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Some Religious Aspects of Movie

posted 12 years ago by RRHowell41
4 replies | jump to latest

Bhootnath's employer is a Brahmo Samaj

He also makes magic sindoor powder that is supposed to be especially effective, a business he inherited from his devout Hindu father, who had a vision about the matter. But he's making his money from the gullibility of the superstitious and desperate Hindu women. Brahmo Samaj is supposed to be about purging the faith from superstition. So he's pretty hypocritical.

The Brahmo Samaj are opposed to early marriage. His daughter, Jaba, has been educated and feels free to laugh in the midst of a discussion among men. She does not wear a veil. She writes poetry, plays piano (poorly), she reads better than our country bumpkin hero. But she was married by her Hindu grandfather to some village person when she was 1 year old.

Dad has been planning to ignore this. He's upset when he meets someone from the village, even though the person gives his nickname, and thus does not reveal himself as the actual husband. But does Dad actually know? Why does he give this guy 500 rupees? As atonement money since he is going to make sure his daughter gets married to someone else?

Does he close the business because of Bhootnath's moral scruples? "I betrayed a woman by giving her your sindoor." Does Dad read this as a declaration that he married someone? (As Jaba clearly wonders--the whole thing is a setup for that doubt.)

The Brahmo Samaj should be expected to be anti-caste. I'm surprised that they don't give this poverty-struck Brahmin more grief about wanting to eat Brahmin prepared food. Though it seems Bhootnath gets over his scruples when the food is being prepared by a pretty woman to whom he is drawn. Despite her painful insistence that there is no relationship between them. Hum aapke hain kyun? Is it not the same flirty question? (I know it is not the same words)

[–] elanor-3 12 years ago

I second your questions.

Yet, for me it was more puzzling, why this Brahmin, who dares not to eat food not made by Brahmins, is married as a child to a non-Brahmin girl and as far as I interpret the last scenes stays married to her. Has food to be more pure than a wife?

--- each brain develops its own preferences ---

[–] RRHowell41 12 years ago

I think it is possible that she was a Brahmin girl at the age of one.

I suspect that the brahmo samaj, many of whom were brahmins by birth, were low caste by means of being cast out from hinduism due to heresy, and their refusal to accept caste. So if granddad got this baby girl married, perhaps it was to a brahmin because he was a brahmin, and wanted to see her properly matched up.

Clearly as far as a love match, both of them cared for each other in adult life.

And Bhoothnath has accepted the money conscious versions of status well enough that when he thinks Jaba's dad wants him to marry HIM (before he realizes he is just being asked to arrange the wedding with someone else, in a classic filmi dilemma), he protests that he is unworthy.

[–] elanor-3 12 years ago

OK, so she was perhaps Brahmin as a girl. But later definitely not. Can she become Brahmin again?

Clearly as far as a love match, both of them cared for each other in adult life.

I agree.

--- each brain develops its own preferences ---

[–] RRHowell41 12 years ago

If she is not a brahmin because her father has heretical beliefs, but the bloodline is there, then if she chooses to be a good Hindu housewife, and to fulfill the vow that was made on her behalf as a baby, surely there is a way to make her pure from the caste point of view (I have no idea how, but on sort of general principles that there is usually a way to work around these things, I'm guessing that there should be a way. Find the right kind of priest and pay him the right amount of money.

Or perhaps her husband, now that he is a successful and sophisticated businessman, no longer cares about such things.

I read an interesting commentary (Somewhere in the comments to this blog: http://dustedoff.wordpress.com/2009/09/21/sahib-bibi-aur-ghulam-1962/)that suggested that Jaba is the "good girl" Hindu wife. She has been educated, and she speaks brashly in the presence of men, but she does not drink or dance, and she honors the marriage that was given to her, even though there is clearly a way out. This is honored in the traditional filmi way--she gets to be married to the man she loves, and he is an honorable man.

Contrast the woman caught in the middle. Meena Kumar is a devoted Hindu bride who decides to sacrifice her honor in order to win her husband's love. She will go against tradition, even "crossing the threshold of the house, the purdah line, with a man who is not from the household" True, she does this for the sake of her husband. Sita did too, and look what happened to her. She suffers inevitably for breaking the rules. Or so thought the commentator.