Project- First Paper
Date- 12th October 2015
Is Marriage The Same All Over India?
Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge was one of the most successful movies in Indian film history. The 1995 film tells us a story about Raj and Simran, who fall in love and try to win over each other’s disapproving families. Eventually the two have a love marriage and live happily ever after. One supposes this is how a love story would end. However, there are also many movies that have a completely different concept of marriage. Movies like Bandit Queen and Mother India make us realize that marriage does not always lead to an ending where the husband and wife live happily with each other. In the films, we see that the people don’t realize that the woman of the house has equal rights and deserves as much respect as the man of the house. When we think of marriage, we think that a man and woman have fallen in love, or they are brought together by their friends and family, and the couple has approved of each other. However, in rural villages, marriage is more like getting rid of a liability (daughter) and the acquisition of a ‘slave’. As seen in the movie Bandit Queen, Phoolan (Seema Biswas) is ‘given’ to Puttilal (Aditya Srivastava) against her will. We also saw how Phoolan, a little girl of eleven gets raped by her husband. She is thereafter scarred for life. We live in a society where romantic relationships and marriage are seen as primarily about an emotional union between two adults. However, I think that the concept of marriage in rural areas is very anemic and pallid. This may not be true in all cases, but the husband and wife have a relationship only meant for reproducing, for extra hands at work, and their respective work in the house and fields. We know that marriage is still central to people’s lives, but something somewhere is missing.
In this paper I will discuss and analyze the scenario of marriage in the films aforementioned. In the first part of this paper I will discuss the scene where Phoolan and Puttilal get married in Bandit Queen. Following that, I will examine the scene where Radha (Nargis) and Shamu (Raaj Kumar) get married, in Mother India. I will then discuss the difference in the two scenes and what they tell us.
The marriage of Phoolan and Puttilal in Bandit Queen is very unceremonious and saddening. The scene opens with Phoolan being called by her father, through her friend, when her fiancé had arrived at her home. Phoolan had no previous knowledge that he would be coming. The shot is a mid-shot showing Phoolan and her friend climbing up a mound of sand besides a river, while panning with them. The next shot shows us a close up of Phoolan looking amused by what her friend says. This laugh can be interpreted in two ways. Either she is too naïve to understand what is happening, that she is getting married and she is going to another house, or she is brave enough to handle it. I believe in the latter, because we hear her say, “Achha achha aane de. Saale ko dekh loongi” (Let him come, I’ll take care of him). This whole shot is set in natural lighting.
In the next sequence we see a close up of Phoolan getting ready to part with her family. It is set in a dark room. There is a dim light falling on Phoolan’s face from the side, delivering a very gloomy vibe. She is getting dressed up by her mother. Puttilal is then seen in a mid-shot outside Phoolan’s house waiting for her, again in natural light. He is wearing a ceremonial head band, over casual clothes. He is seen in a hurry, clearly not caring about the fact that he is getting married. Then in a dolly shot we see the little girl reluctant to leave her family. She is forced to touch her husband’s feet. This is shown in a cut-in shot of his feet. Then in another cut-in shot, we see that Phoolan was holding a pair of rings in her hand, which her mother had given her to take with her. Coming from a poor family, her father does not want her to take those and says, “Ye dene ki baat toh nahi hui thi, len-den mein” (There was no agreement on letting Phoolan take those ring with her during their ‘transaction’). When Phoolan starts crying in her mother’s arms, we see that her mother was in fact the only one who was a little scared to let her go. Also she was the only one who answered back to Puttilal when he was asking Phoolan to hurry up.
Phoolan’s father then sends her away with Puttilal. We see that no member of her family even leaves their doorstep when she is going away. This justifies my assertion that the whole process is like getting rid of a liability. A very wide shot shows Phoolan and Puttilal leaving her house and going towards the river. They are followed by a group of children who are excited to see what was happening. Puttilal, not even caring that Phoolan is just 11 years old, goes ahead while Phoolan walked behind him. Phoolan’s parents are shown shedding a few tears at their daughter’s departure. This means that whatever Phoolan’s father was doing, he did that out of no other choice and that he still cared about his daughter. The next sequence is taking place at the river. The camera pans to show the crowd that had gathered to see the couple depart. Phoolan and Puttilal are sitting on the boat. They look totally disconnected and nobody is saying anything. A mid-shot shows how upset Phoolan is and how much she doesn’t want to go. When the boat has moved away from the land, Puttilal takes of the head band, showing that did not care even a little about the marriage; he just needed some house-help.
Mother India shows us a similar scene, where two people are getting married. However, the two scenes are also completely different. The scene picks up when Radha is getting married to Shamu. There is Indian classical music playing in the background, the kind which is played at most weddings in old as well as modern Bollywood movies. In a close up, we see Radha getting adorned in a garland. She is looking down to show humility. Humility is a character present in most of the village women, especially when they get married and are going to a new household. A very wide shot then shows us the environment of the wedding. The wedding is very elaborate and a there is a large gathering to witness the same. Even the cows are wearing certain clothes and ornaments. It is clear that the Radha’s parents have spent a lot on the ceremony, and that it is a very important matter for them.
Then in a few two-shots, we see all the procedures conducted by the marriage officiant. In a medium close up shot, we see Shamu putting ‘sindoor’ on Radha’s head, indicating that they are now officially married. The couples then leaves the marriage grounds after taking blessings from the marriage officiant. A very wide show then shows us their departure. The couple is sitting in a bullock cart. The people who attended the ceremony are seen to walk along with it, or ride on other bullock carts, till they reach the groom’s house. In a two-shot we see another couple, who are probably Radha’s parents. They seem a little heavyhearted, with a few tears in their eyes. They have stayed back, and are not accompanying the newlyweds.
An extremely wide shot shows us the convoy of bullock carts and people on foot. This is supposed to represent the long journey they have to undertake to reach the groom’s house. From this, we can also infer that the groom lives in another village, and that he had come a long way just for a suitable bride. A few close ups of Radha looking down show us that Radha is sad about leaving her family and scared about going to a new house. Radha now arrives at Shamu’s house. Her arrival at the doorstep is shown in a wide shot, followed by a cut-in of her feet when she actually enters the house. A coconut is broken in front of her feet, representing that she is now a part of that house. She is shown around the house by a few women, who we don’t know are. She is led to her bedroom. Dancing to the song playing in the background, the same women go and tell Shamu that Radha is waiting in the bedroom. As Shamu enters the room and sees Radha, there is a smile on his face, showing how much he loves Radha. He is also panting, because he might be afraid to know that they now have to consummate the marriage. Radha, like every new wife in a new rural household, is still looking down in humility. In a few two-shots and over-the-shoulder shots, we see Shamu admiring Radha up close. Radha then falls to Shamu’s feet in respect. Shamu picks her up immediately, showing that he does not consider her to be any inferior to him.
We see that the two scenes are very similar in the procession of the wedding. However, they are also very different in the way the wedding was conducted. The wedding in Bandit Queen was very gloomy and depressing, while the wedding in Mother India was very joyous and energetic. These being one of the first scenes of the respective movies, it is important for them to display the mood of the films, and that is what they’ve done. I will now discuss how the two scenes describe the feel of the movies.
Bandit Queen is a movie full of tragedy. When Phoolan is scarred for life, after being raped at a very young age, she sets out to take revenge from her perpetrator/husband and all other who wrong women in her district. The movie is full of sexual and other physical violence. This dark theme is what the wedding scene is also trying to portray. The lack of a proper marriage ceremony also says that bidding away their daughter is just something that was done out of compulsion, and that they are not happy for their daughter because she is getting married. The whole wedding is just a trade. With all the violence and condescent against the mallah caste, the movie was made only for the mature audience. There has been no upper caste retaliation against the film. If anything, all the upper caste people gathered for the high profile premier show at Sri Fort Auditorium, wrote rave reviews about the film and called it "a major land mark in the history of Indian cinema." This landmark serves the purpose of telling people about the situation of women in rural villages and showing how a serious crime like rape goes unnoticed.
Mother India shows marriage like it should actually be. The whole marriage ceremony was very cheerful, with a classical wedding song playing in the background and proper processions. The way Shamu looked at Radha shows us that he was actually in love with her and that she was not just another hand for getting work done in the house. Radha’s parents were also excited for the wedding, which is evident from all the preparations done for the wedding. This is a movie made for all kinds of audiences. The movie revolves around the fact that Shamu left Radha when he lost his arms and how a widow, Radha, took care of her whole family and helped build the village up from ruins. The movie didn’t land up in any controversy because the content of the film was justified and true. The way Radha was depicted in the film was for women empowerment and was very insightful.
In conclusion, how marriage is depicted in the two films may be how marriage actually is in the respective villages. Both the films are set in rural villages. The condition of married women as shown in Bandit Queen is horrid and dreadful. A woman who stands up for herself is beaten and raped until her spirit is broken. Whereas, Mother India shows Radha to be respected by the majority of the village, and is an integral part of her village by time she is old. This is what makes the two movies poles apart.

Bibliography

* Graff, Gerald, and Cathy Birkenstein. They Say / I Say: The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing. New York: W.W. Norton, 2010. Print. * Corrigan, Timothy. A Short Guide to Writing about Film. New York: Longman, 1998. Print. * www.imdb.com * “Shot Types.” Mediacollege.com. Wavelength Media. Web. * Kishwar, Madhu. “The Bandit Queen.” People.virginia.edu. Web. * Kehr, Dave. “Mother India (1957) FILM IN REVIEW.” Nytimes.com. The New York Times Company, 23 Aug 2002. Web. * Kempley, Rita. “Bandit Queen.” Washingtonpost.com. The Washington Post Company, 28 Jun 1995. Web.

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[ 1 ]. Aditya Chopra, Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, Comedy, Drama, Musical, (1995).
[ 2 ]. Shekhar Kapur, Bandit Queen, Biography, Crime, Drama, (1995).
[ 3 ]. Mehboob Khan, Mother India, Drama, Musical, Family, (1957).
[ 4 ]. Ibid.
[ 5 ]. Kapur, Bandit Queen (1995) 0.2'34" – 0.5’32”
[ 6 ]. Ibid.
[ 7 ]. Khan, Mother India (1957) 0.4’40” – 0.8’52”
[ 8 ]. Ibid.
[ 9 ]. Ibid. [ ]
[ 10 ]. Ibid.
[ 11 ]. Ibid.
[ 12 ]. Ibid.
[ 13 ]. Ibid.
[ 14 ]. Kishwar, Madhu. Manushi, Sept-Oct 1994, no. 84, p. 37
[ 15 ]. Ibid.
[ 16 ]. Kapur, Bandit Queen.
[ 17 ]. Ibid.