tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9186118329509553435.post4053046375449285008..comments2024-03-09T15:11:29.350-08:00Comments on Exotic and irrational entertainment: Unaccustomed EarthPessimisissimohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04223566131580795337noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9186118329509553435.post-13996978412059260872008-04-14T20:52:00.000-07:002008-04-14T20:52:00.000-07:00dhevi, thanks for the kind words about the blog!Th...dhevi, thanks for the kind words about the blog!<BR/><BR/>The story about your uncle points up the complexity of our responses to the films we grow up with and how those responses change as we get older (or not). Some of the strongest negative remarks I've gotten when playing Bollywood soundtrack music at my bookstore have been from Indian-American university students. One woman wrinkled her nose in distaste and said, "My mom plays this [it happened to be the soundtrack from <I>Veer-Zaara</I> (2004)] in the car all the time." She found Bollywood to be mildly embarrassing, or annoying, or corny, because it was something her parents liked.<BR/><BR/>That's one reason it occurred to me that in the final stories of <I>Unaccustomed Earth</I> Jhumpa Lahiri--whose books are in part about the emotionally charged relationships children can have with their parents' culture--might have been working through some of the complicated feelings aroused by Bollywood movies. Pure speculation on my part, of course, and before I make too many more unfounded assumptions about the book and Lahiri's motives for writing it I had better get a copy and read it.<BR/><BR/>Meanwhile, I vote with your uncle: most contemporary Hollywood romances do nothing for me. But watching <I>Kal Ho Naa Ho</I> or <I>Kuch Kuch Hota Hai</I> or <I>Veer-Zaara</I> for the tenth time is sure to bring a lump to my throat. It's a contradiction that I may never fully resolve, but thinking about the possible reasons for it was one of the things that motivated me to start this blog. Thanks for reading, and for your comment.Pessimisissimohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04223566131580795337noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9186118329509553435.post-22634858349102569172008-04-12T00:04:00.000-07:002008-04-12T00:04:00.000-07:00Hey there Pessimissimo:Love your blog. Thanks for ...Hey there Pessimissimo:<BR/><BR/>Love your blog. Thanks for bringing the plot of Unaccustomed Earth to my attention, I'd been looking for it. And thanks for not spoiling it.<BR/><BR/>It's interesting that you say it reminds you of Bollywood movie plots. Funnily enough, I have an uncle, who, having grown up with Indian films (and its requisite sense of somehow being inferior to its English counterparts) never liked Hollywood romances. He laughed away Love Story saying it was just any random Indian movie that you could pick up at a store.<BR/><BR/>"We may not know our action/dialogue, but we know our love". ;)Sreedhevi Iyerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17646386853682224479noreply@blogger.com