I must confess the title is borrowed. Two interesting things happened this weekend. One planned and the other not so much. One I watched this Hindi movie called Kai Po Che... and the other watched this TED talk by Chimamanda Adichie: The danger of a single story .
She has been called "the most prominent" of a "procession of critically acclaimed young anglophone authors that is succeeding in attracting a new generation of readers to African literature" (Wiki). She also happens to be one of Rohini's favourite authors, explains how I discovered her in the first place.
The talk is about how we are all prey to the stereotype definition of people, cultures, countries, etc. And how, fed on this one single view, it becomes a kind of reality, even when it is rather far from the truth.
Danielle Lee – Studies in Culture & Society
On the movie, we are, in my view witnessing a "breaking away" from a single reality that Bollywood has picturized for us over many years. Movies like Kahani, Barfi, Special26, Vicky Donor and the latest Kai Po Che are in a sort of way moving away from the stereotype of glamourous life, swiss alps to the more real world of India's small towns. Also stories have moved to West Bengal, Gujarat, Bihar, Ludhiana, etc. People live here too and their life is not about just falling in love and singing songs. Stories about their aspirations, insecurities, struggles and life in general. The success of these movies also reflect people's ability to connect to these stories. The movie makers are opening to the acceptance of such realities. Like Ms Adichie says there has to be a balance that one must try to achieve when telling stories.
Vulture capitalists is another single story that is dangerous, but then that is a discussion for another time :-)
She has been called "the most prominent" of a "procession of critically acclaimed young anglophone authors that is succeeding in attracting a new generation of readers to African literature" (Wiki). She also happens to be one of Rohini's favourite authors, explains how I discovered her in the first place.
The talk is about how we are all prey to the stereotype definition of people, cultures, countries, etc. And how, fed on this one single view, it becomes a kind of reality, even when it is rather far from the truth.
On the movie, we are, in my view witnessing a "breaking away" from a single reality that Bollywood has picturized for us over many years. Movies like Kahani, Barfi, Special26, Vicky Donor and the latest Kai Po Che are in a sort of way moving away from the stereotype of glamourous life, swiss alps to the more real world of India's small towns. Also stories have moved to West Bengal, Gujarat, Bihar, Ludhiana, etc. People live here too and their life is not about just falling in love and singing songs. Stories about their aspirations, insecurities, struggles and life in general. The success of these movies also reflect people's ability to connect to these stories. The movie makers are opening to the acceptance of such realities. Like Ms Adichie says there has to be a balance that one must try to achieve when telling stories.
Vulture capitalists is another single story that is dangerous, but then that is a discussion for another time :-)
