Note : The following essay or stream of conscious is in no way intended to disrespect any culture , people, race or custom . It is also in no way an attempt to demean a culture by bringing it down to symbols or colours and none of this may be factual , but it is my opinion and what I have seen throughout the years and felt as if I should share my thoughts .
It is a common term that a picture is worth a thousand words , it is also common advice tat we should not judge a book by its cover . Terms like love is blind , do not be fooled by appearances , from the looks of it , or that beauty is only skin deep , are ones we use on regular basis , terms that talk about images and visuals and the importance of assessing them . We are highly visual creatures and perhaps more than just a sense that aids our survival , our ability to see a landscape , rose , painting or scene also feeds our aesthetic need or hunger for beauty . This is probably why we believed and still believe that beauty will save the world .
Either way , images or visual spectacle exercises great control over us , in or out of our awareness , and in the modern world especially we are constantly bombarded with pictures,colours, news bulletins , advertisements , art and countless other things throughout the day . All images tell us a story , enchant or fright us and they tell us what do to , and this not new . Civilisations have always used art or paintings to express themselves and to tell stories by preserving them on walls or papers , during the industrial and war ages images were used to remind people of images and later images were used as propaganda to induce hate among people . Images affect us in a way that is almost terrifying . The second we see them ; we remember them and become a part of our unconscious mind and it often takes a physical effort to fight our own accepted perceptions of the world .
When we see love , acts of love , peace , laugh , joy , lights , children , flowers , softness , deep vibrant colours and smiles we become happy . When we see violence , hate , pain, gory , blood, abuse and confusion we are physically harmed by what we just witnessed . This is why writers know the importance of having words that paint a picture and also why advertisers associate their products with either beauty or comedy , something that both stimulates and enchants us .
I would like to talk about how films , a medium of artistic images in dramatic motion , have given me a lot to reflect over , from the eastern and western world .
There is no proper order to my points or opinions so bare with me .
Morality
Morality is something we deal with everyday . What is right or wrong ? who is good or evil ? It is something we cannot escape . Movies or images from the East are packed full with a sense of honour , respect and dignity . Most protagonists will be decent people who have a good heart , even a criminal or thief , will have to be likeable by being an innocent soul . Sins are far away and unholy to the eyes and ears . In PAKEEZA , the heroine is a well-mannered and elegant prostitute who wishes to be loved despite of her position is society . The word Pakeezah itself means pure , and the image we have to her is also of a saint who is above everyone else . The only time there is a sense of something being corrupted is when she dances of broken glass and leaves a white sheet smeared in her blood .
And so is the case with several other main stream images and cultural stories . The east is full of movies and stories with characters who are not evil , they are troubled or facing some difficulty due to the cruel acts of others , the story does employ violence or an atmosphere of injustice but the protagonist only projects an ideal of innocence and kindness . They stand out because of the goodness in them and it stands out more because of the wickedness of others . At times even the villains are people who have a high regard for values ; most stories talk about thieves who had excellent manners or who were impressed by the courage in people . Like that story of the boy who gave his hidden money to robbers and this pleased them so much that they decided not to take anything .
In the West however , we have characters who accept the darkness around them and they perhaps do care for a moral approach to things , but the overall ambiance is often filled with a cynical tone and a dramatized look onto the dirty case of the world . To many people this is disturbing and comes of as highly immoral , considering how easily a character may turn to an arch-villain approach to life , where criminal psychology rules . But that is exactly the point of the whole story . The west teaches the lesson through disobedience , like in the movie FIGHT CLUB , where a group of people are sick to the core of the idea of peace and their surrounding that they turn to anarchy and violence , basically id or ego pleasing behaviour . The essence of what is right comes across when the people the mess and confusion and emptiness that the characters enjoy . Stories like DR FAUSTUS he come to mind , the whole idea of getting what you want and not being satisfied with it . It can even be related to the tale of Goldie locks and the three bears , the moral sense is only projected in going against the law or norm . They also come of as more realistic , Fight club does come of as interesting in the fashion of the revolution , but it is at the very destructive end that sense is made of the chaos .
Greed and materialism
Not so much as a surprise , materialism is frowned upon in the east , since its philosophy does not endure it . Sufism in particular is filled with the sense of abstinence from the material world and focuses on the soul and rejects all that takes away from God or meditation . Even in films people who go out in search of wealth fall ill to corruption and are portrayed as wrong , even if it was by lawful means , only always of course but its something that I have noticed . A very iconic exchange of lines between two actors which captures the tip of it the concept is :
“Today I have land, money ,cars and mansions , what do you have ?”
” I have a mother !”
Strangely enough women also come to symbolize this repetitively . In several love triangles, the man is caught between two very different women. One is eastern in dress and well a check list of piety , beauty and traditional values while the other is more ‘ modern ‘ and depicted as stubborn and loose , like it was in the Pakistani drama Humsafar . But its a common trend in almost every other drama . But that is not always true in movies like ‘ Dharkan ‘ the parents of a girl reject the proposal of their daughters lover not because he is poor but because he is rude , and the rich husband later turns out to be an amazing man. Also generally stories and depictions of the eastern world do talk about riches beyond ones imagination and weddings are often done with glamour and expensive festivity .
When it comes to the west , materialism is more than fine . Ambition is a valuable trait in the fast paced world where people tend be shown on their own . There is no shame attached to wanting more and it is natural , but there does come a point where greed of desire gets the better of them . Objects bring depth into the film or enhance a character by acting as a projection of their personality . But it does feel like sometimes that is ever being discussed is money , riches or wealth of some other kind worldly item . I happen to think that the whole novel , the Great Gatsby was written around the sentence ” Her voice is full of money ” . In images of course we get to see luxury products , alongside drinking ,smoking and often drugs and also fashionable make overs . Not to mention the character are very open and direct about their vanity .
But there is great irony in these images , like in the film ‘ They live ‘ a very simple-minded man watches tv from a distance , listening to the women confess how much she wants fame,fortune and love . Near to the end of the ‘Labyrinth’ the girl rejects all of her toys as a show of rebellion to a very private materialism .
Within these different worlds , individuals still feel out-of-place and i often a trip a way from their home that they learn something new and grow internally . Like in the drama ” Main Abdul Qadir Hoon ” the boy starts of innocent and his transform takes place when he leaves home ,where at first he turns into a party boy then later turns very religious . This would not have happened back at home for him , it may just be cultural defence but I think it is more than that . It takes going against everything you are in an opposite world and experiencing both sides , until you realise who you are . Something happens to the Julia Roberts character in ” Eat pray love ” , a change of setting and an adventure into a new world helps her find peace or closure , away from the regular routine and faces .
Talking about the images or implications of wealth , both the east and west in stories encircle the rich , princes and kings and socialites alike . The west in many ways found a way to commercialize wealth , first just before te great depression and second when Andy Warhol starting working . He liked the fact that a coca cola bottle was the same for te president as it was anyone else , and he brought about a new idea that rich should not be only ones to enjoy art or luxury . But in many ways the west in images was able to make the average people glamorous from time to time , bringing the spotlight on them , or getting lovely actors to bring the urban and suburban to the center of the world .
In the east , the rich have to humble themselves , several stories and depictions have brought the rich down to the common man and given him/her a better understanding of their surroundings , but even before modern times , the landlord class was known to take care of the farmers or workers , like in serfdom . But , likewise class distinction was very strong , you have these stories of princes having to reject tradition or rebel against it to marry a common girl .
The philosophy of the East is always filled with God , even the complaint against God does nothing more but find ways to praise him , tis has always remained in popular prose or poetry . Even in sin , destruction and hopelessness you feel a sense of God being mentioned .Like the East came up with the term ” the sacred and the profane ” , people like Allama Iqbal and Ghalib who did nothing more but talk about God and how much they felt that he was there .
” Either tell me of a place where there is no God or let me get drink in the mosque ”
” elevate yourself to a place that before anything God asks you ‘ what do you want ? ‘
The west , on the other hand , learned how to ignore or feel like nothing was there , course this is not to say that all western art and philosophy is devoid of spirituality , but popular philosophy was one with a sense of nihilism or emptiness , just for the sake of it . The west took on man and elevated his feelings and suffering both during Renaissance and after the world wars . You have people like Nietzsche saying things like ” God is dead and we killed him ” . Even movies at times feel blasphemous , but they only show how much man is going to hurt himself , so the images are of defiance and rejection but the lesson is of faith . Like in John Milton’s Paradise Lost you have Satan as the hero and you actually do side with him and sympathize with him most of the time , but the purpose of that is to explain or demonstrate why Eve was deceived so easily – because we are also deceived like her .
The east is drunk on optimism while the west is sober with pessimism .
Rather obvious , the east and west both pick on each other using demeaning images or no images at all , basically by giving them no face or reducing them to a costume . There is this constant theme of looking down at the other or demonizing the other to feed a false and sad sense of superiority , like in some indian films the indian protagonist may have to fight for the love of his life against a British or American or someone who is not from the same cultural background as him. Normally the plot folds out as a study of culture and the confused love interest decides to leave the foreigner , who happens to be a jerk , for the one she feels culturally closer to . Also often due to historical reasons the foreign force is seen as evil and there has to be a resistance against them , and from time to time making them look bad means yourself look good . I’ve mentioned how normally women come to physically embody this and many times when a girl decides to adopt more eastern attributes or clothing , to be exact , she becomes more attractive to the men around her .
Now , lets look at how the West demeans the East , including the middle east and basically anyone they want to hurt .
On a lighter note , Hollywood relies on stereotypes , ones that may not be true or just made up . This is not something dangerously wrong , but it ends up limiting the common image of a whole nation or group of people, and sort of r robs heir individuality . Hate is again also evoked by implanting an exaggerated sense of horror into the masses by painting the foreign world as a bunch of crazy people who need to be attacked and not be questioned or have any verbal communication with . It’s the same pattern in several war films , either the american soldier is completely humanistic by showing his suffering , thoughts and facial close-ups or its turned into a romantic story which takes away all tension or fear of the war , either way the enemy or villain for them, is barely given a face of sympathetic qualities . It’s the same with the news media , they tend to barely ever talk to people suffering from terrorist attacks , instead its just them analysing the whole thing within themselves and they never take responsiblity officially for what they have done .
Just this evening I heard that even in literature and films the Orient is often portrayed as a woman , often a suffering one . And oddly that suffering in the play or image is later used against those women by the west , by them trying to liberate them or just look down on them . But its hard to get these points across because the main image is so strong and one-sided and the majority of the public is happy with this arrangement . It’s hard to get the truth across .
Just the same
Now these two continents may be diverse and almost opposites , to watching eyes , but within both lands are people . People invest a lot of thought and effort into thinking they are somehow better than anyone else , that they are unique and above the world . People are same mostly , they are born crying and barely get to choose their own names, they crave love and affection and look for peace in art and religion . People are different and have brave dreams ; dreams lost with time that they leave in line.
They are destined to feel pain, suffering and loss , and they are committed to the search for love and safety and nothing is going to stop them from having hope . They are the same in feelings , even if the image is different .
‘ Let me go to a place where nobody knows my name ‘
Maheen's Muse 