Break(ing) on through to the other side

Due to the widely excepted confessional nature of blogging, I offer one myself: I’ve been battling my snobbery, and have embarked on a self- help program to cure this ailment, to partake a regular dose of pop-culture, but my body still rejects it. It’s an ailment reinforced through years of me being secretly entertained by popular media, yet living in complete denial or simply banishing them from my world view in preservation of a precious self-image. (A note: there definitely is a substantial amount of garbage to sift through though, and certain artifacts of this world that are outright dangerous- “300” and “The Legend of Bhagat Singh” for their misappropriation of history; the later “Golmaal” movies for their distasteful portrayal of the disabled and the much-parodied, much-mocked “Twilight”, for its surprising ability to intellectually cripple a generation of young women.)


My eventual rehab might still take months to accomplish, but I’ve gathered a couple of insights in the process- a respect for the market, for one. I believe this respect stems from my marwari upbringing. To make my point, I cite two gentlemen, for whom I’d nurtured a peculiar disdain: Karan Johar and Chetan Bhagat.


Quiet recently, I’ve marched on from pure contempt to tolerance to a quiet admiration of these two. Chetan Bhagat, for instance: where Indian writing in English devoured caste/poverty, religion, post-colonialism, immigrant experience as its daily fodder, Bhagat recognized a potential market often ignored (and slightly ridiculed) by the English elite. Bhagat’s entertaining novels and lucid prose struck a cord with an audience who wished to read in English, but English was still a tentative second tongue. The English novels available to them in the market often came with westernized characters they couldn’t quite identify with, or novels with “literary” aspirations, difficult to read in a tongue not quite their own. I might not write a novel similar to Bhagat’s, or worship his work, yet to dismiss his writing entirely would be arrogance that “intellectuals” are sometimes (rightly) accused of. (Another note: “serious” writers, too, play to the market. Pick up almost any successful Indian novel in English from the past 20 years, and you’re sure to encounter at least one of the themes I just mentioned above.)


As for Karan Johar- firstly, I grew to respect the scale of his projects, the pressure somebody in his position goes through, often collaborating with dozens of technicians and artists in a year-long process. I also secretly enjoyed Kuch Kuch Hota Hai when it'd just come out (it's true, something something does happen) and later, liked Kabhie Khushi Kabhie Gham. Moreover, his movies developed and groomed a profitable market that Aditya Chopra first broke open. Having a clear sense of your market and then delivering a product successfully, and profitably, is also an art. (Though, I might begrudge his privileged clique, people who inherited their opportunities. Still, scoring those opportunities is a tough task, too, and Karan Johar did it commendably.)


Lesson learned: everything doesn’t need to be high art, high wisdom, to be valued or respected.