Sen about how society needs a little inequality to promote growth - the argument being that those at the bottom will aspire to be on the top.
The question Oye Lucky poses is - what if that route to the top is frustrated by societal norms that will not allow (for instance) the maid in my parent's house in Delhi to eat at the dining table? Where does the aspiration go when it is not allowed to manifest itself in public, but must always play the role of lubricant?
These are very real questions, and they hit people like me right in the gut because it questions so much about our upbringing. We are privilged in ways that are completely unimaginable to us - it isn't only money or parental care, it is a more basic attribute of freedom to be wherever we want to be without fear of spite or envy.
Not sure what I'm thinking of, but perhaps one goal for any society that seeks to be progressive and fair is to allow for upward mobility.
I cannot think of any other movie that made me come up with such questions. The thing is this "message" is so subtle and understated in the movie that it has been missed completely at least by most of the mainstream critics who bother with Bollywood. I've seen this movie 4 times now, and begin to get it only now.
"Lucky in middle class walon se bach ke rahna. Yeh dikhte angrez hai, karte desi hain."
Update: just realized that Amartya Sen's concept of development as freedom ties in closely with this - Lucky's freedom is limited by a societal norm borne apparently out of artificial considerations.
5 comments:
Erm, right.
OLLO is of course very much reflective of Delhi/North India.
One of the reasons why I liked Mumbai when I moved there was that there seemed to be greater 'fluidity' in social mobility- people believed that if they slogged their butt off they, or their kids, would eventually move up in life. Then again, the people who eventually climb the fastest are usually the ones who've been transplanted from elsewhere and can use their 'desi' skills and networking abilities best...
That would be an interesting thing to look into: social mobility differences between cities, and what you could do to enhance it (in any one city).
I would buy the argument that Mumbai has less of a class bias than Delhi (and probably Calcutta has the least)...can this be the reason why Bombay attracted so much more investment at least initially? Then you would need to think about whether these norms can themselves shift etc.
and I went a bit wrong on the Sen theory. What Sen had proposed was a definition of poverty as the capability to enjoy certain freedoms.
Now, social norms may be a hindrance to the enjoyment of "freedom" and therefore to development. I don't think it is a bad argument. Of course I don't buy all of the dialogue in the movie, but it is a perspective I've ignored.
btw arent the quoted lines and the translation just brilliant?
I think you've got the causation wrong. Part of the reason why Mumbai and Bangalore have less of a class bias is that they're relatively new cities, built up by the British (Bangalore was around much earlier, but it really got a lot more importance only after the British landed up). Both cities have less historical baggage, and also a lot more immigrants from the very beginning of their rise. The increased investment in Mumbai was probably thanks to Gujju businessmen. Aakar Patel had once written a column about Mumbai getting it's culture from Surtis brought in by the British.
Possibly testable theory - social mobility in Gurgaon/Noida, with more varied immigrants and less fixed social norms, compared to Old or Central Delhi.
Those quoted lines and the translation is cool, but I'm not sure how it fits in with social mobility...
very good ideas Joe, thanks. Should I put you down as co-author in case some prof in my department is crazy enough to entertain these ideas seriously?
I don't see why not...I've seen crazier ideas..
Probably a further generalization would be: in areas where there are more migrants, is it easier or harder to "climb the ladder"? I can think of arguments going both ways.
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