Racism?

"Mujhe Kaale Log Pasandh hai"

One remark, one dialogue from a film and it's amazing how it can cause nationwide outrage. The actress in question has been slapped with racist allegations and personally, I've seen violent threats against her on facebook.

"Rani Mukherjee is such a b*tch! I feel like slapping her!"

"Rani Mukherjee SUCKS. RACIST *****"

The comments on such posts are more direct violent threats towards the actress and frankly, I think it's taking it too far.

I responded to all that with a status of my own.

"Mujhe Kaale Log Pasandh hai" and "Karuppu dhaan enakku pidicha color-u". What's the difference? Yet, no-one screamed RACISM for the latter.

The person in question didn't respond to the status as such, but whatever.

This blogpost far exceeds just the dialogue from the Aiyya promo and "the interview in which Rani Mukherjee said south indians are black" (if it exists)

So, I read this article forwarded to me by one of my close friends and it was an attack at the Bollywood industry as a whole for stereotyping.

Cool. Really cool.

Frankly, I believe we should look inwards first. Look at our own films. The fact is, everybody is guilty of stereotyping. Just a few examples here -

I'm pretty sure all of you who saw it laughed at the "Awas:Ajing" scene. The fact is, Vivek makes a very racist remark in that film's comedy track. His "friend" in the film spoils Vivek's chances of getting buttloads of cash and xx acres of ground. Vivek punches him, flattens his nose and says "Haha, ippo un mookum chinese kaaran maari aidiche!"

Isn't that racial stereotyping?

HOW many of our films have stereotyped Malayalis? (Mallus, for those who think its fun and then cry foul when someone makes a derogatory remark about tamils)

We stereotype the Malayali accents, their "Omane"s and their "Kutti"s, their dances, their mannerisms, everything.

Oh, and what about Telegus, (Goltis, for those.... you get the drift)

They get attacked most often in our films. Whether it's Balram Naidu in a big budget film, or Vivek again making the "Kaila Laddu thandhu anga Jilebi ah pichu potturkaanga" (referring to the telegu script).

In fact, stereotypes of the Telegu and Malayali cultures have given Tamil cinema most of it's memorable comedy tracks.


Even in non-comedic scenes, what about the pot-bellied Punjabis, Nepali watchmen, sweet-eating Bengalis and the Sethjis who always happen to be pawn-brokers? They're all racial stereotypes. Hell, we make stereotypical references to our own people. The portrayal of TamBrahms in tamil cinema itself is very stereotypical. The dialect and the accents of the Iyers and Iyengars are made fun of constantly. We've made fun of those who speak in classical Tamil, made fun of Madras baashai.

And who doesn't love the classic comedies with our actors portraying foreigners?

Oh, and this one's a killer. Whenever there's a scene referring prostitution in Tamil Cinema, you can always expect the words "Bombay" and "Mumbai" in the dialogues. Like, seriously.

This is not an attack at the Tamil film industry. I love those dialogues and laugh at them too. I just happen to watch Tamil films a lot more than any other Local language films in India, so it's easier for me to spot stereotypes here.

Let's forget cinema and move on to general life shall we? If you're gonna make a big hue and cry about the dialogue from the Aiyya promo, we're all racists. We've all referred those with an Asian complexion as Chinkees and laughed at the Sardarji jokes which makes them look retarded.

In fact, the Tamil term which is used to describe a foreigner is "Vellaikaaran". Hopefully, you know that that term means "White Man".

Stereotypes, stereotypes everywhere. We're a society that thrives on stereotypes, and there's nothing wrong with it.

Stereotyping isn't a crime. We need to learn to laugh at ourselves a bit. And it's not like Rani Mukherjee said that we suck because we're black. She said she likes us. It's something to be happy about.

Maybe Malayalis do speak in a certain way, Seth-jis do take up a particular profession and maybe Mumbai does have prostitutes, but if we can stereotypical references to them, they can make references to the fact that we are generally more dark-complexioned than North Indians. There's nothing wrong in being dark-complexioned, so why take offense to that remark?

I think any art would be very boring without stereotypes. Face it, they lighten up our lives. As long as it doesn't cross over to your real-life behavior and as long as you don't discriminate people based on the stereotypes you see in films (and I don't see that happening with that dialogue), its fine.

Learn to laugh at yourselves. Please.

Adios!!
Vikas