Here is the lecture content:

"The first thing Oberoi explores for us in the article is the
fact that this is a clean film and what makes it a clean film. According to
overall, what makes this makes it a clean film is 4 things it is. It is
absolutely not vulgar, so it is very. Let's say non vulgar. Everyone is very
rich. It's very shows affluence. There's a lot of sacrifice. I'm having trouble
spelling sacrifice and there is the portrayal of family. So family as
tradition, family as a representation of Indian tradition. So we're going to
explore each of these for a little bit here. The film is very non vulgar.
What does that mean? Any film that you have seen is is pretty non vulgar
right? It's not we we have not seen anything that you that you would
categorize it as vulgar. But the thing that we have to understand here is
the. Application of criteria is very cultural, right? So a kiss on the mouth is
very kosher for American film. It absolutely is not kosher or I should say
was not kosher till about a decade ago in Hindi film. So. So in that respect
applying those. Those metrics, this is a very clean film. It's also very clean
because there is genuinely no violence in the film. No one gets murdered,
no one gets hit, no one even runs, no one. You know, none of that
happens. It's very clean. One slap happens in the phone. There's one act
of violence, which we will explore in a little bit, but that is it, right? So it's
a very, it's a very nonviolent film in that sense and anything that could
potentially be vulgar. Has been very sanitized, so our author tells us that
there are certain relationships in in. In the way they are talked about and
the way they are discussed. So the relationship between let's say Nisha.
And Rakesh. Uh, so she is Nisha. Our heroine is Rakesh's sister-in-law,
right? But that particular relationship being a sister-in-law to a brother-
in-law. So a sister to an older sister-in-law, in the relationship between
an older sister and older sister's husband, is a relationship that's talked
about in very vulgar, very lewd terms, or can be. And that's not even a
little bit happening in this film. The other relationship is the relationship
between Pooja. And frame our hero. Um, Puja is his again sister-in-law.
But that particular sort of relationship, so older brother's wife and
younger brother, those are. That's a relationship that's talked about in
very lewd, very loose terms and that absolutely does not happen in this
particular film, so. Things are kind of sanitized. There is no, there's not
even a hint of vulgarity in the film. And there is no discussion of anything,
any relationship in in sexual terms, even the relationship between Pooja
and Rakesh, who are husband and wife, it's it's very, it's very clean, right?
We don't we don't see any. Anything that could even potentially be
called vulgar or, you know, any of that sort. So in that sense, it's
supposed to be a very rich, very, very clean film. The other thing that we
see in this film is affluence. The idea of affluence kind of becomes
important for us as we start looking at more film from the 1990s to
contemporary India to contemporary Hindi film. It's interesting because
earlier film. A lot of film from the 60s, seventies, 80s. So that's, that's and
and actually before that 50s and 40s even was not glorifying wealth. It
was actually glorifying the absence of wealth. Again we have to think
about, we have to think about what where India is at that point, right.
India is just getting independence and the idea of being middle class and
being someone who can contribute in a very material way is new. Right,
so we are thinking of ways in which people could contribute, but in non
material ways. So, but by the time 1990s arrive, the economy has been
opened up. There's a lot of foreign investment. So the idea of wealth is
people are getting used to wealth and people are getting used to the idea
that wealth is not a bad thing, right? A lot of cinema of 60s and 70s
portrayed wealth as a bad thing. So the rich guy was always the evil guy.
He was the one who was trying to, trying to be mean to or trying to kind
of overturn. Everything that the poor person, the poor hero was doing in
film, right? That changed in 1990s. So the idea of wealth became became
very OK and not only did it become OK, it became very every day. So
there is no discussion of class in this film. Class actually doesn't exist. We
actually see that there are servants in this house. So we see the character
of Lulu. He's a servant, right? We see him as a servant. He's presented as
such. But we see how amazing of a relationship he has with the family.
So there is no discussion of class. There is no, there is no actual
difference in class that is presented to us in any way. That is, that is
thought provoking, right. So class is basically erased and we see it, we
see it in a very uphill way, right. So we see. Good furniture. We see
amazing costumes, we see amazing huge houses, beautiful sets,
beautiful locations, multiple cores. Everyone is rich and that is OK. We
see the idea of sacrifice. We see that. We see that everyone in the film is
ready to sacrifice. So we see two uncles, the. Uncle that the the guy who
plays uncle to Prem our our hero and and and Rakesh's brother and we
also see. Mamaji. He is also a kind of a picture and sacrifices. His wife is
kind of mean and out there she's weird. She's the only weird character in
the film. And he he's really close to his nephews who are his sister who
has died. They're his, they're her children and he's very close to them and
that sort of thing. So both of these characters have actually made a lot of
sacrifice. And then of course there is frame and Nisha who are. Who are
about to make a lot of sacrifice, but we see that they don't. So the the
people that that Oberoi did work with were interviewed kind of said that
all of these themes emerge for them in this film, as well as elements that
make it make it kosher, that make it clean. So, so back to talking about
sacrifice, right? Kakachi's character sacrifices in that he does not marry.
He devotes his life to these two boys who are now adult men, Rakesh
and Prem, and his job becomes to take care of them and to take care of
the family, to take care of the business. Mamachi is kind of just there for
the boys. His father, he does not have a child, so he's we kind of see the
undertones of. That, and he's just there to look out for the boys. And then
we of course see Prem and Nisha who are who are on the verge of taking
very big sacrifice for the family and that they we, we learn that they are
in love with each other. They have been in love with each other almost
throughout the film, but as the film progresses we do see that they're
love really flourishes. But towards the end we find that Nisha is actually
going to marry Rakesh and she doesn't know Prem knows so Prem.
Sacrifice is somehow bigger than nisha's sacrifice for one of Patricia
Oberoi's our our authors, readers, our authors, interviewees. Because
Prem knew that he was sacrificing from the very beginning. So the idea
of sacrifice again comes up, right? It's very prevalent, it's very there. And
characters who are sacrificing are seen as positive, good characters. And
of course we see that throughout the film. Other people also kind of you
don't see them sacrifice, but you see their reaction to the sacrifice, right?
And that reaction is very good. It's a very positive reaction to sacrifice,
which is, which tells us that they are there. They view it in a positive way.
It's a good thing that other characters are sacrificed. And the last theme
of course, that that emerges is family and the way it is, it is represented.
So family is kind of seen as tradition, right? And not just as tradition, it's
seen as Indian tradition. I'm just going to write folk here and then we're
going to talk about it. So family and the way the family. Evolves. The way
the family operates and interacts with each other are always of an ideal
dealing with each other. In an Indian traditional way. So family is not just
family, it's a representation of what an ideal Indian family should be.
Within the representation of the family and the place, the sight of where
we see this tradition is throughout the film. We see multiple occasions
where there are celebrations, right? So it starts with with an engagement
ceremony. It's very traditional looking very, very beautiful, but very, very
traditional. And then we see the wedding. And within the wedding we
see various ceremonies. There is a song where Madhuri Dixit is wearing.
The heroine is wearing a white, a big skirt and a green top. That song is
about a particular ceremony about stealing shoes that happens in every
wedding. The details are not really all that important. What is really
important is. Is to kind of see what is happening on the on the scene
right. And that is and how that is traditional and how actually that is
borrowed from folk cultures. But I find that but it finds a place in all
weddings and it is represented as tradition in this film. OK so so all of
these things, the idea of a non vulgar film, the idea of affluence, the idea
of. Government and servants actually having a voice. So an erasure of
class. The idea of sacrifice and characters in the film. Multiple characters
in the film making that sacrifice. The idea of family being tradition and
representing tradition. And the and folk traditions being represented in
family functions and in family ceremonies, all of that kind of combined
together made this film a clean film for for the audience that Patricia
Uberoi interacted with. So that kind of ends her the the first part of this
chapter that we read for today. The other things she talks about are
details of how how this family interacts with itself with each other, or
how members of the family interact with each other. The idea of a joint
family, or let's say an ideal joint family is. Reliant on the fact that
individual interest is always secondary to family interest. So individual
interest also in terms of individual relationships. So relationships, let's say
between a husband and a wife, or a parent and a child or individual
members of the family, let's say two sisters, sisters in-law or two
brothers or anyone, right. All of that is secondary. Those relationships are
secondary to the. Daughter interest of the family. That is the underlying
principle of a joint family, or let's say an idealized underlying principle of a
joint family. This film really does speak to that. It really talks about the
interest of the entire family as being above the interest of individual
characters in the film. That is something that spoke to a lot of people
about this film. The fact of the matter is whether or not a lot of families
are joint families in India anymore, because some are. It is definitely
seizing to be an urban phenomena, but it is still very much there. Um. But
whether or not it is a practiced thing anymore, whether or not multiple
brothers and their parents and sisters in law and their children and their
children are living together under one roof, is not, is not the point. The
point is that this film is providing a script. If they were. So the the the
reason for the success of the film was was that. There are other things
about the film and the way the family interacts with each other in the film
that stand out to to Oberoi and to people who talked to Oberoi about the
film. So one of the things is this idealized, idealized script that this film
provides. The other is how so many things were sanitized in this film. So
some of these things were there is basically no tension. Which means
that points of tension and joint family which are usually and we will
actually our film for next week is also about a joint family. So we we
explore this theme of family a little bit more next next week as well. The
idea of points of tension in in a family, in a joint family are kind of taken
away from this film. So there are no mother in laws, right? There is.
There's no mother-in-law in the house that Pooja marries and toast. She
is. She's the woman of the house and she's treated with respect and all
of that. We'll talk a little bit more about women's roles a little later, but.
But there's no point of tension. Pooja cannot have a tense moment with
anyone. The brothers love each other. We are sure we see that they love
each other. That's another point of tension. But we are. We work with
the assumption in this phone that there is nothing there. There is no
tension between the brothers, sisters in law. So Rakesh's wife and
Prema's wife could be a point of tension, but they are not, because they
are also sisters. So we are seeing that we we have shown that there are
no ways in which there's any tension. There could be any tension here.
There is none. The other thing that this this film does is. It shows equality
between what a lot of anthropologists in India or of India. Uh. Called the
distinction between wife takers and wife givers. So this is kind of. This is
kind of an interesting point. And give and give this some thought,
because of course it it seems so, so bizarre to even say these things,
right? Wife givers and white wife takers? But the way the system works
in India and has worked or I should not say India, I should say South Asia
and other parts of the world is there is a... These are all very patriarchal
societies. Well, American societies as well. But within these societies,
having a male child has more capital than having a female child. Marrying
a female child is has had a lot of negatives associated with it throughout
the centuries. A lot of this has to do with economics, with with how much
money it takes and it it has to do with women's right to property. We
don't need to go into all of that, but you kind of need to know that these
two facts exist, right? So a male children have more capital and marrying
female children is supposed to be. Thing, and not necessarily a positive 1
S within this context, anthropologists have made a distinction between
wife givers, people who have daughters. Within the family structure that
is and wife takers people who have sons again within the family
structure. So in this particular context Nisha's parents Nisha and Pooja's
parents are wife givers and Rakesh and and Prince family or wife takers,
right? They are taking pooja in and and Pooja's parents are giving her
right. So an actual human being is exchanging hands. Here. And I won't
talk about that in that because I could talk about that all day, but I won't.
So, but, but in this context, there's a power dynamic. A wife givers
always have less power than wife takers because they have sons, and
sons has are supposed to have more capital. So this is a distinction that
has been drawn for this particular context or for understanding marriage
and family in South Asia. Now this film erases that distinction, or at least.
Helps us that it is erasing it. You will see with there is a subtext that
Nisha and Pooja's parents have less power in the family. They actually in
the former part, in the first part of the movie, in the very first 30 minutes
of the movie, when it is decided that Pooja and Rakesh will marry,
Pooja's father says thank you to Rakesha's uncle and Tokaji and Kakaji
says no, I'm the one who should say thank you. That's a very profound.
Moment in the film, if you understand this and I will work with the
assumption that you do because the things that I have told you about this
you are to take at face value. OK, so. So when we understand that
context, we also understand that this particular film. Took care of all of
this in that it didn't it didn't pay any attention to this or tried not to. It
presented to us a very egalitarian and a very utopian family in which
everyone was happy and everyone had power. Whether or not that
power was coming from places of actual power is not the issue, right? So
we see that the female. Characters have power. Whether or not that is
real power that can be cached or it used is a different issue. But they do
have power. We see that Pooja has given a lot of it's a lot of respect, and
she has voice and all of those things which are good things. But is that
real power? Can it be capitalized? That's a different issue. Can it be used
for her own agency in her life? We don't know that or we don't need to
care about that for in the context of this film. But what we need to
understand is these things are kind of taken away. The last thing that is
interesting is in in terms of understanding. How the film works is is
Mommy's character. I have a picture for you here just just to just to
remind us who she is, but we'll look at that in a few minutes. She's the
loud woman who. Who is constantly over makeup wearing and wears
very gaudy clothing and all of that. She is the only one in the film who in
in everyday language kind of keeps it real in that she's actually talking
outside of this utopia. She's actually talking about real world things. She's
actually talking about dowry and she's talking about about who will care
for a child when the child's mother is dead and all of those things she's
talking about. Actually real things that are outside of the utopia of this
film. But we see that she is. She's proven to be wrong when the film goes
on. But coming back to the reading, we see that. We see that these four
things, or let's say family and a joint family. These four things kind of
interact with with how this film is presented to us and how it's not just a
clean film, right? So clean film was goal one for our author. The second
goal for our author was to look at the idea of this family that is presented
to us on the screen as a sociological project and as part of that she looks
at these four or five things. That kind of take us closer to the characters,
but also inform us about what could be happening. Versus what is
actually happening on the screen. And what is actually happening on the
screen is an erasure of a lot of these things that are very real. In doing
that, the film is connecting to its clean project. But it is also a connecting
it to to a project of ideal, ideal nation, nation being right and ideal nation
state. Where there is, there is equality, there is, there is lack of. There is
lack of a power struggle within the family and there is everyone is kind of
getting along and everyone's happy and everyone is rich, right? So all of
these things are kind of getting connected to. The goal that this, this that
this article for today starts with"

Using only the lecture content, answer the following questions in a 150 word response:
1. How does Pooja's character change throughout the film?
2. How does Nisha's character change throughout the film?