Archive for the ‘India’ Category
Counting down!
Posted by Johanna in Anthropology, Gender, India on april 13th, 2010
Desi Girls means Indian girls and this documentary portrays how three young college girls in Delhi look upon gender in their society and in their lives.
To approach the topic of gender, anthropologist Johanna Sommansson spent two months in Delhi at the end of 2008. The research resaulted in a master’s dissertation as well as this documentary.
The girls in the film are all college students in an interesting phase of transition; being young, educated, and of marriageable age. Being a Desi girl is a paradox: on the one hand, they want to be good girls – subservient, humble and obedient. However, on the other hand they are negotiating and challenging the normative behaviour: finding their own identities among the pre-set rules of how to be a good girl in a city unsafe for women.
A documentary by Johanna Sommansson, faithful India traveller and researcher.
Desi Girls premier!
The date, time and place is set!
All are welcome, free entry!
Date: 21 april 2010
Time: 18.30
Place: Haninge Kulturhus, Handen
About the film:
Desi Girls means Indian girls and this documentary constructs a portrait of how three young college girls in Delhi look upon gender in their society and in their lives.
To approach the topic of gender Anthropologist Johanna Sommansson spent two months in Delhi at the end of 2008. The research resaulted in a Masters dissertation as well as this documentary.
The girls in the film are all college students in an interesting phase of transition; being young, educated and of marriageable age. Being a Desi girl is a paradox: on one hand they want to be good girls – subservient, humble and obedient. But on the other hand they are negotiating and challenging the normative behaviour, finding their own identities among the pre-set rules of how to be a good girl in a city unsafe for women.
A made film by Johanna Sommansson, faithful India traveller and researcher.
Indian mythology on Ganesh
There are quite a few stories about how Ganesh came to be the Indian god with the body of man and head of elephant. This is a nice youtube cartoon which I use during my college lectures.
Enjoy!
The young face of Bollywood
Posted by Johanna in India, Popular culture on januari 23rd, 2010
Just watched Ranbir Kapoors stunning performance in the Indian Blockbuster from 2009 : “Wake up Sid”. Wake up Sid is comparable to “3 idiots” which I recently reviwed in the sense that the two films have a common message: it is time for independence of Indian youth, Indian youth has the right to choose their own life paths.
The way I see it, Bollywood films often serves as an entry point to societal critque. These two blockbusters of 2009 are contributing to a change of attitudes among the film consuming Middle class. Wake up Sid features Sid, a young coellge graduate (Ranbir Kapoor) whose father expects him to take over the family business once he graduated. A classical scenario among Indian youths. Sid is a fun loving guy, his father’s credit cards pays for Sid’s amount of fun, he spends his time doing all but studying: he likes clubbing, drinking, he drives a nice car, and a servant serves him breakfast in bed every day. But when Sid lets his father down by not engaging in the family business, he is cut off – and left with nothing of he has former taken for granted. Luckily for Sid, he has struck up an acquaintance with Aisha (Konkona Sen Sharma), a new girl in the city. She is 8 years senior to Sid, and quite his opposite – Aisha’s goal i life is to attain independence. Therefor she moves to Mumbai as a single 27 year old writer – looking for her dream job in the field of journalism. Once Sid left his parents safe haven, he crashes at Aisha’s place.
Konkona and Ranbir plays their characters brilliantly throughout the film, which in itself is colorful, fresh and uplifting. The only thing I can complain about is the boring boring soundtrack, other than that, this is a likable film! I completely love the ending, puppy love is shown with a warm hug, not a sleazy extended kiss-scene. It is also bold and brilliant to show a love story between a world vise female who take charge of her own life and a younger male who clearly admires his lady-love on several levels. Girl power and independence is the the main concepts of Wake up Sid. It is a film about growing up, waking up, leave college ad gain your own grounds and meanwhile friendship develops into love.
Prof. William L. Smith
On the 19 of December 2009, one of the most eminent Scandinavian Professors of Indology passed away. With one boisterous laughter he introduced me to the beautiful Hindi language. Prof William Smith was an extraordinary teacher, he knew many languages and every day he read several news papers from different regions in India. He was highly respected among scholars in The Nordic region as well as on the indian Subcontinent where he spent a lot of time. His method of teaching was to embed jokes in the reading exercises so we could all have a laugh together. When I think Prof. Smith I hear his laughter and I am honored to have met and known him, leaving behind great works on for example the classical Indian epos Mahabharata. This is a link to William Smith Orbituarty from Sasnet South east Asian Student Network.
Being a Girl in Delhi
My recently started film project is coming to shape! I am at moment working out the themes from my material. The girls are so vivid talkative and spontaneous in the interviews that I am so happy about their contribution in my film! It will be a documentary which portrays how 3 Delhi girls look upon their lives, their future and their position as women in Indian society. At the moment I am am dividing the vast material into 5 thematically different though connected parts.
1) Being a girl In Delhi
2) Life in Delhi
3) Eveteasing
4) Indian parents
5) Indian marriage
Eveteasing is an act commonly defined in Indian media, guidebooks and by my informants as men harassing women in the street or on the public transport. An eveteaser stand close to the woman and ‘accidentally’ touches the woman’s hips, breast, bottom, or even her vagina at times. It is also includes verbally comments of sexual character, staring and comments on girls appearances. To bring more light into the issue of eveteasing, watch the video material from News Chanel Aaj Tak and the Jagori “Safe Delhi” ad on You Tube.
