Cultural Identities and Canadian Multiculturalism

1
Cultural Identities and Canadian Multiculturalism

• in Sriniva Krishnas Masala (1991)

Related work MY BEAUTIFUL LAUNDRETTE (1986)
2
Outline

• The first generation Grandma and Lord Krishna
• The second generation misfits and opportunists
• The third generation more choices
• (The use of dream sequence and symbols)
• Canadian Racism institutionalized and personal
• The films subtle ironies
• Masalas importance Sriniva Krishna

3
The three generations of the Indian Community

• 1. Grandma,
• 2. Lallu Bhai Solanki and his wife, Bibi,
• Mr. Harry Tikkoo,
• Krishnas father mother
• 3. Krishna, Sashi Rita Solanki, Anil, Babu,
• The others
• Lord Krishna Balrama,
• Whites with drug Lisa
• The sikh revolutionary Bamadour Singh
• Question What are their senses of value, or
  cultural identities?

cousins
sisters
4
Multiple plot lines

• The grandmas wish to get money for her son and
  Mr. Tikkoo conflict with the Canadian government
  over the stamp.
• Lallu Bhais dream of global sari industry
  Krishnas search for a job and his sense of
  identity
• Ritas dream of flying
• Anils wet dream of sexy women
• Sikhs revolution, trying to turn Punjab to
  Khalistan

5
The first generation Grandma and Lord Krishna

• Grandma adapting to the new environment by
  combining Canadian and Indian cultures in her own
  way.
• We are outsiders here no money down real
  estate
• interested in kitchen gadgets.
• Pray to Lord Krishna through a video

6
Lord Krishna his adaptations gradual loss of
power

• people need gods because the world is unfair.
• Adaptations
• Why cant a god be like man? Can work with
  Jesus clip 2
• Call his believer, show miracle within the TV
  box clip 4
• As a hockey player clip 5
• Loss of power We are losing our minds clip 6
• Fly the plane awkwardly, clip 15
• Cannot cross over to Canadian jurisdiction
  area cannot talk to justice jack clip 13
• Tired of the country, want to leave after the
  Rath Yatra clip 14
• Grandmother calls him troublemaker ask to get
  her granddaughter back clip 16
• Cannot order the sikh people. Clip 17

7
The second generation misfits

• Krishnas parents beaten up and decide to go
  back clip 14
• Harry Tikkoo turn to a different person after
  being beaten up in financial dilemma,
  interested in stamps

8
The second generation opportunists

• Lallu Bhai his success dream clip 8
• -- a sexist and womanizer
• makes use of Sikh revolutionaries
• -- wants to monopolize the sari business (going
  global) clip 8
• His dream of being a self-made man
• What does Sari here symbolize? Consider the
  beginning of the film, too. Clip 2 clip 14

9
The third generation Krishna

• Far away from his namesake god clip 7 clip 20
• Dont feel anything clip 10
• Cannot work anywhere post office, travel agency,
  (Cannot play by the rules.)
• Wants money (Do you have 800 dollars?) and a
  house with swimming pool but no neighbors.
• Resist racism (Im not Paki) Try to rescue the
  boy but gets himself killed.
• Symbols of the air plane in front of the post
  office when having sex driving with Anil

10
The third generation Anil, Rita and Sashi

• Rita her dream to flyclip 3
• Ritas difference from Sashi, who hates Indian
  men clip 12 stereotypes?
• Anil about his career his mother My husband
  wants gynaecology, but I want heart surgery.
  His wet dreams and masturbation.
• Babu wants to be a real estate agent.

11
Racism institutionalized and personal

• Individual assaults by the big white boys
• Canadian governments strategy of containment
  Opening talk shows Krishna as an outsider
• The minister of multiculturalism the importance
  of playing by the rules. clip 20
• Respect or disrespect of the other cultures? Clip
  18
• the importance of the beaver stamp

12
The films subtle ironies

• Anils sex scene female contortionist?
• The final clash between the parade and RCMPs
• The Sikh, What is there to suspect?
• Toilet paper product of the Western world
  something imported to elevate you out of your
  Third Worldiness (Krishna in Bailey 44)
• Is the temple for god, or for the minister?
• The last scene the Canadian National Museum of
  the Philately the fittest survive, the ethnic
  colors in the kitchen, and the thinker cannot
  feel anything.
• Multiculturalism as Masala Sari, Parade,
  Temple, or respect of south Indian cultures and
  peoples?

13
Masalas importance

• As a second generation of Canadian subaltern
  cinema
• Using the conventions of disaffected youth
  drama, Hollywood musical, Hindi musicals,
  European art cinema, and Canadian satire, Masala
  moves beyond the cinema of duty by decentering
  the whole notion of center-margin as a driving
  force in the film, and by making representation
  itself a concern. (Bailey 38)

14
Criticism of Masala

• Krishna about the Vancouver Film Festival (400
  out of 600 audience were Indians) an elderly
  woman said I just want to say one thing.
  Indian women do not marry for homes and Indian
  men do not marry for fucks. And I dont
  appreciate this bad language. And then the
  screaming started. Four hundred people screaming
  at each other. I was holding a microphone and
  screaming and you couldn'tt even hear me.
  (Bailey 42)
• At Sundance festival American audience calling
  the film misogynist, homophobic, heterophobic,
  and racist. (Bailey 44)

15
Krishnas own views

• This is a film about home. The Air India plane
  six years ago had exploded over the Atlantic, I
  knew people on that plane. . . . What it began
  to mean to me was that there is no going home. .
  .