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Thursday, 3 March 2016

The Reluctant Fundamentalist movie revirew

 The Reluctant Fundamentalist


 The Reluctant Fundamentalist is a 2012
political thriller drama film based on the



2007 novel, The Reluctant Fundamentalist by

Mohsin Hamid , directed by Mira Nair,

starring Riz Ahmed and Kate Hudson in lead.



The movie can be read from the post- Colonial angel that it tries to defend the Pakistani or say Muslim identity. It tries to subvert the stereotypical image of them after 9/11. All are not equal. It challenges the American way of treating people that what kind of problems people have to face in America. It also breaks the myth of America that America as a land of Dreams.
The movie has very beautiful PLOT with mixture of past and present. Changez – a  young boy from Pakistan is the protagonist and movie presents his experiences in America after 9/11. Reporter from America  - Hidden agent of C.I.A. takes interview of Changez and then story unfolds. In the beginning Changez is shown with beard- stereotypical image so people may think that he may be associated with the group of terrorists. But when movie goes into flashback we realise how talented he is. He got job in multinational company which is not possible for everybody. The place of interview is dull, dirty and crowded which also shows how West looks towards East. Even in Pakistan he does not associate with the terrorist group and continues to work in Lahore university. The movie beautifully presents the problems of them in America- that how roughly they were treated-   ( even few years ago the news was that Bollywood Actor Shahrukh Khan has to suffer a lot at American airport for security concern only because of his surname)  even they have done nothing -they were looked with doubt, not respected, people called them by bad words, spit on them, hate them- this ill treatment in America breaks the myth of equality.   
PLOT:-
In the beginning of the movie, there is kidnapping of American professor, and kidnaper demands money and their release of terrorist on behalf of professor. Suspect goes on Changez, so hidden CIA agent takes his interview to get knowledge about terrorist group. And then Changez tells his story……


In his professional life, he impresses his peers
and gets earmarked by his superiors for his

work, especially Jim, the person who recruited

him, develops a good rapport with him, and
holds him in high esteem.



# he comes to see himself as a servant of the American

empire that has constantly interfered with
and manipulated his homeland . He returns
from Chile to New York without completing the
assignment and ends up losing his job.



# In the global scenario, after the September 
11th attacks, there is an air of suspicion 

towards Pakistanis. Changez, due to his 
privileged position in society, is not among 
those detained or otherwise abused, but he 
notices a change in his treatment in public. 
To express solidarity with his countrymen 
after his trip to Chile, he starts to grow a 
beard.






Emotional break down - people call him Osama.



Even his girl friend Erica starts calling him ( Gair Insan) the Other.




# Noticing the American response

to this situation, he has an epiphany that his

country is being used as a pawn. With no job,
an expiring visa and no reason to stay in
America, he moves back to Lahore.: The World Trade Center attacks took place
when Changez was in Manila on business. 
When he returned to the USA, he was strip- 
searched at the airport in New York. Later 
on, he was thoroughly interrogated by federal 
agents, after being mistakenly arrested in 
the street as he just left the Underwood 
Samson building. His attitude toward the USA 
seemed to change During his interview with Lincoln, Changez says that at one point he was approached by a terrorist cell and asked to become a 
mujahid , and he was tempted to accept, 
feeling deeply angered and disillusioned by 

"the arrogance, the blindness, the hypocrisy" 
of the USA, but he finally refused when he 
was told about the "fundamental truths" of 
the Q'uran, echoing a phrase Jim Cross had 
used during their first encounter, "focusing 
on the fundamentals". Elaborating on the 
similarities, he explains that both groups, 
Islamic fundamentalists and blind capitalist 
economy represented by Underwood Samson, 
share the same reductionist outlook, view 
people in binary terms, thus feeling entitled to get rid of those deemed unworthy




# Lincoln becomes suspicious seeing Changez 
texting, the latter saying he was just 
communicating with his sister, Bina  suspicions turn to fury after Lincoln 
receives a picture of Rainer dead, mistakenly 
linking the two events. Lincoln believes the 
only way to safety is to use Changez as a 
shield venturing into the hostile crowded 

street. Attempts are made to keep the crowd 
stable but things get worse and Lincoln falls 
to the ground, his gun goes off and hits 
Sameer one of Changez's 
student interns, who dies from the wound. 
Another student fires at Lincoln from a 
balcony, after which Lincoln is quickly 
removed by CIA agents. Lincoln then finds

out that Rainer was in fact found dead 
earlier that day, and that Changez had indeed rejected working with the suspected mastermind behind the kidnapping, Mustafa Fazil; he also told the truth about the text message. Changez delivers a eulogy at Sameer's funeral, as Lincoln recuperates in a hospital, recalling Changez's words as he listens to there cording of the interview - "Looks can be deceiving. I am a lover of America...although I was raised to feel very Pakistani.
At the end of the movie reporter realise that Changez was correct, he is truly not associated with any groups.

Post colonial is an approach in which colony writes back. We have to relook, rethink whatever spoken or written by white people. Europeans have developed pre conceived notion about the East. Even without knowing people personally or say without meeting (without first hand experience)Western people think that all(THE OTHER) are criminals , terrorist and as a result all have to suffer humiliation. So colony writes back from their point of view that it is not so. Judge a person by his work not by religion. The same was the case with Professor Edward Said, that even he was working  in American University since many years, whenever there is terrorist attack or bomb blast people asked him about it. The main problem is that even if you are American by heart they will consider you and doubt you as Asian. Individual has to suffer a lot to get settled in American society. Asians are mere pawn in their economic capitalist game. Profit is everything for Americans. Relation don’t matters to them. Where as Changez- representative of Pakistani or say Asian identity speaks beautiful line in the movie that there are many things which cannot be measured by money only. This quality makes him even greater than Americans. Changez leaves very good job only because he thought that because of me many person will loose their jobs. Many people will be jobless, so what about them and their family? This was his fundamentals.
# we have to doubt whatever comes from West. Every step taken by them is under question: It is their conspiracy theory to defame East through Media Monster. media continuously go on showing and attaching terrorism with religion. So that people internalize it. And then whenever people heard about attack or bomb blast people will associate it without thinking or questioning with particular religion or groups of people.

# the fact is that America is the country who fought more battle than any other country in the history of last 60 years. But then even they are able to justify their acts.

My point is that post colonial approach challenges this West centered mentality.: Picturisation of movie is fantastic. It holds the audience. Unfolding of the story through the frame narrative is brilliant. Acting of Riz Ahmed, Kate Hudson, Liev Schreiber and 
Kiefer Sutherland is praise worthy.
# first meeting of Changez and Erica in the park is lifelike, and the way their relationship develops and ends is realistic.
# the conflict between American mind and Pakistani mind is clearly visible in the movie.



Movie is also attack on American Capitalism: That how workers have to loose their jobs because of Capitalization. 
The line spoken by Changez is very significant that ' All matters cannot be solved only by money'

 TRUTH HAS BEEN LESS GLORIOUS THAN DREAMS:



Wednesday, 2 March 2016

Imaginery Homeland by Rushdie


Imaginery Homeland is a collection of essay published in 1981-91  by Diasporic writer Salman Rushdie. This book contains essays like "Attenborough's Gandhi", "Commonwealth literature does not exist", "Hobson Jobson", New Empire within Britain", "Imaginery Homeland" etc.

Imaginery Homeland
The title is very suggestive and appropriate. He was born in India. But due to partition, their family has to move to Pakistan. But even there they are tagged as Kafir. He has written book "Satanic verses", and due to this there was Fatwa against him
 so he has to live in secrecy for many years. Now he is living in U.K. But there he is Immigrants. An Asian or outsider.

so the question comes that where to belong? THE ANGST OF BELONGING IS VERY MUCH VISIBLE in this essay.


Attenborough's Gandhi :-

It is a critical essay in which he makes critical remarks on the movie "Gandhi". He begins the essay by saying that " Deification is an Indian disease". But what happen to Western people that they have given 8 Oscars. He says it is neither Biography nor history but it is HAGIOGRAPHY.
He also questions the absence of figures like Bose, Tagore. Nehru was also shown as his follower where as he was equal to Gandhi. Jinnah is presented as counter Dracula.
He also makes critical observation on the scene of Jalianwala bagh. That after this massacre Dyre was rewarded in England rather than punished.
Why they are interested in deifying Gandhi? the answer is that it satisfies West's longing for spirituality. Gandhi is  also Christ like figure for them , who sacrificed themselves for the betterment of mankind. and to promote the idea of non violence . But he says that Gandhi was a shrewd, crafty Gujarati lawyer.
Though he praises that Ben Kinsley deserves the award for the role of Gandhi
He agrees that in art one has to be selective. one cant include everything in single film. But then even he says that what Attenborough did is problematic.




Black Skin White Masks


"Black skin white Masks" is a Ph.d. thesis of  studying the Psychology of black people and racism.

Black Skin, White Masks ( Peau noire, masquesblancs , 1952) by Frantz Fanon , is a sociological study of the psychology of the racism and dehumanization inherent in situations of colonial domination. He applied psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic theory to explain the feelings of dependency and inadequacy that Black people experience in a White world. That the divided self-perception of the Black Subject who has lost his native cultural origin, and embraced the culture of the Mother Country, produces an inferiority complex in the mind of the Black Subject, who then will try to appropriate and imitate the culture of the colonizer . Such behavior is more readily evident in upwardly mobile and educated black people who can afford to acquire status symbols within the world of the colonial ecumene , such as an education abroad and mastery of the language of the colonizer, the white masks. (Wikipedia)


The book is divided in 8 chapters. In these eight chapters, Fanon talks about psychology of white colonizers and black people’s desire to be like white men. He talks about issue of language, marriage between white and black and psychology behind it, white mind set of ruling, black’s inequality and struggle for human existence.


1.The Black  Man and the language

In this chapter the author discusses that if a black person does not learn the white man’s language perfectly, he is unintelligent yes if he does learn it perfectly, he has washed his brain in the world of racial ideology.
According to Fanon

“The Negro enslaved by his inferiority, the white man enslaved by his
superiority alike behaves in accordance with a neurotic orientation.”

Essentially the Negro is born into a hopeless situation. In this context, the black man will never be normal, but always an inborn no, a preborn human of abnormality. "Let me add only that in the psychological sphere the abnormal man is he who demands, who appeals, who begs." Fanon invokes Freud; however the Oedipus complex is a luxury for the white man.

2. The woman of colour and the white Man

The colonized women look down on their own. Race and deep down won’t to be white. In “The Bluest eye” of “Tony Morrison” we find a black desire of white woman.
There are two such women: the Negros and the mulatto. The first has only one possibility and one concern: to turn white. The second wants not only to turn white but also to avoid slipping back. What indeed could be more illogical then a mulatto woman’s acceptance of a Negro husbands? For the understood once and for all that it is a question of saving the race.

Further fanon talks about three women, Mayotte, Nini and Dedee. Those entire woman are part white. A Blackman proposed Nini. Police was called because he is black and she is half white he has offended her “white girl’s” honours. Dedee was proposed by a man with a good government job. She was eager to enter the white world where Mayotte, the third woman had an affair with a married white man. She goes to white side of town with him where the white woman made her feel unworthy of him.
The woman colour wants to marry with white people because she believes that
 ‘Look a Negro!’ ‘Dirty nigger!’

3.The man of colour and white woman.




“The man of color and the white woman” reveals a boy, team venues that grow up in France and desired white woman. As a civil servant, he just is a bad as the whites.’ 


I want to be recognized not
As Black but as a white (Franon)

 

 In this chapter Fanon talks about the condition of man as a Black. He says that these men wants to become white, they are also equal to whites. Gwendolyn Brook’s poem “We real cool’’ deals with the same theme.

4.The so called dependency complex of the colonized people.


In this chapter Fanon argues that a people of colour may have deep desire for white rule. Those who opposite to it they don’t have secure sense of self that they have very chip sense on their shoulder.

If the black is not a man, then what is the biological, psychological and cultural identity of the black? If the black is not a man, what and who is black? Fanon’s answer to this is equally enigmatic: ‘The black is a black man.’ Moreover, his answer to what a black man wants is more enigmatic: ‘The black man want to be white’. In this book he said that...

“Toward a new humanism…Understanding among men...Our colored brothers...Mankind I believe in you...Race prejudice...To understand and to love...From all sides dozens and hundreds of pages assail me and try to impose their will on me.

But a single line would be enough. Supply a single answer and the colour problem would be stripped of its importance’ .A single answer was and is indeed not enough to deal with Dubois’ old problem of colour line.”

5.The Lived experience of Black Man

This chapter deals with them pathetic situation of black people. Here it is shown that being always black as if they are never fully human being. No matter however education or intelligence you have or no matter how well you perform in to the society. Even we have to mention here the black historical movement to support this argument. 

After that Fanon categorises this chapter …

§  He is seen not as Dr Fanon ,But as a Black Man who is a Doctor.
§  Being Seen as a Negro , never a man .
§  White people do not see him , they see his body .
§   
6. The Black Man and Psychopathology.


“Black man and psychopathology” is related with some wrong beliefs that white had for natives”

Why should people fear of being as a black? Here the white man repressed the Homosexuality and their strange hang ups about black man’s penises more generally, black man are viewed as a bodies which makes them seems like mindless, violence, sexual, animal beings. All the bad meaning that the word “Black” had even before Europeans set foot in black Africa.
Here he writes that

7. The Black Man and Recognition.


“The black man and Recognition” draws our attention as the author writers “ I am narcissus, and I want to see reflected in the eyes of the other an image of myself that satisfied me.”


Even we can also prove the post colonialism through these points
·        The idea of Blackness
·        The idea of identity
·        Notion of desire
·        The idea of Negritude
·       Other
·        


            8. “By way of conclusion

“By way of conclusion” is the final chapter, Frantz fanon does not want to be a black man, and he wants to be amen plain and simple. Black and white could not live in present as they can’t separate themselves from their past, says fanon.
 He writes……

“I will not make myself the man of any past. I do not want to sing the past to the detriment of my present and future.
§  Let the dead bury the dead:
§  I am my own foundation.”
Fanon says he has only one rights and one duty.

1) The rights to demand human behaviour from the other.
2) The duty to never let his decisions renounces his freedom.


A Tempest by Aime Cesaire

A Tempest


Its a play by Aime Cesaire. it is remarkable in the field of Post Colonialism.

☆What is Post Colonialism? 
Post Colonialism is an approach, a lens to see, understand and subvert notion of Western superiority.
~ It is an approach, in which colony writes back.
~We have to relook, rethink, revisit whatever written or spoken by the white people.
~Europeans have developed pre conceived notion about the East.
~Doubt whatever comes from West, every step taken by them is under doubt& question.

★Decentering the center :-

In Ramayan, Ram is at the center. But if we change the center and bring Sita into the center then it is problematic.
In "Hamlet" by Shakespeare, Hamlet is at the center. But if we change the center and bring Rosencrantz and Guildenstern into center or if we bring women characters like Ophelia or Gertrude at the center & read from their point of view then it is problematic.
What Tom Stoppard did by play "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead", the similar kind of thing is done by Aime Cesaire in A Tempest. Marginalised character of that book comes here into centre.Voiceless is given voice here.

Césaire  uses  all of  the  characters  from  Shakespeare's  version,  but  he  specifies  that  Prospero  is  a  white  master,  while Ariel  is  a  mulatto  and  Caliban  is  a  black  slave.  These  characters  are  the  focus  of  the  play  as  Césaire foregrounds  issues  of  race,  power,  and  decolonization.

The  action  in  the  play  closely  follows  that  of  Shakespeare's  play,  though  Césaire  emphasizes  the importance  of  the  people  who  inhabited  the  island  before  the  arrival  of  Prospero  and  his  daughter Miranda:  Caliban  and  Ariel.  Both  have  been  enslaved  by  Prospero,  though  Caliban  was  the  ruler  of  the island  before  Prospero's  arrival.  Caliban  and  Ariel  react  differently  to  their  situation.  Caliban  favors revolution  over  Ariel's  non-violence,  and  rejects  his  name  as  the  imposition  of  Prospero's  colonizing language,  desiring  to  be  called  X. He  complains  stridently  about  his  enslavement  and  regrets  not being  powerful  enough  to  challenge  the  reign  of  Prospero.  Ariel,  meanwhile,  contents  himself  with asking  Prospero  to  consider  giving  him  independence.  At  the  end  of  the  play,  Prospero  grants  Ariel  his freedom,  but  retains  control  of  the  island  and  of  Caliban.  This  is  a  notable  departure  from  Shakespeare's version,  in  which  Prospero  leaves  the  island  with  his  daughter  and  the  men  who  were  shipwrecked  there at  the  beginning  of  the  play.

A  Tempest  is  a  postcolonial  revision  of  William  Shakespeare’s  The  Tempest and  draws heavily  on  the  original  play—the  cast  of  characters  is,  for  the  most  part,  the  same,  and  the  foundation  of the  plot  follows  the  same  basic  premise.  Prospero  has  been  exiled  and  lives  on  a  secluded  island,  and  he drums  up  a  violent  storm  to  drive  his  daughter’s  ship  ashore.  The  island,  however,  is  somewhere  in  the Caribbean,  Ariel  is  a  mulatto  slave  rather  than  a  sprite,  and  Caliban  is  a  black  slave.  A  Tempest  focuses on  the  plight  of  Ariel  and  Caliban—the  never-ending  quest  to  gain  freedom  from  Prospero  and  his  rule over  the  island.  Ariel,  dutiful  to  Prospero,  follows  all  orders  given  to  him  and  sincerely  believes  that Prospero  will  honor  his  promise  of  emancipation.  Caliban,  on  the  other  hand,  slights  Prospero  at  every opportunity:  upon  entering  the  first  act,  Caliban  greets  Prospero  by  saying  “Uhuru!”,  the  Swahili  word for  “freedom.”  Prospero  complains  that  Caliban  often  speaks  in  his  native  language  which  Prospero  has forbidden.  This  prompts  Caliban  to  attempt  to  claim  birthrights  to  the  island,  angering  Prospero  who threatens  to  whip  Caliban.  During  their  argument,  Caliban  tells  Prospero  that  he  no  longer  wants  to  be called  Caliban,  “Call  me  X.  That  would  be  best.  Like  a  man  without  a  name.  Or,  to  be  more  precise,  a man  whose  name  has  been  stolen.”  The  allusion  to  Malcolm  X  cements  the  aura  of  cultural  reclamation that  serves  as  the  foundational  element  of  A  Tempest.  Cesaire  has  also  included  the  character  Eshu  who in  the  play  is  cast  as  a  black  devil-god.  Calling  on  the  Yoruba  mythological  traditions  of  West  Africa, Eshu  assumes  the  archetypal  role  of  the  trickster  and  thwarts  Prospero’s  power  and  authority  during assemblies.  Near  the  end  of  the  play,  Prospero  sends  all  the  lieutenants  off  the  island  to  procure  a  place in  Naples  for  his  daughter  Miranda  and  her  husband  Ferdinand.  When  the  fleet  begs  him  to  leave, Prospero  refuses  and  claims  that  the  island  cannot  stand  without  him;  in  the  end,  only  he  and  Caliban remain.  As  Prospero  continues  to  assert  his  hold  on  the  island,  Caliban’s  freedom  song  can  be  heard  in the  background.  Thus,  Cesaire  leaves  his  audience  to  consider  the  lasting  effects  of  colonialism. (Wikipedia)



Abhigyan shakuntalam

Abhigyan Shakuntalam
छिन्नबन्धे मत्स्ये पलायिते निर्विण्णो।
धीवरो भणति धर्मो मे भवति ॥
Chchhinnabandhe matsye palaayite nirvinno
Dheevaro bhanati dharmo me bhavati
When the fishing net was torn and fish leaped into the water the fisherman becomes dejected and consoles himself saying that he will get merit (punya) (for allowing the fish to escape).

Abhigyanshakuntalam
is regarded asone of the best play in Sanskrit literature by Mahakavi Kalidasa. 'Dushyant' and 'Shakuntala' are the Hero and heroine of the play. it is at large extent a love story with interesting turns and twists.
 it is the play which German poet Goethe had put on his head and danced.
the play is divided into seven acts. in the beginning Dushyant goes into forest and saw beautiful Shakuntala pouring water to the trees. she was a daughter of Rishi Kanva. in absence of Rishi Kanva both does Gandharva vivah.
Later on it happens that due to a curse of Rishi Durvasa, Dushyant forgets that he got married to Shakuntala in forest, he denies to accept her as his wife.
Later on with the help of the ring, king remembers everything. once when King was returning from the heaven by helping lord Indra, he lends in a Aashram for a while. there he saw very exceptional child, who was counting teeth of a Lion. then it is revealed that 'Bharat" (child) is the son of Dushyant and Shakuntala. she was living there after rejected by king. both gets united there, and it ends happily.