Pardes – Strangers in a Foreign Land
Pardes directed by Subhash Ghai is a Bollywood musical film. It was released on 8 August 1997. The film stars Shahrukh Khan, Amrish Puri, Alok Nath, and beginners Mahima Chaudhry and Apurva Agnihotri. The film was a marketable, critical and musical megahit. Mahima Chaudary won the Stylish freshman Award for her performance. Ganga is an Indian girl, brought up by her conservative family, living in a vill. Kishorilal( Amrish Puri), a fat and successful Indian American businessman is an old friend of Ganga’s father, Suraj Dev( Alok Nath) and he proposes marriage between Ganga and his son Rajiv. Dev’s family accepts.
But Kishorilal knows he’ll have a tough time trying to move Rajiv, who has noway indeed visited India and so he sends his foster son, Arjun( Shahrukh Khan) to play cupid and move Rajiv to meet Ganga in India. Arjun spends numerous days trying to get Ganga and Rajiv to like each other and, in the process, becomes a close friend of Ganga.
This Subhash Ghai directed drama starring Shah Rukh Khan came a hit thanks to its introductory premise. ‘ Pardes ’ is principally about a clash between Indian and western values and beautifully shows the pro and cons of each culture. Although, in a way it’s the Indian values which end up as the winner, it also manages to show that western culture too has its benefits, especially towards women.
The film also beautifully portrays the complex love story of Shah Rukh as Arjun and Mahima Chaudhry as Ganga. Another plus point of the movie is the musical aspect with numerous blockbuster songs from hit musician brace Nadeem- Shravan. It enjoyed the status of fourth loftiest grossing film of 1997.
The Storyline and Plot
Pardes is a story of three NRI living abroad Kishorilal, Rajiv, and Arjun. Kishorilal( played by Amrish Puri) lives with his extended family in California but still remembers his motherland India. His attachment with the country is deep and he hopes to find a Indian bridegroom for his westernized, American son, Rajiv( Apoorva Agnihotri). On a visit to India, he’s especially taken by Ganga( Mahima Chaudhry), the son of his friend Suraj Dev( Alok Nath).
He offers a marriage offer between Ganga and Rajiv and they accept. After returning to America, he sends his foster son Arjun Sagar( Shah Rukh Khan) to insure Ganga approves of Rajiv. Soon Rajiv joins them and ultimately the marriage is approved by both sides. The engagement festivity is held in India with the marriage planned for America. Now that the NRIs have endured India, they want to bring Ganga back to the United States so she can witness the foreign land where she’ll live before she gets wedded. Will she be suitable to acclimatize?
In” The NRIs a life of dilemma”, is divides NRIs into two orders
The Never Return to India.
For them India is a third world country which is confined to those formerly- by-a-few-years visits for the sake of completing the formality of seeing their loved bones.For them India is a chaotic, hygienic and weakened place where they can not live for a second without Bisleri water and where the sound of honking is noise pollution. Having said this, they do not take the Indianness out of them because it’ll make them look out of sync with their identity
The Now Return to India.
They’re actually in love with their motherland so much that they want to come back as soon as possible. Stuck in the vicious cycle of plutocrat and social pressures, they aren’t suitable to break away from the social walls to return back home. As similar, they look for ways to imbibe these rates within their kin and tell people back home that their kiddies are more culturally inclined than any Indian sprat could be. While in some cases this might be true, in utmost of the cases these are statements to satisfy the tone from the guilt of not being suitable to return to their roots.
Rajiv surely represents the first of these two orders. He’s not interested in the culture or traditions of India. He’s willing to marry Ganga, but only on his terms.
Kishorilal falls into the alternate order. He has a love and respect for India and selects Ganga to marry Rajiv to serve as the missing link to the Indian motherland and to be a artistic influence on his son. For Kishorilal, India is aland for both love and life.
Near the morning of the film, Kishorilal is visiting the Taj Mahal and tells a group of excursionists ” In America, love has it’s own limitations, it’s demands. There, love is a gesture of giving and taking. But in India, it isn’t give and take. In India it’s give, give and give.”
The film also beautifully portrays the complex love story of Shah Rukh as Arjun and Mahima Chaudhry as Ganga. Another plus point of the movie is the musical aspect with numerous blockbuster songs from hit musician brace Nadeem- Shravan. It enjoyed the status of fourth loftiest grossing film of 1997.
The Storyline and Plot
Pardes is a story of three NRI living abroad Kishorilal, Rajiv, and Arjun. Kishorilal( played by Amrish Puri) lives with his extended family in California but still remembers his motherland India. His attachment with the country is deep and he hopes to find a Indian bridegroom for his westernized, American son, Rajiv( Apoorva Agnihotri). On a visit to India, he’s especially taken by Ganga( Mahima Chaudhry), the son of his friend Suraj Dev( Alok Nath).
Arjun is nearly in the middle. He understands and respects Indian culture. As an artist Arjun loves painting, composing songs and always dreams about India and its lovely people. still, when he first arrives at Ganga’s home in India, he tries to change effects so that Rajiv will be confortable in this foreign land but his attempts were dismissed by Ganga and her family. During that original trip he begins the process to set up a music academy. latterly in the film, when Arjun returns to India but is demurred out of Ganga’s home he’s asked by a original occupant” Where are you from?” Arjun answers,” Nowhere.”
While Pardes focuses on the culture clash between NRIs and those living in India, it also highlights the peak between rich and poor. Ganga’s family is poor in plutocrat( compared toU.S. norms), but rich in family and land and love. Rajiv’s family is rich in plutocrat and effects, but poor in love and verity. Near the end of the film, Kishorilal confronts Arjun and asks for the verity about his relationship with Ganga. Arjun responds,
” Truth? You do not want to know the verity.. It takes a big heart. One needs a big heart to hear the verity. And the verity is when a man gains status with wealth and power he distances himself from verity and morality. He thinks, whatever he believes is the verity, whatever he did was right. And that is what has happed with you too, joe. You made it big alright, but remained small in particular matters. Because the verity is that you prevaricated to yourself. You prevaricated that an Indian girl can be a woman to a outsider like him.”
The film does suffer from conceptions of both Indian and American societies but the film makes a important point as well How we treat others is a testament to who we really are. The relations between Arjun and Ganga are the most engaging because they feel the most honest. In the climax of the film, when Arjun is further pressurised to justify his relationship with Ganga, he replies,
” Trust. respect, and above all love.”
Regardless of your culture, religion, level of wealth, or place of residence, fashionable ties are cultivated in an environment steeped in reverence, trust, respect, and love.
And in the filmmaker’s eyes, it seems a great deal of that rich soil can be set up in India.
In” The NRIs a life of dilemma”, is divides NRIs into two orders
The Never Return to India.
For them India is a third world country which is confined to those formerly- by-a-few-years visits for the sake of completing the formality of seeing their loved bones.For them India is a chaotic, hygienic and weakened place where they can not live for a second without Bisleri water and where the sound of honking is noise pollution. Having said this, they do not take the Indianness out of them because it’ll make them look out of sync with their identity
The Now Return to India.
They’re actually in love with their motherland so much that they want to come back as soon as possible. Stuck in the vicious cycle of plutocrat and social pressures, they aren’t suitable to break away from the social walls to return back home. As similar, they look for ways to imbibe these rates within their kin and tell people back home that their kiddies are more culturally inclined than any Indian sprat could be. While in some cases this might be true, in utmost of the cases these are statements to satisfy the tone from the guilt of not being suitable to return to their roots.
Rajiv surely represents the first of these two orders. He’s not interested in the culture or traditions of India. He’s willing to marry Ganga, but only on his terms.
Kishorilal falls into the alternate order. He has a love and respect for India and selects Ganga to marry Rajiv to serve as the missing link to the Indian motherland and to be a artistic influence on his son. For Kishorilal, India is aland for both love and life.
Near the morning of the film, Kishorilal is visiting the Taj Mahal and tells a group of excursionists ” In America, love has it’s own limitations, it’s demands. There, love is a gesture of giving and taking. But in India, it isn’t give and take. In India it’s give, give and give.”
The film also beautifully portrays the complex love story of Shah Rukh as Arjun and Mahima Chaudhry as Ganga. Another plus point of the movie is the musical aspect with numerous blockbuster songs from hit musician brace Nadeem- Shravan. It enjoyed the status of fourth loftiest grossing film of 1997.
The Storyline and Plot
Pardes is a story of three NRI living abroad Kishorilal, Rajiv, and Arjun. Kishorilal( played by Amrish Puri) lives with his extended family in California but still remembers his motherland India. His attachment with the country is deep and he hopes to find a Indian bridegroom for his westernized, American son, Rajiv( Apoorva Agnihotri). On a visit to India, he’s especially taken by Ganga( Mahima Chaudhry), the son of his friend Suraj Dev( Alok Nath).