The world and My world : Ganesh Story

http://www.ted.com/talks/devdutt_pattanaik.html

Indian women - types ......

Publication: The Times Of India Mumbai;

Date: Mar 6, 2011;

Section: Intersections;

Page: 21

CLASSIC MAKEOVER

Is the Punjabi kudi as brash as some make her out to be? What lies beyond the Kashmiri’s serene beauty? Ahead of Women’s Day, Sunday Times examines five stereotypical views that make or mar their image

KERALA’S NAIRS 

    League of extraordinary women

    Strong-willed and independent – the common perception of Kerala’s Nair women. But does the image have anything to do with reality? Certainly, once upon a time, they headed households, owned property, had the freedom to remarry if they were widow or divorcee, and even had the right to terminate an unsatisfactory marriage. The Nairs’ matrilineal system gave them lifelong shelter and security in their maternal home. But now, it’s history. Even so, does the 21st century Nair woman retain her “independent” spirit?

    G S Jayasree, director of Kerala University’s Centre for Women’s Studies, says “they have a natural advantage (of history).” She adds that ideologically too, “Nair women have a certain empowerment, compared to other communities”.

But the inherent progressiveness of a matrilineal society has had a powerful – and positive – impact on Kerala. It has better health, literacy and education than other states. This is thought to be largely on account of Kerala’s matrilineal history and female access to education. Traditionally, Kerala has never believed that daughters are liabilities.

    What has this meant for the typical Nair woman? “Generally speaking, she is modern, outward looking, progressive and receptive to ideas,” says journalist V S Prabhakaran. He says Nair and Christian are the only communities in Kerala to work outside the home. “Even today, many Nair parents try to give the daughter the house, even if the total assets are divided equally among sons and daughters.”

    Author Jaishree Misra nee Nair agrees that Nair women “are treated better, they still get the lion’s share; they are getting more independent and finding their own way.”

    But the stereotypical Nair woman may increasingly be going the way of women in other parts of India. The community is moving towards a patrilineal system. A 2003 survey by researchers from three American universities and Thiruvananthapuram’s Centre for Development Studies found evidence that the Nairs were starting to give and take dowry and “housewifize” their women.

    Sociologists say the Nair woman failed to take advantage of her historical rights by using high literacy levels and traditional authority to translate into political participation. But they have a significant cultural presence, having “emerged as writers etc in the public space,” points out Jayasree.

    – Saira Kurup PUNJABI 

    The bold & beautiful

    Think Punjabi women and the image that comes to mind is feisty beauties – robust, proud, standing shoulder-to shoulder with their men. It’s an image that is constantly reinforced in popular culture. “Sohni, Heer, Sahiba – ravishing beauties in folklore, were no shrinking violets, but equal partners to their lovers, Mahiwal, Ranjha and Mirza respectively,” points out New Jersey-based researcher Hina Agarwal. In love or war, the image has persisted. There are numerous accounts of Sikh women leading troops into battle. Sada Kaur, motherin-law of Ranjit Singh, was grudgingly acknowledged by the Afghans as ‘one of the greatest generals of the time.’ Even in contemporary times, film and television serials have reiterated the stereotype. From the coy but no-nonsense Simran in ‘Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge’ to the brash in-your-face Dolly Bindra in ‘Bigg Boss’, Punjabi women are perceived – and portrayed – as aggressive, tough and some would say, loud-mouthed. Does the stereotype hold true?

    Veteran writer Ajeet Cour admits the truth of the stereotype but insists that the Punjabi’s legendary aggression is not necessarily negative. It stems from a long history as a martial race. “All Punjabis – both men and women – learnt to face life ‘aggressively’ over the centuries because of constant foreign invasions through Khyber Pass. Had they not been aggressive, the great Alexander wouldn’t have had to face the worst defeat of his life, and loss of his men in Punjab.”

    She insists she is “proud to be an ‘aggressive’, ‘bold’, but very cultured, and not exactly loud – mouthed Punjabi woman.” Cour admits she easily “becomes loud-mouthed even, when I fight Public Interest Litigations; when historical heritage is threatened, when thousands of trees are slaughtered, when birds are exiled or when slums are bull-dozed.”

    Not everyone agrees the Punjabi woman is true to type. Actor Kabir Bedi, whose partner is Punjabi, insists that “just because Punjabi men are perceived as aggressive, tough and loud doesn’t mean their women are the same. On the contrary, most of them are defensive and repressed, though they rule the roost at home. Since my lady love is a Punjabi ‘sherni’ I also know they have their strengths and irresistible charms.”

    Psychologist Aruna Broota says the loud Punjabi stereotype

    is the result “of over-generalization, based on prejudices that are culture-based.”Director Jagmohan Mundhra agrees. His film “Provoked” tells the story of British woman Kiranjit Ahluwalia, who waged a long battle against marital abuse. Mundhra says, “From Kiran Bedi to Kiranjit Ahluwalia and from Priyanka Chopra to Preity Zinta, there is a whole gamut of Punjabi women. Generally speaking, they represent good looks, fair complexion and robust health. But no matter how you define them, there will always be exceptions.”

– Atul Sethi BENGALI 

    Calcutta chromosome

    In Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s “Devdas”, Aishwarya Rai probably used method acting for the first time. Playing Paro in Sarat Chandra’s early 20th century story, Aishwarya made sure that her pale skin, light brown hair and hazel eyes didn’t make her out to be a foreigner in Bengal. Throughout the film, she said “eeesh” at every given opportunity. She used the words “shotti” (really) and “Ei, ma” (oh, mother). The movie became a huge success.

    No one knows who told Aishwarya about “eeesh”, but it part of the stereotype of the Bengali woman. On average, she is said to use it 10,000 times a year. “Shotti” is a close second, followed by “Ei morechhey”.

Jokes about the stereotypical Bengali woman abound – and so, it seems does prejudice. On the internet, a vicious chain mail, titled “Why one should not marry a Bengali girl”, lists her character flaws:

    She expects that all expressions of love be accompanied by Tagore in his various moods

    She sings Rabindrasangeet and Nazrulgeeti, and dances, paints and recites poetry and expects the same from you

    She will force Hilsa down your gullet every day even if you’re allergic to the fish

    She will buy you a monkey cap and bed socks for winter

    Last, but not least, she will never let you forget that “What Bengal thinks today, the rest of India will think tomorrow”.

    The stereotype may be founded on facts – albeit outdated ones. “I am sure most of these myths about Bengali women emerge from the idle chatter of bored men at the addas of Kolkata,” says Nupur Ghosh, 35, a copywriter who moved from Kolkata to Delhi more than 20 years ago. “Like other parts of India, Bengali women are soft and strong at the same time. We need to bust these myths for a better understanding of women. It can be done only by men who are not scared of women.”

Satyajit Ray went some way towards this. Not only did his films make some female characters immortal, he broke down the stereotypes. While in “Charulata”, he beautifully captured the agony of a lonely upper-middle-class woman who begins an affair with her brother-in-law, in whom she finds a person with like interests and tastes; in “Ghare Baire”, Bimala emerges out of her shell when her upper-middle-class husband defies social norms to arrange an English education for her. And in his second Hindi film, “Sadgati”, he made a Dalit woman – portrayed by Smita Patil – take on oppression by upper caste men.

“Ray used women to portray larger social issues and values and that’s why his female characters are so strong but normal. Unfortunately, the majority of Indian audiences are unaware of his films like “Devi” and “Agantuk”, which show the Bengali women as they are, and not as caricatures that are portrayed in internet mails,” says Priya Chatterjee, an MNC worker in Gurgaon. Chatterjee admits she faces such “stereotyping at work and among friends and colleagues place every day, but I fight it.”

Bengal’s women have long had to do so. In 1883, Calcutta’s English memsahibs opposed the Ilbert bill, which gave Indians the right to try criminal cases involving British offenders. The English argued that that Bengali women were “ignorant” and neglected by their men, so Bengali babus should not have the right to try cases involving English women. But Bengali women supported the bill and pointed out that more Indian women had academic degrees than British women at the time. They had the facts on their side. The University of Calcutta was admitting girls to degree programmes as far back as 1878, much before any British university.

In Bimal Roy’s “Devdas” (1955), Suchitra Sen immortalized Paro without uttering “eeesh” or “shotti” even once. Unlike Aishwarya, Suchitra didn’t try to be a Bengali.Nupur Ghosh, the copywriter, says stereotypes reflect a certain lack of imagination. “All Bengali women don’t say “eeesh” thousands a time a year. That’s Bollywood’s lack of imagination”.

– Shobhan Saxena KASHMIRI 

    A thing of beauty

    Sharmila Tagore’s winsome ways in “Kashmir ki kali”. Shammi Kapoor romancing Saira Banu in “Junglee”. The famously beautiful Kashmiri woman remains frozen in India’s collective imagination as beautiful, shy and somewhat unattainable.

    But the stereotype may no longer fit the Kashmiri woman, who has weathered two decades of violence in her state. Education appears to have become more desirable than anything else she can have.

    And yet, she remains very shy. “They are generally shy,” says Tanveer Jehan, secretary, higher education, J & K. “They prefer to take up medicine or academics rather than tinsel town or modelling where it is believed they might bring a bad name to their family.” Widows are respected and one doesn’t hear of dowry demands. Meera Kaul, a Kashmiri entrepreneur in Dubai says women of a certain class are emancipated and well-read. “Kashmir has many women writers, poets and rulers such as Queen Didda in medieval times”.

    Rahul Dholakia, director of “Lamhaa”, a film about the troubles in the Valley, believes Kashmir’s inherent respect for women makes its women more secure. “The new generation of Kashmiri women, between 18-25 who left the state for higher studies, is bright, vocal, active on social networking sites and politically aware,” he says. “They know their mind, yet are hypersensitive. They seem shy, yet are not submissive. That’s what Bipasha Basu is in ‘Lamhaa’ – beautiful with a core of steel. They will be more visible in the coming years.”

    It is this strength of character that may have helped many half-widows or women whose husbands are missing, raise their families single-handedly. Justine Hardy who runs an NGO in Kashmir says that “while most women are largely conservative, they can be rebellious as they try to keep husbands, sons and brothers off the streets when violence escalates.”

    That’s when they are “seen” by the outside world. “She only enters history when she throws stones at the soldier,” says sociologist Shiv Visvanathan. “She has only emerged in the collectivity of a crowd, as a mourn er, a stone-thrower, a protester, but never as individual, never as a person. It might be the first sign of a democratic process.” Visvanathan adds that “perhaps one day, her diary, photographs, doodles or paintings may break her anonymity giving the world outside a different understanding of war and violence. Then the Kashmiri woman might look different.”

– Shobha John NAGA 

    Tribal instinct

    Like her sisters in the rest of the Northeast, the Naga woman is held fast by tradition. She has always played an enormous role in Nagaland’s tribal society. “This traditional role has allowed her to become entrepreneurial, which in turn has allowed her an even larger role in Naga society,” says Suhas Chakma, director of the Asian Centre for Human Rights.

    To the outsider, Naga society appears more egalitarian than, say, northern India. But scratch the surface and it’s not always true. Aienla is in her early 30s and the oldest child of the family. She says that Nagaland’s patriarchal society regards the birth of a girl as a disaster. If she is the first child of the family, her birth is accompanied by much shaking of heads and entreaties to the parents to produce a boy as quickly as possible.

    The Hoho, the Nagas’ highest decision-making body, has always been an all-male affair. The Naga woman is allowed to play a key role in the home, the church and in business because she is entrepreneurial, but not in politics or in community decision-making.

    Naga law customarily hands an inheritance down to sons, not daughters. Women are ignored in other key areas too.

    Suhas Chakma points out that the Naga Mothers’ Association, like its better-known counterpart in Manipur, has done much to draw attention to human rights violations in the state, but women have had almost no role in peace talks between insurgent groups and the Indian state.

Today’s young Naga woman, however, is very different from her mother and grandmother. Asen, who is in her early 20s, says, “there is no avenue that the young Naga woman has not stepped into. She has joined the old professions like the civil services, the newer professions like the media, and a very large number are keenly interested in the fashion industry.”

– Parakram Rautela 

‘Bani Thani’, a recreation of the Mona Lisa by Rajasthani artist Gopal Swami Khetanchi whose work is executed in many styles from romanticism to realism 

kundan technique

 

Ages ago when the only technique of diamond polishing that the artisans of Old India knew were to grind one surface and polish it till it shone like mirror, the origin of the Kundan technique happened.

· The word ‘Kundan’ means Pure gold. And that is exactly what this technique of setting stones required. A collet or cup was made out of pure gold sheets.
· The various parts of the jewel were put into place and fixed in the form of necklaces, earrings, bangles etc and soldered into place.
· The reverse would be carved or etched to create a base for the finishing which was Meenakari or enamel work. Real precious and semi-precious stones were ground into fine power and mixed with catalysts to fill into these grooves and ‘fixed’ into place by blowing them till they melted into place as beautiful colors.
· It could be hammered or beaten into shape to fit uncut or cabochon cut diamonds of size. This was filled with lac or lacquer from trees which was hardened just enough to solidify around the base of the gold cup.
· A very thin foil of pure silver was then spread very carefully on the lacquer layer to cover the black completely.
· On this clean shiny bed of silver foil, the cleanest or shiniest surface of the uncut or cabochon cut diamond and precious colored stone was placed so that it would shine as much as a mirror would. Only the best of colors with highest of clarity grade of diamond were used.
· Finally very fine foils of pure gold were gently pressed down into the fine gaps and spaces around the diamond to ‘set’ it in position. This was one of the slowest and painstaking part of the work since based on this the final look of the jewelry product could change dramatically.

The origins of Kundan are unknown but the guesswork of knowledgeable people indicates that this beautiful technique was born in the Northern parts of India. Over a period of time, the shiny mirror like look of Kundan was translated with the use of glass and other colorless stones to cut the cost of the final product. The meenakari was replaced with pen enamel, a technique much easier than the actual blow torch Meena work. Nowadays, Kundan simply means the use of glass, quartz and other non-diamond stones and semi-precious stones in the same technique. The lacquer now involves the use of synthetic glue and finally the gold foils used to ‘press’ down the stones is replaced with gold wire.

The simple reason for all these simple changes is to reduce the cost of making Kundan jewelry by material as well as labor costs.

So when you go out to buy Kundan jewelry you must know that the gold may be 22K and the stones may be glass. What you will be paying for is the design and the look of the product and not so much for the material used or the labor that went into making this product.

Nostalgia of an average North Indian aged - above 35 years

Lai-Lappa,Gud ke Ladoo,Ganney ki Mithaas Kahan,

Mela Lagta Tha Har Saal Jahan,Ab Bacchon Ka Wo maidaan Kahan,

Any street side food was for 50 Paisa then

Chaaraaney mein Chand Khareedein,Aatthaaney mein suraj Lootein,

Pattey-Pattey rupiye jode,Par Khusiyon ka wo hisaaB Kahan,

getting wet in monsoons and making paper boats all thru the rains was so much fun then...

Garmi ki wo lambi Dopaherein,Raat Kahaani Ammi ki,

Baarish ab bhi hoti hai, Par Naaley ki wo Naav Kahan,

Sitting under the banyan tree, playing with friends, sleeping and generally having fun with friends and others was considered cool then....

Boodhey Bargad ki uss Chaanv Tale,Bachhpann ne kitne  khwaab buney,

Umr dhali aur Neend Uddi, Ab Sapno ka wo sansaar Kahan,

we slept outside at night and talked about stars and moon and listened to those stories and that was our adventure camp then...

Ghar Ki chhat par letey-letey,Fursat mein Gintey thay Taarey,

Ghar bhi Choota,Gaaon Bhi Choota,Taaron ki wo Baraat Kahan,

Sitting in sun and eating groundnuts, boiled potatoes and chatting with friends and family is what we did during winters and we never cared of suntan skin then....

Mehaki-Mehaki Baatein wo aag Sekte Rishton ki ,

Dhuaan Utthe har sardi mein, par Baaton ki wo Khusboo Kahan,

Flying kites through the day in hot sun and running after the cut kites for miles without caring about burnt feet or sun and we had no Reebok and Adidas shoes then...

Patangg Lootne ko pehle toh hum Meelon Bhaaga Kartey Thay,

Ab Chaar Kadam mein Yaar-Doston se Milne ki wo Fursat Kahan,

Playing marbles and other such street games was so much fun then... more then the current video games and yes, we would treasure the marbles we had won.

Jeb mein thi kannchon ki poonji,Mutthi mein mitti ki daulat,

Naam Bahut Kammaye lekin,Uss Jaisi ab Shohrat Kahan,

Sitting outside and drinking sugarcane juice.. the sweetest juice available - then there was no tropicana and etc etc brands then

Ek sawaal ke Sau Jawaab,Sab ek se ek thay Lajawaab

Bachhpan ke din Beet gaye,Ab Sau Sawaal Hain Jawaab Kahan,

  

going into orchards and plucking raw mangoes and eating them..... Sitting under mango tree and making stories and telling each other was a major past time for us then, who needed disney channel then....

Khattey Ber,Meethi Amiya,Pakti thi roz nayi Kahaaniyaan

Kehne ko ab 'Hum' Shaai'r Hain,Par Bacchpann si Koi Ghazal Kahan!!

by Mr Shaliesh Pratap Singh

the jewels of an Indian wedding

A friend of mine posted some pictures of a Delhi wedding he had gone to. And he like most of us is perturbed by the vulgar display of wealth in these weddings. It is not mrely too much but it is over the top and garish. It is indeed a vulgar show of wealth.

He writes a very amusing analysis and says this is Punjabi capitalism. He goes on to say" In 1993 when one went to Kerala the Malayalees were cribbing about the tyranny of the "punjabi suit" ! In Saharanpur an ex-Naxal said that we can defeat American imperialism but we have no answer for homegrown punjabi imperialism - circa 1989 ! Globalisation and Punjabisation have gone hand in hand - and crass post-partition Delhi rootless punjabisation is the new "centre" , mixed with UP/Bihari upper caste arrogance and Haryanvi Jat blustering attitude, with a dash of Tamil/Andhra brahmin intellectual teflon-coating. I meet all of these on a regular basis . The really rich Marwaris keep a low profile , as they are the old rich and now global players. This last elite is being threatened by a new emergence of the regional business/Private Equity/Media/ OBC and Dalit politician funded property and business groups. Delhi is the city of eternal power struggle."

Not that I fully agree as I see weddings being expensive everywhere - in every culture and religion, whether it is of Kate or of Prince William or of our own home grown punjabi Indian. Weddings are about joy and celebrations and it is ones own prerogative to celebrate it the way one wants to....

And a typical Delhi wedding is not a typical punjabi wedding anymore as Punjabis are now less than 10% of Delhi's population , UP/Bihar is the new majority. NCR would have a population of almost 30 million now. MCD with 18 million is now the biggest municipal corporation in the world beating Tokyo.

But off late lot of people root for a simple wedding a lot but I would prefer to wait and watch  to see how they would celebrate their own or their children's wedding...

Some of the most interesting must have in a typical north Indian posh wedding as are as below: 

Sanskrit mantra chanting young pandits

Foreigners dresses as Indians - whites are passe, blacks are in

Film style Camera

The traditional drum beaters wearing very bright brocade clothes

regional cuisines like kashmiri tea

women bartenders and kitsch bars in the party

women photographers

local tea man

Voice-over Internships In India On The Rise

Excerpt from the The Hindustan Times:

"Internships are part of our add-on courses like journalism. Students of other short-term courses like advertising and banking also visit advertising agencies and banks to see people in action," said Meera Ramchandran, principal, Gargi College.

"The students may or may not get stipend for these internships but they do get experience in these organisation," she said. "Most of our students do summer jobs such as voice-overs and editing.

And I think that is primarily so because ....

Indian teen agers are becoming trendy and there is an eagerness to earn a quick buck or add some experience under their belt. And they are getting attracted towards different kind of summer jobs like voice-overs.

And hence Delhi University has launched an initiative to help students gain hands on experience called "add-on courses".

That is also so because Clients also insist on need for high dubbing quality. Joy Bhattacharya, senior VP (Programming) of National Geographic Channel, says, "We insist on 100% factual and language accuracy in all our programmes. Our in-house teams supervise and guide dubbing vendor constantly."

And there are no formal institutes that can teach dubbing as of now. According to Leela Roy Ghosh of Sound & Vision, which dubs a number of Hollywood movies into Hindi and other regional languages, "Dubbing, like music, is an art, which has to be nurtured. Since there are no training institutes, most people tend to learn on the job and they have to learn fast, as there's little or no room for mistakes.

Nearly everyone in India is dubbing, from house-wives to teachers to doctors, who dub voice-overs at recording studios after work.

Rahul Bhatia, GM, UTV, who heads the company's dubbing division, says, "The voice-over business in India, estimated at Rs 15 crore, is growing steadily at 10-15%. There is therefore a constant demand for fresh voices."

Indian cinema: Marrying mythology with modernity

I loved this article and want to share with you all.............

24 Feb, 2011, 0743 hrs IST, Sakina Babwani, ET Bureau

Great mythologies dominate the Indian culture. These mythologies cut across socio-economic and religious barriers. The 5,000-year-old rich literature related to Indian mythology is interwoven with religious belief and amazing moral values. It has also created an obsession among Indian visual artists since time immemorial . From our cave paintings to the carvings and etchings that are part of temple architecture to modern expressions of art (MF Husain and Bhupen Khakar) along with the Indian-psyche and sensibilities — impinged upon by our cinematic world — are replete with the Radha-Krishna imagery.

 Our film makers are equally obsessed with the legendary Radha-Krishna duo, and this can be seen in films with a direct Radha-Krishna relationship as well as an implied one like Devdas in a dedicated form or the satire Pyaasa or even the challenger Lagaan.

Though Ram-Sita are portrayed in mythology as the perfect couple, Radha-Krishna seem to be more popular with our film makers. One of the reasons could be the pre-marital relationship they have that doesn’t culminate in a marriage, highlighting the pain of separation — the highest pain in love. The simple, yet, very appealing story of Radha-Krishna surpasses all other stories of love. Usually the concept is introduced as just one song in the film, rather than adopting the epic as the story of the film as in Raajneeti.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhSfZj1a7EY&feature=related . This song compares the love of the heroine with Radha’s love for Krishna. Interestingly , the deep “Radha-Krishna” psyche of the Indian film audience elevates with just a cursory reference or song. The concept is used in many ways. Let’s take Devdas first. Just as Krishna and Radha were separated in their childhood, Devdas and Paro too get separated when Devdas goes to Kolkata for his studies. In Bimal Roy’s Devdas , the song, Aan milo shaam saaware compares their love with that of Radha and Krishna . Here the song is sung by a third person — a jogan. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7u2My4P0zp4

It comes at the time when a lovelorn Paro is deeply saddened by Devdas’s departure . The jogan who sings the song compares it with Radha’s memories of Krishna . The song expresses the deep anguish that Radha felt when she could not find Krishna in Vrindavan. Here, Paro’s pain is compared with that of Radha’s . Also, when compared to Radha, Paro’s love gets those divine touches that Radha’s love had. Even though they were madly in love, Paro and Devdas’s divinity is maintained, just as in the case of Radha-Krishna . Here the ‘parakiya-rasa’ relation of Radha-Krishna comes into play. This relation is considered to be the highest form of love — where one shares one’s thoughts even while separated. Thus, we see that when Devdas coughs out blood, Paro has a fall and her head begins to bleed. Again, when Devdas is breathing his last, he calls out to Paro and she does feel as if somebody is calling out to her.

So, just like Radha-Krishna , Devdas-Paro share their thoughts through separation. In Guru Dutt’s Pyaasa, despite it not being a love story, the Radha-Krishna concept is used. Just as Krishna was known for saving women in distress, Vijay saves Gulabu from the police who consider her a dubious character. Vijay declares she is his wife to save her. Overwhelmed with gratitude she develops a kind of devotion for the hero, which is pictured in a background bhajan: Aaj sajan mohe ang lagalo. The song has a touching couplet: Sakhi re.. birhake ke dukhade seh seh kar jab Radhe besudh ho li ... toh ek din apne manmohan se jaa kar boli. This means that the lovelorn Radha goes to Krishna and tells him to make her his. As the song is being sung, the dazed Gulabo walks behind her saviour, Vijay, who is unaware that she is following him. As the lyrics of the song suggest, Gulabo is yearning for the man she loves. The song is picturised as Radha, who has taken the form of Gulabo and is singing to Vijay who is being shown as Krishna. The song gives the couple the assumed purity that Radha-Krishna’s love had. Mughal-e-Azam , which captured the Islamic era in cinema, also uses the Radha-Krishna concept. 

Here, the heroine, Anarkali herself sings the song in the presence of prince Salim. Though the song is sung for Rani Jodhabai, who is a devout worshipper of Krishna, the duality of Radha, surrounded by gopis (muses), singing for Krishna is amply evident. She sings the song Mohe panghat pe Nandlal ched gayo re. The song vividly describes the innocent but naughty pranks played by Krishna . So, we see a complete absence of religious barrier. Not to forget the beautiful classical song Madhuban mein Radhika naache re, Girdhar ki muraliyan baaje re, from the movie Kohinoor. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIWtdQwaoz0

The song has been picturised on Dilip Kumar, a prince (Rajkumar Dhivendra Pratap Bahadur Chandrabhan) and Kumkum (Rajlaxmi), a dance student. The song vividly describes a scene where Radha dances as Krishna plays the flute. Dilip Kumar is shown on screen singing the song. Here, one may assume Dilip Kumar to be Krishna, and Kumkum to be Radha. And just as Krishna marries Rukmini, the princess of Vidarbha, to rescue her from Shishupala of Chedi, Dilip Kumar rescues and ultimately marries Meena Kumari (Rajkumari Chandramukhi of Rajgarha) from the wicked senapati (Jeevan) of her kingdom.

Though one may argue that Dilip was not in love with Kumkum the way Krishna loved Radha, we cannot deny that he was fully aware of what she felt for him and that he respected her feelings. So, here we see another movie where the Radha-Krishna concept has been used. Coming to a more recent film Lagaan, the Radha-Krishna romance once again comes into play. Here, the focus is not only on Radha’s love for Krishna but on the way she feels hurt when Krishna pays more attention to other gopis. The song Radha kaise na jale( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmC86-uX7JE)  expresses the feeling. Here, one may take Elizabeth to be the other gopi. One may also consider Elizabeth to be Radha, and the heroine as Rukmani (Krishna`s wife). At the end of the narrative , Elizabeth does not get to marry Bhuvan . The only connection she has with her Krishna (Bhuvan) is that of the undying love she has for him. India cinema has truly managed to immortalise the mythological concept of Radha and Krisha over the years.