When appreciating a foreign movie, if you don't know anything about the social and cultural background of the country, then the movie in your eyes must be "incomplete", and you will not be able to understand the connotation of the movie more deeply.
Friends who lack understanding of India must be a little confused when they see the Indian gods, castes, and religions mentioned in the film. However, many wonderful plots and profound meanings of Indian movies are contained in these "localized" details.
If you are still a "layman" to Indian cinema, reading this article will immediately boost you several ranks. When discussing this film with friends, you are sure to be the center of attention.
Below, the circle will list some issues in this film that may not be well understood by the Chinese.
Question 1: Why use the monkey god as the symbol of Pawan?
The monkey god's name is Hanuman, the god monkey in the Indian epic "Ramayana", the son of the wind god. He rescued Sita, the wife of Rama, the prince of Ayodhya, and helped Rama and his army escape danger many times. And Rama is the god Rama that Pawan often talks about. He is the seventh incarnation of Vishnu (Sakyamuni is considered to be the ninth incarnation of Vishnu), Vishnu and Brahma are in harmony. Shiva is also known as the three gods of Hinduism and is one of the highest gods in Hinduism. It can be seen that Hanuman, the monkey god, plays an important role in Indian mythology.
Hanuman can be understood as Rama's vanguard, intelligent, powerful, and good at changing images. In India and even Southeast Asian countries, he is regarded as a great hero combining wisdom and strength. And he respects all kinds of gods very much, and he is also a typical devout believer.
Therefore, the key words of the monkey god Hanuman are: piety, wisdom, strength, great hero.
Let's take a look at our male protagonist Pawan. He is a devout Hindu believer, with a burly and powerful body, and finally became a hero in the eyes of Mooney and the people of India and Pakistan. Although he looks stupid on the surface, it is all because he is too sincere. While escaping from the Hazrat Amin Shah shrine, Pawan had the reporters dupe the police on the phone, allowing them to escape. When approaching Mooney's house, he made another slap in the face, and managed to get Mooney back to his mother. These also prove that Pawan has extraordinary wisdom.
Isn't Pawan, our stupid, stupid but undisturbed male protagonist, a living monkey god?
Question 2: What does it mean for a Pakistani Muslim girl to live in India?
India and Pakistan were both members of British India, and everyone must know the long-term conflict and hostility between them, which contains many political and religious reasons. In the 1947 Indo-Pakistani war, 1,500 Indians were killed and 3,152 wounded, while 1,500-2,633 Pakistanis were killed and 4,668 wounded. That's why Pawan's father-in-law said, "How many of our fellow countrymen did that country brutally kill?"
83% of Indians are Hindu, while 95% of Pakistanis follow Islam. The conflict between Hinduism and Islam has a longer history. Since the arrival of Muslims in India in the ninth century, the ideological conflict and violent conflict over beliefs have not stopped.
Therefore, although Mooney is still a child, her identity is a typical infidel of a hostile country. Pawan's father-in-law, as a high-caste Hindu, has a natural sense of superiority to his beliefs and lineage. It is not difficult to understand why he has such a fierce reaction.
The interesting thing is that the male protagonist Pawan, as a devout Hindu believer, entered the mosque several times and felt uncomfortable as if he had been electrocuted. But Pawan's actor Salman Khan is actually a fake Muslim. Because "Khan" is the surname of Moslin, in India, all names ending with Khan are Muslims. Yes, the three Khans of Bollywood - Aamir Khan, Shahrukh Khan and Salman Khan are all Muslims.
Question 3: What caste are Pawan and his father-in-law's family?
There is no doubt that Pawan and his father-in-law's family are both Brahmins, the highest caste in India.
First of all, a little bit of popular science in India's caste system.
The Indian caste system has a history of more than 3,000 years. This system divides people into 4 grades, namely Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaishya and Sudra. A varna hierarchy according to the "Rigveda: Primordial Song": Brahman is the original man's mouth, Kshatriya is the original man's arms, Vaishya is the original man's thigh, and Sudra is the original man. human feet. As for the untouchables, they are excluded from the body of the original.
The four grades have strict regulations in terms of status, rights, occupations, and obligations:
the first grade Brahmins are mainly monks and nobles, with the privilege of interpreting religious scriptures and offering sacrifices to gods, as well as the right to enjoy dedication, the main education, the audience Kshatriya, responsible for Monopoly of cultural education and reporting on the agricultural season and interpretation of religious discourse;
the second-class Kshatriya is the military aristocracy and administrative aristocracy, the audience of Brahmin thoughts, they have the privilege of collecting various taxes, ruling the army, and being responsible for guarding the Brahmin class from generation to generation;
The third class of Vaishyas are ordinary Aryans, who have no political privileges. They must support the first two classes in the form of alms and taxes, which are mainly commercial;
the fourth class of Sudras are mostly conquered indigenous people, belonging to the Non-Aryans, composed of senior servants and craftsmen who serve and cook, are the most populous caste. Occupation considered inferior. In the caste system, offspring born to two parents from different castes are called mixed castes.
Although the caste system is illegal in the constitution after India's independence, the caste system is still deeply rooted in all aspects of Indian society.
Pawan's father was the postmaster general, he was familiar with the four Vedas, and he was also the leader of the local army. Although the occupation of Pawan's father-in-law is not clearly indicated in the film, it can be seen that he is a respected figure locally. Pawan's fiancee is a teacher, which is also a profession that Brahmin women are more engaged in.
Most importantly, they are all vegetarian. Hinduism believes that vegetarianism is a morally noble behavior. Brahmins of the highest caste are absolutely not allowed to eat meat, and Kshatriya can eat venison and other foods that conform to their caste characteristics.
Pawan's father-in-law's family strictly adheres to a vegetarian diet, and said that they would never rent their houses to people of other castes in their hometown. The phrase "other castes" here is enough to prove that Pawan's father-in-law's caste is higher than all other castes.
There is also a caste system that intermarriage is not allowed between different castes, especially women of higher castes cannot marry men of lower castes. Pawan's father-in-law agreed to marry his daughter to Pawan, indicating that Pawan definitely belongs to the Brahmin class.
Question 4: Why is Mooney mistaken for a Brahmin?
Because Mooney's complexion is very fair!
The caste system originated from the "varna system", which actually means "color" and "quality" in Sanskrit. It is not difficult to see that the caste system has a lot to do with skin color.
After the decline of the ancient Indian race in history, some of the new Caucasian Aryan invaders poured into the Punjab area in the middle reaches of the Indus through the mountain pass in the northwest of India and conquered Daro, a resident of southern India. Vedas; after centuries of military expansion, the Aryans gradually conquered the whole of northern India.
At the beginning of the establishment of the caste system, one of the main functions was to establish the dominance of the fair-skinned Aryans over the dark-skinned Rovidas. Therefore, in India, people of higher castes generally have white skin, while people of lower castes have relatively dark skin.
The Muslim ancestors of India and Pakistan are mostly white people from Afghanistan or some Arab countries, so their skin color is relatively white. Under the premise that Mooney is mistaken for a Hindu, she certainly has a high chance of being regarded as a high caste.
When Pawan sent Mooney to the police station for the first time, the police said, "Look at her little face, and then look at their faces. Criminals, thieves, drunks, pickpockets..." The faces here are actually more referring to It's skin colour, meaning it's inappropriate to put a high caste kid with a bunch of low caste lowly people.
Question 5: When Pawan and Mooney first met, what were the large numbers of Indians celebrating?
The men were celebrating Tokachi, one of the three major Hindu festivals.
The Tokachi Festival is held every September and October for 10 days. According to Indian tradition, there are 15 ancestor worship days in September, and the tenth day after that is the Tokachi Festival. This festival is a festival to celebrate Rama's victory over the ten demon king Ravana.
The relationship between the monkey god Hanuman and Rama was also mentioned earlier. "Long live God Rama, glory to God Hanuman!" the crowd kept chanting such slogans and sang and danced at Hanuman's statue. All of this shows that it was during the Tokachi Festival, and the cute and many-faced character below was actually the villain in "Ramayana" - Ten Demon King Ravana.
Students with obsessive-compulsive disorder can count, are there ten heads...
Question 6: Why did the crowd shout "Release Karamjit Singh" in the section of the embassy?
First, we have to find out who Karamjit Singh is.
He is an Indian who is considered a spy by Pakistan and has been imprisoned in Pakistan for 35 years. The Indians firmly deny that he is a spy, and regard Pakistan's unreasonable detention of Karamjit Singh as barbaric. But either way it shows how serious it would be for an Indian to be used as a spy in Pakistan. This also paved the way for Pawan to be detained as an Indian spy in Pakistan later.
Question 7: What is Jainism?
"Kick me out? I'm an Indian, I'm a Jain, hurry up!"
Maybe many people didn't pay attention to this episode, but the circle thought the plot arrangement was very interesting, and it was necessary to list it separately. speak.
Jains only account for 0.4% of the total population of India. Why should a Jain be arranged here?
The history of Jainism will not be repeated here. Those who are interested can do it on their own. All you need to know is that a very, very important point in Jainism is anti-violence. Counter-violence is a sin to pull a radish, because it can damage the soil structure or damage the surrounding insects. Vegetables are not nearly dead, fruits are not eaten until they are about to fall, and even fruits with more seeds like pomegranates cannot be eaten...
A Jain appears impatient in the picture of such a large-scale violent conflict Is there a huge "sense of contrast" when the ground asks the security guard to drive Pawan out?
Due to the relationship between the chapters (ti) and the pages (neng), the circle will summarize so much for the time being. If you have any questions about the film, you can leave a message below. If you know everything, you must know everything, and if you don't know it, you can discuss and learn with everyone.
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