Postcolonial studies, Movie reviews

Blog on post-colonialism , This is a part of our thinking activities in Department of English MKBU. In this particular blog task is given by our Honorable Professor Dr. Dilip Barad sir to make our thinking capacity more strong and critical, to watch movies and reviewing it with critical approach is the purpose this task 

"Every effort to understand destroys the object studied in favor of another object of a different nature; this second object requires from us a new effort which destroys it in favor of a third, and so on and so forth until we reach the one lasting presence, the point at which the distinction between meaning and the absence of meaning disappears: the same point from which we began"

-Claude Lévi-Strauss

Basic concept of Postcolonialism: 

It is the critical academic study of the cultural legacy of colonialism and imperialism, focusing on the human consequences of the control and exploitation of colonized people and their lands. More specifically, it is a critical-theory analysis of the history, culture, literature, and discourse of (usually European) imperial power.

Salman Rushdie was born in Bombay in 1947, just months before the Partition of British India. His father, Ahmed, was a businessman and his mother, Negin, was a teacher. He grew up loving the escape literature and film offered, and he wrote his first story when he was ten years old. He encountered some of his earliest influences at a young age, including The Wizard of Oz, Superman comics, and Bollywood movie.  

 The success of Midnight’s Children made Rushdie the voice of Indians writing in England, promoting fellow writers and editing the volume Indian Writing in English.

Rushdie’s second novel, Midnight’s Children, depicts the condition of India through the voice and family of Saleem Sinai, a child born at the moment of India’s independence. His momentous birth endows he and 1001 other children born close to the stroke of midnight with special powers. Saleem  believes his birth, marked by a letter from Prime Minister Nehru, determine that his fate is bound up with the nation’s

Mr. Rushdie represented the allegorical image of India. History and nation both narrated in a fictional way. Whatever happened in the novel or a film  has actually happened in India, but the use of metanarrative technique itself created doubt in the narration

Marxism aspect of Rich and Poor	Religious Perspective	Hybrid Identity	Realism	Science and Superstitions	Political Satire
Birth of two children Vanita and William , one is in rich and another is in a poor family.	Main religion of novel or a film - Muslim		Parvati saves first Saleem's life	One side growth of science	Strong political satire on Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
Nurse exchanged the childs along with each Destiny.	Saleem has hybrid identity of Hindu and Cristian	Saleem is the boy with Hybrid identity as Hindu and Cristan through the novel and film also.	then her child's got life magically	Other side people Drowned in superstition	It shows the blind faith in religion like faith on the Horoscope.
Now they both known as Shiva and Saleem	While Shiva’s identity is Hindu but after the act of nurse he becomes a Muslim boy.	He is a mixture or fusion of two culture, nations , also he is a victim of Partition of India.	Realism means metaphor on society	Ex. 1994 Nuclear test	Indira Gandhi’s policies are like Nuse bandhi, Declaration of emergency,
Saleem’s mother died after his birth ,	There is no Temple or Masjid shown in work, only faith can be considered a religion perspective	The character of Shiva is also hybrid identity because actually he is a Muslim bot by birth , then he got known as Hindu boy.	Saleem has tremendous powers of Shiva and Parvati is witch,	Parvati using Black magic, PM Indira Gandhi had faith on Horoscope	Demolition of slum areas  is creating a huge impact as political unrest of the time.
After the Exchange of child Shiva becomes the son without mother, Nurse  sympathized  with Saleem	Parvati Hindu girl , becomes wife of Muslim boy Saleem.	See again, Parvati is a Hindu girl, married with Shiva , and Shiva is actually a Muslim boy so their children’s identity might be different .	Using powers in unethical way	Indira Gandhi-PM listing her horoscope	With the post-colonial perspective political dimensions took place where injustice kind  of phenomenon happens.

The story of Saleem Sinai is the story of postcolonial India. The exact moment of his 

birth was 15 August 1947, at the stroke of midnight. This moment completely coincides with 

India’s gain of its independence from Britain. His birth ties him closely to the country’s fate 

and future. Accordingly, his life is a reflection of the country’s ups and down, good times 

and bad times. “More than a mirror of India, Saleem is the multitude of India.”12

The Reluctant Fundamentalist and how they 

become victims and legitimate targets of 

hate crimes, negative media stereotypes, physical beatings, disappearance, racial profiling, 

interrogations at American airports, and detentions in secret places. It addresses how such treatment sheds light on the questions of Muslim integration in the American society, citizenship, 

multiculturalism, identity, and alienation, belonging, and national affiliation. It also disrupts the dominant American official discourse, which links Islam with terror and portrays Muslims as 

potential terrorists and a threat to America and values of Western civilization. I also argue that 

Hamid’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist offers a counter literary response not only to the American 

public rhetoric but also to the dominant literary discourses that prevailed after 9/11, inflamed the 

American sentiments, and consolidated 

stereotypes against Islam and Muslims. 

:Story line

     This film has political thriller and frame narration. Protagonist character name is Changez Khan. He was born in Pakistan and he went to USA for full fill his dream become a business man. After his uncertification there he come back in his native place Pakistan. And he became professor in Lahore University during an American professor at Lahore University, is kidnapped and held for ransom. An American journalist in Pakistan called Bobby Lincoln (Liev Schreiber), arranges to interview a colleague of Rainer, Changez Khan (Riz Ahmed), whom he suspects is involved in the kidnapping Film start with Muslim jashna and other side kidnapping of American proffesor. And next day an American journalist Bobby come to Changez Khan for enquiries. Changez Khan ready for given answer to him. And Changez Khan first ,

line is

 " Sometimes identity become danger without doing wrong"

His film directed use flash back method, Changez tell his story started with company to his beloved with relation all things said to American journalist Bobby.

9/11 Attacked -

Suddenly 9/11 attacked happen in US, after situation completely change for him because their he feel like Mujahib and most every react with him he is enemy country person. On returning to the USA, he is strip-searched at the airport.

That attacked completely change Changez life even Erica invites Changez to the opening of her art show, but he is angered to discover she has used intimate details of their relationship in her art, breaks up with her.

Here Changez Khan has not done wrong anything as USA people behavior like unfair with him. He has Pakistani identity so people think he may be involved that attacked, that type people thought as like nonsense. 

The Black Prince is an hon­est and sin­cere por­trayal of a chap­ter of An­glo-Sikh his­tory and as­pects of Indo-Sikh his­tory in the right per­spec­tive. Some years back, I at­tended a con­fer­ence on Ris­ing In­tol­er­ance in Eu­rope in Cor­doba, Spain. I en­coun­tered a Jew­ish artiste who was hold­ing an ex­hi­bi­tion in the city, who told me, 

“Mr. Singh, hold a video cam­era and record the story of your par­ents’ gen­er­a­tion and pre­serve that for pos­ter­ity. That would be the first step the Sikhs need to take to tell their chil­dren about their past glory.” 

The Black Prince does ex­actly that. It tells the Sikhs to look back, re­flect and pon­der.

Here, I am sharing my powerpoint presentation regarding this movie . 

The black prince.pptx by tamsa from TamsaPandya

I prepared a PowerPoint presentation to make some idea crystal clear i this will helps to you for further readings about colonialism and post-colonialism. this is my understanding towards colonialism and post-colonialism. i hope you will like, if you find any problem or question do contact me. 

THANK YOU