Here is the lecture content:

"Before we close the discussion on this reading, I want to
talk to you about three female characters in this film. The first female
character I want to talk about is our heroine for the film, which is, which
is Nisha. So when Nisha is presented to us, she is a kind of presented like
this. She is this very bubbly, very energetic, outspoken, smart girl who is
studying computers, whatever that means. And. That's the film
progresses, her character matures. She is from being a person who is
very free and who is very, who's flirty and singing and doing this, that
and the other. She becomes this very. Very family oriented person who's
cooking for this for her love interest and who is kind of situating herself in
this in this ideal joint family project. Oh, that is so. So the way she's
shown is as if her character matures through the film. I do not know what
you thought about it, but I'm very curious to to know or for you to think
about how Pooja's agency changes through the film. What is she capable
of doing? What could she be capable of doing when the film starts, and
what is she capable of doing when the film? Ends with her marrying
Prame her the the person she wanted to marry and kind of becoming a
mother to Rakesh and Pooja's child. So that is something I want you to to
explore a little bit as you watch this film or if you have already watched
the film, think about it. Think about how her character changes, how
everything about her character changes. So we see that she starts with
wearing very, very light clothing and then as the film progresses and as
she becomes the ideal partner for preme, even in his imagination as. This,
this kind of picture is about his imagination of of Nisha and what she
would be if she were to marry him. She becomes this very traditional,
very traditional clothing wearing, wearing, wearing, wearing person. So
that is something that I would like you to think about, explore. From my
perspective it was definitely her character definitely is shown to too
mature as the film goes on. But I don't know how to how to understand
how her character's loss of agency is a matter of her becoming a part of
the family. Was that loss of agency her own, in which case, whatever, or
was it a factor of where she was and how she how she saw the situation
around her? The next character after Puja that we want to talk or that I
want to talk to you guys about is, is, is pooja after Nisha, I meant to say is
Pooja. So Pooja is Nisha's older sister. Put your character confounds me.
So as I told you earlier, I don't really like this film, but it's a very important
film and it's one of the biggest blockbusters that Hindi cinema has ever
seen. Very important for us to discuss it, but her character I don't really
get. So she becomes Rakesha's wife. She's the only time we kind of see
her not married is is this this particular scene or not in association with
Rakesh in some way? Is in this particular scene where she's with her
parents, she's cooking with her father. And she's, she's presented as a
very mature, very calm, very nice, educated young woman. The second
she marries into the family, she becomes a mother to Prem who a mother
figure to pray who is probably what like years younger than him or
something. So it is not a role that that her age kind of gives her a, it's a
role that. Per her relationship to Preme could potentially give her and not
her relationship to frame, but an idealized form of that relationship to
Prem gives her that role of of a mother ish figure to premium. Which I find
very odd. But again this is this is an idealized representation of a joint
family and here in this in this scenario. Wives of older brothers are to
treat um husbands, younger brothers as sons. So that's what's
happening here. I find that part odd. The other part that is very sanitized
for the film is. Is how easy and how smooth Pooja's transition to this
family is and how much the family tries to make that transition smooth.
For the times that these were in the s and definitely before that and for a
large portion of India now, that is not an easy transition, right? So women
are expected to go live with their husbands and those are not easy things
for. Anyone. Most of the time this is very class specific and then of course
there is things to do with education and who is where and that sort of
thing with a large part of the population still struggles with and and of
course that struggle is very situated in patriarchy and how people treat
women. Or how they think that they can treat women. But Pooja's
transition is very smooth, kind of connected to other ways in which the
film sanitizes this this relationships or the power relationships within the
film. So that is the other thing that is kind of curious about Pooja's
character for for me, the third thing that is very interesting to me about
Pooja's character is how. How much power she somehow. Is supposed
to have as a woman of the family and as the only woman in the family
who's kind of controlling this entire situation and how she how she deals
with it. So she deals with it with a lot of grace we are shown and she's
very happy in her situation and and she's very. She's very comfortable in
her situation, which is all kind of again very sanitized, but very interesting
for me to observe. And I really wonder what you how you think this
character progressed instantly becoming a mother figure right after she
got married and then becoming a mother after she got married and kind
of interacting with the entire family income in the capacity of of an ideal
data and an ideal daughter-in-law. The last character I want to talk about
is is Momiji. As I said earlier, she is the only character in the film who is
non utopian, right? She is the one who has. Who kind of represents real,
real world problems, right. So she says she talks about dowry, which is
very, which is very real in the Indian context for for parents of daughters
to give money to their son-in-law. And it's a very real problem in India.
It's still continues to be a problem, can be a source of a lot of violence
against women, et cetera. She talks about that. She says that there could
be dowry because Rakesh is a very good catch and there could be a lot of
dowry. For his wedding. But these are problems that she she's
introducing or ideas that she's introducing that are very real world, right?
Unlike everyone else in the film who is in this amazing, amazing utopia.
However, she's a comical character. We see her as a negative character.
We also see that she's the only person in the film who. Who is not living
in this ideal context, right? So the clothing she wears, the behavior she
kind of gives us, the way she talks, the way she conducts herself, the
things she says, they're all anti everyone else in the film. Yeah, she's
respected. She's a member of the family. And then she's the only person
who is slapped in the felt, right? So we see that she says something
really mean. She says, and this is this is the scene where she slapped
where she says Rakesh is now motherless child will have to go, will have
to be taken care of by a nanny because what woman would marry
someone who you know who who has a child? And then her husband
slaps her and says, you know, this is, this is. Bad. And you don't
understand things. And maybe This is why we don't have kids, right? So
we're showing that she does not have kids. So she is not the ideal
female. She's the one who does not have kids. She's the one who says
things that are that don't fit the project of the film. What we see as the
film ends that her character is also tamed right? Every character that is
female except Pooja Pooja is presented to us as a very tame person. It's a
very mature person. She's doing what she's supposed to do. Initial is a
very positive character, but she also is very bubbly and she's all over the
place and she's nice, but she's flirty. We see that throughout the film. We
don't see an actual taming, but she comes to her, to her maturity, to her,
to her point of sacrifice. Momiji, however, has to be like she is actually
disciplined. And then she comes to her, comes to the realization that
she's doing something wrong. She's embarrassed in front of the entire.
Family and and that kind of is a turning point for her character. So the
way these three women are and there are more women in the film, right?
So there are there is Nisha and Pooja's mother, again, a very, very, very
sanitized, very, very clean character. All of them play roles of idealized
females, and I wonder what you thought about them in relationship to an
idealized joint family. So what is it that these women are doing for this
idealized joint family? What are the things that? That they are expected
to do that are part of their gender roles that make this family an idealized
joint family. Think about that as you as you think about how gender roles
are portrayed, not just in this film, but but in Hindi cinema in general. This
film was not realistic, but it was ideal. There was. It did not even claim to
be anything more than a depiction of an ideal joint family. We also see at
one point in the film, as has been the theme in a lot of horror film that we
have seen, God intervenes right towards the very end. Tuffy the dog and
and Krishna the God who was idle, you see. They kind of the camera
moves in ways that we kind of think that there might be a collaboration
going on between the two to bring Nisha and and and Prem together. So
in closing, I want to I want to emphasize. What our author has done, she
has shown us that this is a clean film. With the help of a few informants,
she's shown us how family kind of functions in the film. And she has kind
of shown us what the film does, right? What is the role of this film? So as
I kind of close as I close this lecture, I want to juxtapose this film of which
was released in . A more recent film. In terms of what this film did, what
is the role of this film? I cannot emphasize enough that it is a very
interesting exercise to look at representation in film and what it could
mean for a broader audience and for and for lives of those broader
audience. How is the audience reacting with the film and the depiction of
an ideal? Or idealized joint family is the message of the film, but I wonder
if you buy that. The message of the film goes a little bit beyond that. It is
not just about an idealized joint family, it is also about how this idealized
joint family is part of a project that is the Indian traditions project, right?
So this film is very much also about Indian traditions. And those two
things, the idealized joint family and a depiction of Indian traditions
within that idealized joint family, communicate with with what? With
what nation building looks like, right? They communicate with what,
what citizenship looks like good, happy people who are living in large
happy families. It's not that smooth of a transition, right? I don't, I do not
believe that Suraj Barjatya, the director, the writer for this film, his goal
was to show this, this family as a microcosm of India. But I do believe
that if we, if we engage with the film a little closely and if we see what
roles people are supposed to do in the film, we do see some parallels. We
do see some parallels between what citizenship should look like. And
what what family looks like because those are connected things, right?
We actually, if you listen to, if you pay attention to any political discourse,
you will come down to family. Or I should say a lot of times it comes
down to family. It comes down to let's work for families, let's do things
for families. What does the family look like? What's a good family? What
kind of family can we have? What's not a good family? All of that, right.
So you are, I hope you are aware of. Those sort of broader discourses in
American politics as well, but you can kind of see those connections with
this film and the project of Indian traditions that the film kind of takes
further and then the idea of citizenship and what citizenship looks like.
But before we close this lecture I want us to look at, I want to juxtapose
this film that that you saw for this week with a more recent film. The
poster for this film you see here. This film was called Ye Jawani Hai
Diwani, meaning this this youth is crazy. It starred Ranbir Kapoor and
Deepika Padukone. We will see actually a film with Deepika Padukone
later on in the semester. Ranbir Kapoor, just as trivia is. If you remember
Akbar from our film Amar Akbar Anthony and his love interest Doctor
Salma, they were actually actually married in real life and he's their son.
So, so this film actually is very interesting if you look at it as a
juxtaposition next to next to hanappe, hancon, go ahead and look at the
trailer for this film and we'll come back and talk a little bit about it.
Video Clip 1
Study till you are years old. A job at and a girl at . Children at and
retirement at and then wait for your death. [TEXT ON SCREEN: You can
never be old and wise if you were never young and crazy] I don’t want to
live such a boring life. Excuse me. Sorry I’m late, but... Hey, you? Ayesha,
right? We met at Tanya’s party?. Naina... Naina Talwar. Geentanjali’s
cousin. Modern school, same batch. Oh yeah... scholar Naina. How can I
forget these spectacles? [TEXT ON SCREEN: ...and that’s how Naina met]
“Right here.” Bunny. “What’s it all about?” [TEXT ON SCREEN: ...and his
two best friends] I hope you’re not following me. Shut up, Aditi. It is her
fantasy that all the girls in the world should follow her. [TEXT ON
SCREEN: every moment they spend together] “We saw mint in the betel
leaf. Saw a gem on the nose.” “We saw sexy girl and saw a handsome
vagabond.” “When the moon became a cheater and cheated all the starts
said [TEXT ON SCREEN: will be a life time of celebration.] Marriage is like
lentils and rice till years. There should be some minced meat and bread,
chicken leg kabaabs, and Hakka noodles in life. “It has been possessed. It
is not going away.” You scoundrel! “It doesn’t realize what’s good and
what’s bad.” “It is stubborn and doesn’t want to leave.” At least think
about it, we’ll have handsome children. My good looks and my
intelligence. “My insolent heart. My insolent heart doesn’t listen to me.”
Bunny, what do you wish from life? Speed, craziness. Naina, I want to
fly. I want to run and fall, but I don’t want to stop. [TEXT ON SCREEN:
Dharma Productions and Eros International present] Naina, you are not
right but you are different from me. I know. “Beloved, when you put color
with spray gun on me...” [TEXT ON SCREEN: produced by Karan Johar]
“...an innocent girl became a drunkard.” “When you wore jeans and
swayed your waist then the neighbor got ruined.” [TEXT ON SCREEN:
celebrate marriage, wildness, freedom, togetherness, reunions, love.]
“The world said it went wrong.” [TEXT ON SCREEN: Yeh Jawaani Hai
Deewani] Why don’t you understand that if I stay even for two minutes
with you Then what, Naina? I’ll fall in love with you. Again. [TEXT ON
SCREEN: directed by Ayan Mukerji] Yeah, jawani hai diwani.
[Dr. Nagar] Released in 2014, so that's four years ago. And it was a it was
well done, it was well accepted. It was, it was a hit. These both of these
people are very popular right now. But as you see in the three minute
trailer for the film, it has a very, very different feel from Hamade heck on
now granted it is it is made in a year difference or almost decades, which is
very significant time, or actually not that significant time. I will leave that up
to you. But if you think about it, or if you listen to the trailer, at one point
Deepika Padukone's character Naina asks Bunny Ranbir Kapoor's
character what do you want from life? And he says I want speed. I want
my life to go at a certain speed and I want new experiences. And you see
that in the trailer that kind of comes out in the trailer that kind of stands
out. And the film is actually about his adventures and about how this very
educated young girl, she's a doctor in the film. How she interacts with his,
his adventures and his, his desire to see all of the planet and and and to
live in different places and to be with different people and to eat different
foods and all of that. So I want you to see, I want you to watch a song from
this particular film and then we'll come back and close our discussion of
yeah, Jawani Hai, Diwani and Hamaki Henkan.
Film Clip 2
The say there’s no right time to get married. When you do then your bad
time starts. Aditi, my lion, my cheetah... I left you alone for a few years
that you made such a big mistake. Being ill mannered is an illness Such
an illness that with time turns into old age I’m saying that until old age
comes Let’s be a bit ill mannered. I have seen mint in betal leaf, seen
stone in a nose ring, I have seen sexy girls and some handsome guys,
When the moon became a cheater and cheated, All the stars became
wet, watery- eyed, My talk, your talk, talking lots is a bad thing, Keeping
a pot in the plate, potato talk, bread talk, If someone repeats after me, I
will punch you in the face, He’s got a madness over him, doesn’t know
how to stop Now what’s good and what’s bad he doesn’t know the
difference, It’s insisting, not willing to leave, This insolent, ill mannered
heart doesn’t listen to anyone. This insolent, ill mannered heart doesn’t
listen to anyone. How I’m feeling is a question and is amazing, Nobody
knows, nobody knows, This insolent, ill mannered heart doesn’t listen to
anyone. It saw havana in the air, it saw this and that, After eating the
water crestnut of a horn, it saw the lions roar. After going around the
whole earth I gave the earth a push, Bollywood, Hollywood, very, very
jolly good Three foot molehill, height of the Lilliput, If someone repeats
after me I will punch you in the face. It doesn’t know how to turn away
from the way of ostentatious life. It doesn’t know how to cover up in the
blanket of shame. It’s insisting, not willing to leave. This insolent, ill
mannered heart doesn’t listen to anyone. This insolent, ill mannered heart
doesn’t listen to anyone. Today all the moon and stars Transform in disco
lights Let’s turn them off forgetting our worries Saying party all night
For unknown relations Doesn’t know how to break up Thinking about the
upcoming tomorrow Doesn’t know how to fix them It’s insisting, not
willing to leave. This insolent, ill mannered heart doesn’t listen to anyone.
This insolent, ill mannered heart doesn’t listen to anyone. How I’m feeling
is a question and is amazing Nobody knows, nobody knows, This
insolent, ill mannered heart doesn’t listen to anyone.
[Dr. Nagar] Hamade haikan is about the family and about how individuals
interact with the family. Yeah, Jawani had divani is about individuals. This
is a year difference between the times these films were released. And I do
recognize and I want you to recognize that these are very different films.
You have not even seen this particular film. I'm just telling you about it
because I really enjoyed this film and it's very important to look at where
Hindi. Summer has gone in the last years. We will keep talking about that,
of course, as the semester goes. But for now, between the joint family and
the individual is a distance that we have covered in the last years. A lot of
more recent Bollywood has become about the individual and that's that's
lovely, it's great. It's making for very good cinema. Not that cinema from
the s and before it was not good cinema, but it's different and I wonder
what you think the reason for that is. For me the reason is we are
interacting with a very different world. We are interacting with a more
globalized, a more neoliberalism world where the idea of wealth and the
idea of individual wealth and the idea of individuals agency in creating
that wealth or at the forefront, right. So we think that all of those things
are possible, rights of the individual, rights of an individual, th and ability
of an individual to create that. Health are all possible. So if those are all
possible then the individual kind of becomes center stage. And more
recent Hindi film like yeah Jawani Hai Diwani has become about the
individual has brought the individual center stage has said yes to wealth
more so than s cinema was. So if the s and s wealth was not good in the s
it started being OK in in now. In , sixteen and a little bit before that, wealth
is celebrated. It's it's great to have wealth, it's great to see the world. It's
great to have experiences that swave young people are supposed to
have. It's good to be able to say I've been to so many countries and I've
eaten so many foods and all of that. So those are things that are kind of
coming to coming into focus and becoming more celebrated. The reason
for for me for showing these two things to you next to each other is kind
of looking at different textures of Hindi film. So the song you saw from
Yeh Jawani Hai Diwani has a very different appeal to it than anything you
saw in Hamade haikan. Not only that, the song has a lot of you see there's
alcohol flowing and you see, you see people dancing, that is. Actually, not
a dream sequence. Like we have learned that songs can be that in that
context, in the context of that film, that is really happening, right. So
partying and partying to that extent and in that way with a lot of
champagne and a lot of those, that champagne pyramid and all of that,
that's all normalized. So we're talking about a very different economy in
India and therefore we're talking about a very different film. We are going
to continue to explore the idea of of the individual and film, but for now,
let's close with this thought. Hamade haikan is about joint family and it's
about an idealized joint family. We see how that film, our reading, talks a
lot about how that film came to be that and why that film is that. We also
learned a lot of things that the film does, so we see how it interacts with
gender, how it interacts with wealth, how it normalizes, or how it
sanitizes power dynamics within families. And how characters are shown
as sacrificing. Then we saw this really short, these very short snippets of
this other film. Yeh jawani Hai Diwani, we just saw the trailer and one
song. But that film, I'm sure you can tell, has a very different texture. And
that texture is coming from the way middle class India is now interacting
with wealth and now interacting with the idea of. Individual. Those are
very important things for us to know. It does not mean that in India was
not interacting with joint family. India was. India was interacting with joint
family in Hamade Haikan in as well. But the idea of the individual is
normalized and celebrated in and that is significant. That is something for
us to kind of keep in mind as we go on in these in this semester in these
phones, but for now I hope you. You kind of understand what homophobe
Hakon does for the idea of of an ideal nation and for the idea of citizenship"

Using only the lecture content, answer the following questions in a 150 word response:
1. The reading introduces the concept of wife givers and wife takers. How does the film portray these categories?
2. How does Hum Aapke Hain Kaun speak to idealized citizenship in India?