The Figure of the NRI to Construct a Discourse of Indianness and to Negotiate the Conflict between Tradition and Modernity in Indian Society
In mainstream Bollywood cinema, non-resident Indians (NRIs) had mostly been depicted as caricatures or villains — people who had lost connection to their roots but there are films which deploy the figure of the NRI to construct a discourse of Indianness and to negotiate the conflict between tradition and modernity in Indian society.
Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge (1995) directed by Aditya Chopra decided to portray them as sympathetic protagonists, which was novel and massively influential. It sets out to be an ego-boosting crowd-pleaser for both the NRIs heading to their neighbourhood theatre in ‘Little India’ and to the audience back home in India. The movie was a blockbuster and inaugurated the trend of the NRI film or the diaspora film, which celebrates the NRI who despite his western attire and lifestyle is fundamentally Indian at heart.
This NRI film emerged at a time when Indian society was undergoing rapid
transition due to the forces of economic liberalisation and globalisation, and
these films negotiate the conflict between tradition and modernity through the figure of the NRI hero. The NRI hero combines the affluent consumerism of modern& society with a respect for Indian traditions and values.
For the emigrants, DDLJ argues that ‘Indianness’ is not a geographic label as
much as it is a portable set of values that one only need carry in their soul. The film’s love-struck protagonists, first-generation British Indians Raj and Simran, are always concerned with upholding Indian traditions of chastity, parental respect and selflessness. For Indians back home, DDLJ was sufficient proof that no matter where one went, they would always crave the mores, colour and happiness of India.
Indianness in this film is constructed in terms of certain values which are
valorised as constituting Bhartiya sabhyata or Sanskriti. These values are
family-oriented, conformist and conservative. They entail unquestioning
obedience to parental/ authority figures, a willingness to sacrifice individual
desires, the complete submersion of the individual within the family, and female chastity.
We can also see the Indianness in Karan Johar, magnum opus Kabhi Khushi
Kabhi Gham (K3G) began to develop the idea of the NRI family further by fully engulfing it in the notions of the traditional Indian Hindu family.
In exploring and cautiously legitimizing the cultural space of Indian life in the
diaspora, K3G renders the diaspora’s version of Indianness less transgressive
and/or impure and more of an acceptable variant of Indianness. In positioning and drawing the diaspora into the fold of a ‘great Indian family’, K3G articulates everyday struggles over being Indian in the diaspora to a larger project of cultural citizenship that has emerged in relation to India’s tentative entry into a transnational economy and the centrality of the NRI figure to India’s navigation of this space.
The same kind of representation of the NRI can be seen in Johar’s first film,
Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, 1998 in which Tina (played by Rani Mukherjee), the
third lead in a college romance triangle, moves to India from England. In a
college hazing scene, initiated by the male lead Rahul (Shah Rukh Khan), Tina is challenged to sing a Hindi song to prove her Indianness. She then stuns
everyone around her by singing Om Jai Jagdish Hare (a Hindu prayer) proving that she hasn’t lost her Indianness just because she has lived outside of India.
One should also note that the proof of Indianness in this instance lies in reciting a Hindu prayer and not in something more secular or nationalistic such as the national anthem or a patriotic song.
Hence, we can conclude that Hindi films of the nineties illustrate the figure of
the NRI as a person who still believes and follows the culture, ethics and morals even if he has lost all tangible connection to his land to construct a discourse of Indianness and to negotiate the conflict between tradition and modernity in Indian society.
