It all started with me taking one look at the odd gluten-free mushy peas and rice on the plate before me. I stared at it despairingly and, to no one in particular, I cried out, “I want Indian food instead!” I was very surprised when Cat’s voice behind me chimed in, “That sounds so good right now. Let’s get chicken tikka masala and naan.”
Delighted, I added that we should watch a Bollywood movie together as well and turn it into a movie night. “With a dance party,” added Emily from the other side of the table, “I actually have a ton of Indian music. Wanna hear me rap in Punjabi?”
One of the benefits of living in a sorority house is that the scale of things rapidly goes from take out boxes for two to a catered dinner for 40 women. A week later, Cat and I had gold glitter and colorful décor lining the room, Bollywood music blasting through the house, and blenders churning out fresh lassi for everyone. For many of my sorority sisters, it was their first time trying Indian food.
It was kind of entertaining to watch some of my Tex-Mex loving sisters try to use naan the way that you would create a tortilla taco. Amidst the clamor for finding English subtitles and the best spot on the couches, "Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani" brightened the screen. This film has been my favorite for the last three years and I strongly believe that it’s going to be my generation’s Bollywood “cult film.”
Shortly put, last night was my sixth time watching Naina and Bunny navigate their 20s, follow their completely separate dreams, and find each other again over two and a half hours of film time. However, for most of the others in the room, it was their first time watching a foreign film that long and complete with songs to jam out to.
I love sharing Bollywood movies with my non-Indian friends. I think that it’s incredible how much people can bond over the universal emotions that are shown by these colorful and (predominantly) optimistic films. One of my sisters expressed this last night by saying, “It’s such a long movie that it instead turns more into a journey with the characters–you can love them the way you know the characters of a book. You get way too emotionally invested in the love story by the end of it. I don’t think I’ve ever felt like this about a Hollywood rom-com.” That got me thinking about the differences in American and Indian movies.
While Americans tend to be comparatively more reserved than Indians, they also typically live a more comfortable life than the average Indian in the Maslow's Hierarchy sense. Thus, it makes sense that Indian movies are much more over-the-top and colorful, as their audience has more earthly troubles to worry about. The happy Bollywood movies present a world where, despite a long journey complete with tons of ups and downs, the ending almost always promises to be a hopeful one. Bollywood gives people hope for everything ranging from a savior against corruption to finding your soul mate. If there’s an impromptu dance session somewhere along the way, then that just makes things even better. Whether you’re in India or America, real love stories are never quite so simple and real life doesn’t always give you enough joy to make you feel like dancing in rainy streets. That’s why all of us as filmgoers go into the darkened cinema to dream on the big screen.
At their core, movies serve to entertain and to distract. While Hollywood creates a great distraction for Americans, they have to achieve it in a different way than Bollywood does for Indians. In a first world country where basic comforts are predominantly accessible, Americans express their happiness in a more private manner because it’s comparatively easy to be content. The hardships aren’t as physical or immediate as those of the average Indian in a developing nation. Indians, meanwhile, will scream and shout in the streets if they’re happy. They will literally get a band with dhols to sing and dance in the street and create a real life Bollywood moment if there’s something that they find worth celebrating. Happiness becomes entirely public. It’s almost only worth something when it’s being shared with hundreds of other relatives and friends.
If you watch American award ceremonies, the movies that seem to grip American emotions the most are often heavy and psychologically challenging like “Silver Linings Playbook” or “Django Unchained.” A simple rom-com like “Stuck in Love” doesn’t become a blockbuster or even a common topic of conversation amongst Americans. It wouldn’t ever be considered for an award, either. It’s the movies that roughly break or shock their way through that get to the American heart and that get their audience to emotionally invest in a film.
Meanwhile, daily life in India is shocking enough. My sister Devina expressed it as, “Hollywood’s a good distraction, but Bollywood movies have to counteract all the sh*t that happens in real life. That’s why they are so melodramatic, super colorful, and have songs all over the place.” An Indian movie takes all of the beautiful aspects of life and exaggerates them until happiness becomes an overwhelming emotion that is accessible to someone in any strata of society. That’s why the movie songs blare from every late night truck, street tea seller cart, and flea market vendor’s stall in India. Bollywood makes a promise to give you joy and, amazingly, they deliver on it.
When Bunny and Naina finally found a way to be together at the end of two and a half hours of angst, our room with 40 sorority girls burst into the most clamorous cheering and applause. There were even a few hallelujahs! There were tears streaming down cheeks, a lot of hugs, and calls of “finally,” as well as many surprised laughs at the extent of each other’s reactions. Moments like that are when I feel like I’ve succeeded in turning my life into a Bollywood scene. I’m at my happiest when my two worlds merge and, this time, there was even a background soundtrack! For those two and a half hours, every single one of my sorority sisters could entirely identify with my dual culture world where the American manner of speaking your thoughts, the Indian level of loud expression, and universal emotions combined into a beautiful intercultural movie night at an SMU sorority house.
