Here is the lecture content:

"I hope it goes without saying at this point that Dilwale
Dulhania Le Jayenge, DDLJ, our film for this week is a cultural relic,
meaning it's a thing on its own that has gone beyond just being a film and
has become an object almost. That doesn't take away from the fact that we
really still need to study it and read it and that type of thing. But in this
lecture I wanted to give you a few examples of how this film has become an
object or a cultural relic. The first example I have is from a speech in 2015
that Barack Obama, the president, the American President at that time,
gave on a trip to India. Go ahead and watch this. It's about a minute and a
half.
Video Clip 1
[President Barack Obama] I recognized India with the first state visit of my
Presidency, where we also danced to some pretty good bhangra. For the
first time, we brought Diwali to the White House. On our last celebration
here. On our last celebration here, we celebrated the festival of Lights in
Mumbai. We danced with some children. Unfortunately, we were not able
to schedule any dancing this visit. "Senorita, bade bade desho mein", you
know what I mean?
Lecture Video Continued
[Dr. Ila Nagar] So. So we see this speech that Obama is talking about the
importance of the relationship between India and the United States. A very
normal thing for a state head to do in a different country. And then at one
point he says, in his very American accent, of course, 'Senorita bade bade
desho mein' and of course I am a native speaker of Hindi. So my accent I
cannot say how Obama said it, but what he's saying is a dialogue from
DDLJ. Now for you if you do not speak Hindi, which is overwhelming
majority of you. This dialogue happens two different times in the film, if not
three. And again, I've seen this film so many times that I still don't
remember. But two I'm sure of and this is Shahrukh Khan's character Raj
speaking to Kajol's character Simran and saying 'senorita, in big cities,
small things happen.' Meaning let's let the small things go. It's all good. Ah,
this dialogue has become a thing in itself, to the extent that as a diplomatic
exercise, when the President of the United States was in India in 2015, he
started speaking this dialogue to kind of show, hey, I know your country,
hey, I know what's important to your people and you know I'm also making
a joke. I'm also making a gesture. So it's of the hundreds upon hundreds of
Hindi films that one has available, this is the one his team chose. For him to
say in enough says something does give us an example that this film is
beyond just being a film. Another example I have for you is from the New
York Times article that I have requested you to read for this week. This
article came out in January of 2023 and this article talks about the fact that
this film Dilwale Duniya Le Jayenge, DDLJ has played in a theater, the
theater called Maratha Mandir in Mumbai for 27 years. So there is at least
one show of this film for the last 27 years. That's not a small thing. The film
has become so big that at year 20, Shahrukh Khan and Kajol kind of did a
whole celebration about the film. Then at year 25, they did a whole
celebration about the film. So again, it's not your everyday film. It's a pretty
big deal type of film. That's why we have to cover it as as material for this
class for a course on on Bollywood. But the beauty of this article, the
reason I picked this article to be part of your reading for this week is just
what film does to an audience. And you know we talked a lot about, Oberoi
talks about this, Banaji talks about this, about how in general, the audience
were touched by this film. The New York Times article, being a journalistic
piece, talks about it in a slightly different way. In that it gives us the
examples of two or three people who find themselves in the space that is
the theater watching this film that is DDLJ and how it has kind of woven
itself into their kind of desperate and poverty ridden lives. So we have the
example of a prostitute who watches this film every day and we have the
example of a homeless man who watches this film often. , And these were
really kind of very poignant examples for me because they really spoke to
how a film becomes life. Right? So this film outside of all of the
commentary that we have made about this film with regards to your article
for this week which talks about this film and and your film for week two with
response towith respect to Banerjee who talks about audience and phone
these two individuals that The New York Times article shows or gives
examples of, are the reason that this film is that big a deal, that it is literally
a part of their lives that kind of helps them keep living life, right? To come to
a theater every day or to come to a theater often just to be part of this film.
.Is it possible that they would have done it with any film that was showing
for 27 years? I really do not know. I cannot say that. However, I really can
say that DDLJ becoming DDLJ is not a small thing and for the people that
this article gives examples of, that this article is built on, this is a very major
thing. So to think about DDLJ as a text, as in as something that is not just
what is on the screen for us. Not just what we see, but something beyond
that. Something that speaks to either an educational opportunity, the kind
that we are trying to work on here, or as an emotional legacy, the kind that
the New York Times article talks about or Banaji's informants talk about. It's
a thing. The film is not just film. It's far beyond that. It has kind of surpassed
being a film probably 26 years ago, right?So it's a pretty big deal film. The.
The third example, which is kind of part of the New York Times article, is is
Shahrukh Khan. And Shahrukh Khan as a human being and Shahrukh
Khan as a as a person, as his fans see him. So I want you to go ahead and
watch this really bizarre video. I'm sorry, it really is bizarre and let's come
back and talk about it.
Video Clip 2
[TEXT ON SCREEN: SRK celebrates 57th birthday, fans gather outside his
residence in Mumbai. Bollywood superstar and everyone's favorite Shah
Rukh Khan will celebrate his 57th birthday on Nov 02.] [TEXT ON
SCREEN: The super excited fans gathered outside the superstar's
residence 'Mannat' to wish the actor in Mumbai.] [TEXT ON SCREEN: SRK
made an appearance on his balcony to wave and greet the fans.] [TEXT
ON SCREEN: SRK's little one, AbRam, was also spotted with his father as
the actor addressed the fans. The duo looked adorable as they waved at
the people gathered outside 'Mannat.']
Lecture Video Continued
[Dr. Ila Nagar] In this video, we see Shahrukh Khan come out on his
balcony for his birthday celebration or part of his birthday celebration, come
out of his balcony in his Mumbai home and kind of interact with his fans in
various ways. And one of the things he does is he strikes this pose. So this
pose for Shahrukh Khan started from this film, from this particular song
where he goes back to Punjab where Simran is to kind of win her over and
and that type of thing. And they meet and this is how she sees him right?
Like this. And. This has become a very important kind of thing that
Shahrukh Khan does. And when his fans gather outside his home, this is,
this is one of the things he does. In fact, David Letterman did a show with
Shahrukh Khan. I think the name of the show is 'My next guest needs no
introduction' and he's done this with with many people. And he's done it
with Shahrukh Khan as well. And in this, in this, it's on Netflix. So you
should you should watch it if you can. And in fact, you should really try to
watch it because it says something about stardom in India. How are stars
treated? How are Bollywood stars treated in India? So David Letterman
and Shahrukh Khan in this show kind of go out on Shahrukh Khan's
balcony and you saw this in the video that I showed you a minute ago here
too, there are many, many people gathered outside his home just to get a
glimpse of him. Our article also talks about people like that, uh, where
people just come to kind of take a look at Shahrukh Khan. In fact, one of
the women tells us that she in this world of very toxic masculinity, Shahrukh
Khan's open arms, his pose kind of give her a place to just kind of go and
hide type of thing. So it's Shahrukh Khan has become something that is
beyond his own person. He has become a thing itself. So has this film
DDLJ. We see that DDLJ 27 years after its release is very present in other
Bollywood film as well, which also informs us that it is not just a film, it's a
relic, it's an object that is almost recreated over the years, has been
recreated over the years, has been parodied over the years as well. If you
will recall, our film for week two- week three was Shubh Mangal Zyaada
Saavdhaan, which was the story of two middle class, small city men who
fall in love with each other and they kind of have to seek approval from
families etcetera. And in that film I think I showed you this exact picture
where you know DDLJ is Shahrukh Khan and Simran are recreated by our
two heroes from Shubh Mangal Zyaada Saavdhaan, our film for week
three. And one of the heros's father says to the love interest Go Simran, Ja
Simran, jee le apni zindagi - go liveyour life which is one of the dialogues,
one of the like major dialogues in this film where the father is basically
giving permissions to the to the daughter to go live her own life. So the film
is kind of recreated and I see so much Bollywood and I see so many films
that kind of keep reproducing this DDLJ type theme or keep reusing
dialogues from DDLJ to kind of again. First of all recognize the cultural
importance of this film and secondly to just kind of show that there's this
importance of this film. And not just an importance of the film, but
importance of the idea that the film was trying to kind of communicate at
that time. So, uh, let's get to our last point for this week. We have been
talking about throughout the semester how Bollywood film is about
citizenship. How Bollywood film in a lot of ways gives us a way to be. Now
this is not a set thing. It is not as if the hero is coming on the screen and
saying, hey, you be like this and we are supposed to be like that. It's
obviously not that simple. It is obviously also a reading of Bollywood film,
where I can say with a lot of confidence that Bollywood does reproduce
what we are supposed to do in life as a citizen of India. However,
Bollywood does this in various ways, and sometimes those ways are really
convoluted. But let us for now assume, as I have been asking you to, and I
hope showing you to, that Bollywood gives us a way to be a citizen, a way
to be a good citizen of a country. If Upkaar was not doing that, I don't know
what else it was doing. If Amar Akbar Anthony was not doing that, I don't
know what it was doing. If DDLJ is not doing that, I don't know what else it's
doing. But let's try to look at it from a different angle today. If these films are
giving us a blueprint of how to be a good citizen of India, what does
somebody who does not buy into this dialogue, buy into this discourse do?
So for example, let us take DDLJ, our film for this week. We are told orwe
can also, so many films that can be examples of what I'm trying to say. But
Hum Aapke Hain Koun, our film for week eight is also a great example
here. What if the women in this film, in these films were actually giving us a
way to be? So what if Nisha, our very compliant heroine who was steeped
in sacrifice from Hum Aapke Hain Koun, our film for week eight, is giving us
that? Is saying, hey, to be a good woman, you need to sacrifice. To be a
good woman in love, you need to basically say goodbye to your love and
just be what you're asked to be for your family. What if DDLJ is doing
exactly that too? These, these women are having dialogues about not
doing those things, right? These women within film are having dialogue.
Nisha is having this feeling about really 'I'm having to do this. I don't want
to.' We see her in her face, we see her in her movement. And in DDLJ, we
actually see Simran having a dialogue with her mother where it's like 'It's
kind of terrible that we have to do this, but we have to do this.' So if we take
this as our model to be a woman in in that time, what was happening to all
of those women who were not following this model, because this is not an
easy model to follow. What if in the 1960s where the model was you have
to be the five year plan hero, you have to be a farmer or a soldier or in
other ways contribute to nation building? What if somebody's critical of their
government at that point? What if in the 1970s when Amar Akbar Anthony
comes out and we are having, we're given this discourse of love for all
communities? What if somebody finds themselves in a place where they're
actually harassed by their neighbors for being from a different religion.
What happens to those citizens who do not or are not able to follow the
blueprint that Bollywood is giving us? Let's think about this, right? What
happens to women who are not following the rules? What happens to,, let's
say, citizens of the country who are not being treated in ways that
Bollywood film is showing all citizens are treated. So in 1977, when Amar
Akbar Anthony comes out, we are basically shown that Hindus, Muslims
and Christians are three sons of Mother India, right? Which works with the
assumption that all three sons are treated equally by Mother India. What if
somebody who is a minority citizen of India; a Muslim citizen or a Christian
citizen; is not being treated in a way that is shown in Amar Akbar Anthony?
What are we supposed to do? What are those citizens supposed to do?
What are those women supposed to do? What are those queer citizens
supposed to do? People who are just kind of shown these gorgeous
images on the screen and are given nowhere, no place on those screens.
Women who are just basically like I am so done with the system that's
constantly telling me what to do, or queer people who have the same
reaction, or a Muslim person, or a Christian person, or a person from a
different ethnicity who is having this. Like, wow, there is no place for me on
this silver screen. Yet this silver screen, this Bollywood is supposed to be
what I am supposed to do and be. What are they supposed to do? What
should they do? I'm going to leave you with that thought. And we will start
exploring that more as we go on in the Semester but if we are looking at
models of citizenship that Bollywood is giving us, I want you to explore
what people who fall outside of those models end up doing with those
models."
Using only the lecture content, answer the following questions in a 200 word paragraph:
1. What does DDLJ\\u2019s presence in Shubh Mangal Zyada Savdhan (2020), our film for week 3, tell us about DDLJ?