Thought beyond Imagination

I was born and brought up in a conservative family, living in a small town of India. The adjective conservative was not required to define any family living in small towns of India. Like every other kid, I was also brought up seeing women wearing sarees and salwar comeez. Things are no more the same now. Thanks to the television set in everyone’s home; girls now realize the best way to attract a young man is to either show your skin or to show your figure with a costume that will not let the air to pass in between it and skin. During old days, Indian women had confidence on our men’s imagination; so they used to come out of their homes covering their bodies as much as possible without much caring about the heat and humidity in air. But these days girls do not have faith on our imaginations. So they now prefer the other way.

Personally I have no issue with it; I am no one to criticize what someone else is wearing; until and unless she is neither my sister nor girlfriend. I know you can guess that, but I am bit conservative but not possessive. I have no problem if my girlfriend shakes hands with my friends or give them a hug or talk with them on phone. But I just can’t take it when my girl friend appears at a public place in my country showing her skins. It’s sad but true that I do not have faith on the look and mindset of few of my own gender’s people. Few people have that hunger in their eyes for girls which I hate seeing.  I know this conservative mindset of mine has something to do with that place and people living there where I was born and brought up.

Now let me tell you a funny instance which is directly or indirectly has a lot to do with Titanic’s huge success in India and it will express how conservative our society was during those days.

Since our childhood, we were not allowed to watch neither Hollywood movies nor TV shows. The reason was that, they used to have kissing and sex scenes. Although during those days we were not aware of either of these human behaviors. So it would have hardly matters to us watching two people who were enjoying playing with each other’s lips.

When I was 13, Titanic released in the theaters across India. The poster was showing a huge ship with a boy and a girl standing with this famous “titanic” pose. This pose went so viral that forget about young people even the parents and grandparents took pictures with that pose standing at either a hill station, river side or a park.

And the movie was promoted as a true story about a huge ship name “Titanic” which sank in RMS. Titanic was a British passenger liner that sank on 15 April 1912 after colliding with an iceberg during her maiden voyage from Southampton, UK to New York City, US. This disaster took almost 1502 lives.

And all the parents who never allowed us to watch any Hollywood movies bought us tickets to watch this one as they thought every kid should watch it. I doubt if they would not have misinterpreted it as an educational movie.

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

We went to the theater. The movie started with claps and whistles which is pretty normal in Indian theaters. We hardly understood anything other than watching that ship floating in a deep sea, big fishes swimming faster than the ship, tap dance, a beautiful lady  ill treated by her future husband and his mother, a poor boy who is running behind that girl to impress her, the captain always drinking tea, an old car whose door someone forgot to lock (I am sure you people must have remember that car), the iceberg, the musician who continued playing the music till the end and many more.

So our reason behind watching Titanic was not that love story; to be honest at that time none of us were intelligent enough to understand a single word of a Hollywood movie. For us the sounds of the waves were more effective than those dialogues in the movie. Every English word with the foreign accent was sounding similar to our ears. Did not matter what they speak, we ended up hearing sush..phiss…absusis.sshueuu..fuishhhh   (Do  not try to read what we ended up hearing, even I could not read it now).

But in this whole movie there was a scene that shocked most parents. Yes you dirty people; you got it right that painting scene. Hmm I knew you people are not as good as you appear. The moment Leonardo held the pencil in his hand while Kate came and dropped that dress/apron (I am not sure what you people call that one) she was wearing; the attention of all the elders diverted from the big screen to their children’s eyes. It was a view no one among us have ever viewed before. We were bit confused about what was going on there. The scene ended, leaving few people who were there at the theater disappointed because they with their own permission let their kids to watch a nude lady.

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I still remember, the moment the movie ended and the credits started rolling on; one of my school teachers who was sitting one row behind us scolding her daughter who was elder to me that time “let’s go home! I will talk to you there”. I doubt if things would have worst for her. Might be few slaps came her way that day.

But we ended up with something which we never experienced before. I know what you people are thinking. Dirty people, I am talking about that big ship and the view of that big ocean. But yes, like most of the young people of my generation who have grown up in conservative families living in small towns and villages of India, Kate Winslet was the first lady we saw uncovered.

Now let me tell you why Titanic became a huge success in India. It’s simply because those young people ended up watching it few times more to have a deeper Idea how that ship could sink. Honestly I am a big fan of Kate and I am not sure if it has something to do with titanic. But she was good in Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind, Jude, little children and many more movies. And please do not tell my parents that I’ve watched these movies too.

But now at 27 what I realize is that, most of those parents who were not allowing their kids to watch a Hollywood movie thinking that it’s not appropriate at that age were completely wrong. As a person I do respect my culture, I follow the set of rules, I know my limitations and I am proud of being an Indian and also I’ve no problem if someday our next generation will watch a kissing scene on television; although I expect them to realize their limitations if they will ever try to implement in real life these emotions which appear on television.

Tagged: Article, Cinema of the United States, Film, Hollywood, India, Kate Winslet, movies, Titanic, Writing

Posted in: Random Thoughts