Postcolonial studies and Bollywood

Hello Readers!

Welcome to my academic blog. Now I am going to write about the postcolonial studies in the movie Lagaan and Rangdebasnti. This task given by Dr Dilip Barad head of English Department. 

Postcolonial Studies 

As per Oxford dictionary, A theoretical approach in various disciplines that is concerned with the lasting impact of colonization in former colonies. ‘Post colonialism continues to unite historians and literary scholar’.

Postcolonial studies in the movie Lagaan 

Lagaan is a blockbuster Bollywood film directed by Ashutosh Gavarikar. This movie is about a struggle faced by the people of Champaneer village during colonial rule. The film raised serious issues and questions about the nature of a globalized world since, for many years, globalization has been regarded as a euphemism for western culture domination The film is set in 1893, during the late Victorian period of India's colonial Britishraj. The story revolves around a small village in Central India, whose inhabitants, burdened by high taxes, and several years of drought, find themselves in an extraordinary situation as an arrogant British army officer challenges them to a game of cricket, as a wager to avoid paying the taxes they owe. The narrative spins around this situation as the villagers face the arduous task of learning a game that is alien to them and playing for a result that will change their village's destination. 

There can be5 various postcolonial aspects, few of them are:

Centre/margin:

 in this film the colonizers are portrayed as the centre or the super power and the colonized portrayed as the other. It gives the colonized the perception that they are inferior to the colonizer. England was one of the super powers during colonization in India, and this is very evident in the film. For instance in the movie the antagonist, Captain Russell, is the decision maker and the villagers have no other choice but to follow them. 

 There is a cultural transition that cuts through Gili-danda to cricket.

Hybridity 

here is portrayed here when Elizabeth the sister of the antagonist teaches the Indians how to play the colonizers sport (cricket) and she intern learns the local language to talk to the localities nonetheless there are instances where in she tries on the Indian attire. This is the exchange of culture that takes place. The villagers find a way to turn the most British of customs into an Indian creation and this further introduces the concepts of  mimicry where in the villagers try to create the sports gear just like the Britishers, they try to learn the rules of the game and follow it. There are lingering effects that offer both the chance to beat the colonizers at his own game and the chance to join the colonizers game, playing by his rules. Likewise fervent, frantically almost religious attachment to the game is given by colonialism.

Reverse colonialism,

 the rejection of white feminity is highly apprehensive here. The religious story is added perhaps as an attempt to make sense of relationships that’s about colonialism without use of colonialism. In other words it’s trying to disguise the facts that is about race and colonialism by using religion as an alternate framework. Elizabeth represents the goodness of colonialism and Russell on the other hand represents the evilness of colonialism. The winning of the match at the end, constructs an overall view of decolonization.

Postcoloniqal Studies in the movie Rangdebasnti. 

Rang De Basanti (transl. Paint it saffron) is a 2006 Indian Hindi-language Drama film written, produced and directed by Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra , and co-written by  Rensil D'Silva.

The film follows a British film student traveling to India to document the story of five freedom fighters of the Indian Revolutionarymovement. She befriends and casts five young men in the film, which inspires them to fight against the corruption of their own government. It features an ensemble cast consisting of Aamir khan, Siddhartha, Atul kulkarni, soha  Ali khan Sharman Joshi, kunal kapur, and British actress Alice Patten. The film was shot primarily in New Delhi. 

The film is rich for both colonial as well as post colonial critics to unearth the meanings. Somehow, it seems that the colonial hangover is more powerfully captured than post colonial awareness. When we look at this film as postcolonial way we find some interesting things but for that we have to open our eyes and think critically then and then we observed at micro level. In the movie when British female protagonist She came on Indian airport at that time how Indian people gathered to meet her with excitement, so it’s shows Indian mindset and the impact of white person on our mind. There are two point of views to look this movie Outsider and Insider. When outsider sees the act of bribe it’s illegal for them but in India, it become normal for us. This scene very well shown in movie and how Sue react on it, camera also focused well. 

Thank you..

Citation 

Lexico Dictionaries. (n.d.). POSTCOLONIALISM: Definition of POSTCOLONIALISM by Oxford Dictionary on Lexico.com also meaning of POSTCOLONIALISM. Lexico Dictionaries | English. https://www.lexico.com/definition/postcolonialism.

Wikimedia Foundation. (2021, July 2). Rang De Basanti. Wikipedia. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rang_De_Basanti.