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Reading Cinephilia in Kikar Ha‐Halomot/Desperado Square , viewing the local and transnational in Sangam/confluence

2006; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 4; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/14746680600797194

1474-6697

Monika Mehta,

Socioeconomic Development in Asia

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Acknowledgements I am very grateful to Rajesh Bhaskaran for his help and support in completing this article. I would also like to thank Haim Bresheeth, Dale Hudson, Dorit Naaman and Anupama Prabhala‐Kapse for their input. Dina Iordanova's and Dimitris Eleftheriotis' patience and generosity is much appreciated. Finally, this article would not have been written without the cooperation of my two‐month old daughter, Sahana; I should like to dedicate it to her. Notes 1. As an avid fan of Hindi films, this sequence reminds me (as for any self‐respecting viewer of Hindi cinema) of Jai/Amitabh Bachchan and Veeru/Dharmender in Ramesh Sippy's blockbuster Sholay (1975) riding through a similar terrain on a motorbike with a sidecar, singing, ‘yeh dosti hum nahin torenge, torenge dum magar, saath tera na chhodenge/we will never break this friendship, we'll die but we'll never leave one another's side.’ It is possible that Torati is also familiar with Sholay, considering the popularity of Hindi films in Israel. 2. Ravi Vasudevan Vasudevan, Ravi. 1989. “The Melodramatic Mode and the Commercial Hindi Cinema.”. Screen, 30: 29–50. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar] describes the structure and features of Hindi cinema. 3. We must remember that in the case of Israel, a love for Hindi film arose and flourished during a period in which Arab films were banned. According to Dorit Naaman Naaman, Dorit. 2001. “Orientalism as Alterity in Israeli Cinema.”. Cinema Journal, 40(4): 36–54. [Google Scholar], ‘[until] the 1960s Arab films were not available in Israel (TV only came in 1969, and since then Egyptian films are shown regularly on Friday evenings). Similarly, Arab music was not played on the radio. This was a state policy. So the closest was Indian films, and Greek music–both represented in the film–which were consumed primarily by Oriental Jews in the periphery.’ Dorit Naaman Naaman, Dorit. 9 December 2005. E‐mail to the Author [Google Scholar], e‐mail message to author. 4. According to the website, jewishfilm.com Jewish.Com: The Online Jewish Film Archive 10 March 2006 ⟨www.jewishfilm.com/jz24.html⟩ [Google Scholar], Hindi films were actually very popular in Hatikva; Saturday night was the big night out to see a film. Torati, a Hatikva Quarter activist would be familiar with this information. 5. Since for the characters, Hindi cinema is Indian cinema, I use the two interchangeably even though I think the distinction is very important. 6. For further details about Raj Kapoor's transnational success, see the following select references: ‘Filmdom's First Family: The Kapoors’ 15 August 1982. “Filmdom's First Family: The Kapoors.”. In India Today 121 [Google Scholar]; Barnouw and Krishnaswamy Barnouw, Erik and Krishnaswamy, S. 1980. Indian Film. Second ed., New Delhi: Oxford University Press. [Google Scholar]; Mishra Mishra, Vijay. 2002. Bollywood Cinema: Temples of Desire, New York and London: Routledge. [Google Scholar]; Pendakur Pendakur, Manjunath. 2003. Indian Popular Cinema: Industry, Ideology and Consciousness, Cresskill: Hampton New Press Inc.. [Google Scholar]; Saari Saari, Anil. 12 June 1988. “Raj Kapoor: A Legend in Montage.”. In The Hindustan Times Sunday Magazine [Google Scholar]; Stein Stein, Elliot. 18 July 1986. “Raj Kapoor and Hollywood.”. In Sunday Observer [Google Scholar]. 7. Both Rajadhyaksha Rajadhyaksha, Ashish. 2003. “The ‘Bollywoodisation’ of the Indian Cinema: Cultural Nationalism in a Global Arena.”. Inter‐Asia Cultural Studies, 4(1): 25–39. [Taylor & Francis Online] , [Google Scholar] and Prasad Prasad, Madhava M. 2003. “This Thing Called Bollywood.”. Seminar, 5(25): 17–20. [Google Scholar] have written about the term, ‘Bollywood’. 8. I have always disliked Sangam because of the way in which it shortchanges Radha's character and KHH enables me to revel in ‘dosti’ while not offending my feminist sensibilities. 9. Shohat writes about the representation of Mirazhi females. See Shohat Shohat, Ella. 1989. Israeli Cinema: East/West and the Politics of Representation, Austin: University of Texas Press. [Google Scholar], Israeli Cinema: East/West and the Politics of Representation, 115–178. 10. In Sangam, the song sequence Bol Radha bol appears first in the narrative. Radha and Gopal's courtship is shown later. This courtship is followed by Sundar and Radha's wedding. Later, when Sundar discovers an old letter written to Radha, he feels betrayed and sings the song, Dost na dost raha. 11. Jewishfilm.com's Jewish.Com: The Online Jewish Film Archive 10 March 2006 ⟨www.jewishfilm.com/jz24.html⟩ [Google Scholar] review of the film noted an exclamation point next to the fact that Mohammed Bakri was playing a Jewish character.