The return of the Diaspora : recognizing the non-resident Indian (NRI) in contemporary Bollywood cinema.

• Main Author: Low, Shaun Chong Ying.
• Other Authors: Bede Tregear Scott
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2010
• Subjects: DRNTU::Social sciences::Mass media::Broadcasting::Motion pictures and films::Asian cinema
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/35511
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

This paper explores the representations of the Non-Resident Indian (NRI) in post-1990 Bollywood cinema. This essay closely examines the ways in which the NRI/diasporic Indian is in conflict between tradition and modernity, and how the subject is able to create a ‘third space’ where he/she can accommodate two cultures. I argue that the NRI can resolve and balance the tradition/modernity binary in three ways. Firstly, I investigate the filmic methods by which the global culture is brought into the local and vice versa, and show that the NRI is able to build a family that encourages traditional values through modern means. Secondly, I examine the ways in which ‘Indian-ness’ can be performed and suggest that it is ultimately the NRI’s performance of feelings which determines his sense of loyalty to a nation. Lastly, I try to establish the notion that tradition (Hinduism) acts as the basis for modernity (the NRI’s progress). I conclude by briefly observing that post-1990 Bollywood films might have reflected the shift in attitude towards the NRIs or influenced national interests and politics concerning the diaspora, and predict what Bollywood cinema might focus on in the near future.