Month: January 2016

The Cinematic Voice of the Gulf Migrant: Airlift

‪#‎Airlift‬ is a film which I love totally. The gulf based migrant was placed into focus, which is rare. The treatment was nuanced, the geopolitics was right on dot. Akshay Kumar is a shrewd producer, appealing to the newly nationalist middle class. The flag waving made my cry. The streets and deserts of Ras Al Khaimah doubled up as Kuwait City. The topography reminded me of the backlanes of Ruwi and Dasrait in Muscat. The Arabic makes me homesick! This film is special as the gulf migrant takes centre stage, and i am a gulf migrant kid who grew up in Oman.

The cinematic voice of the gulf migrant is usually missing from the narrative as the USA/UK NRI is eulogised in ‘Namaste London’ or ‘Swades’. The fictional take of the film, is representative of the despair of the gulf migrant, a person who is the financial light of his family but hardly has any recourse to legal mechanisms in case of political disruption such as the Iraqi Invasion or the recent Arab Spring protests.

The indifferent behavior of Indian Diplomats towards the diasporic ‘subaltern’ is depicted in flesh and blood. The Gulf Desk is a neglected posting for the elite Indian Foreign Service officer dreaming of Manhattan and Trafalgar Square.

I am glad that Akshay Kumar and the Malayalee Director (who is aware of the territory of the Keralite migrant life) made the film, bringing an elusive neglected voice to the discourse, albeit in commercial cinema.

 

Wazir : Miscalculated Cinematic Mov(i)e

‪#‎Wazir‬ is such an undewhelming film with Amitji and Farhan in it. The plot is interesting with a J&K political angle, old school Vidhu Vinod Chopra from1999 blockbuster Mission Kashmir. Powerful star cast; partially impressive performances with the lack of a punch. Bejoy Nambiar, the director could have layered the film the execution. The good part was the deft cinematography and the loose end was the excessive music in the flow of the film.

Madras Cafe was way better. It’s not Check mate, Mr. Chopra!

‪#‎Bollywood‬ ‪#‎changethinker‬ ‪#‎micromoviereview‬‪#‎singapore‬

Navigating migration through language

Language is the first barrier for a migrant as soon one lands up and clears passport control in an alien land. For a migrant from the hinterland of South Asia, English is familiar but not a friend; and English becomes a cultural resource, and a tool for survival.

The local variant of English makes the language known to the migrant familiar. ‘Singlish’ is a bridge between the local population and the migrant. I have met migrants who speak fluent ‘Singlish’ as having lived in the island for a long time. The lack of knowledge of the language, becomes a constraint in communicating with their bosses, public sector agencies and the wider community in their everyday life.

When a migrant does not have an understanding of English, he forfeits the ability to convey the symptoms of his sickness to the doctor, or standing up to the unfair behaviour from the superiors.

The things that we take for granted such as writing a letter, is a matter of life and death for the migrant.  Due to this communicative inequity, the worker’s contract is substituted without his knowledge and legal papers are being forced upon his throat, as he does not understand the language of power, the Lingua Franca called English.

I would like to illustrate a case in point, a migrant brother known as Sromik Monir, a poet with the Bengali Language Literary Group ‘Banglar Kantha Cultural Foundation’ communicates with his superiors and fellow workers in Chinese; the language which he had to learn upon landing in Singapore from Bangladesh as most of his fellow workers are from China.

There are Bangla to Chinese Language books available in the community grocery shops in the mini Bangladesh neighbourhood of Desker Road and Rowell Road. They call their  all powerful Chinese bosses as ‘Long Chong’ which has entered the local lexicon of the migrant.

Banglar Kantha, the local Bengali Language newspaper in Singapore publishes a section in the paper on learning the English language. Singaporean Social Enterprise Social Development Initiative conducts English Language Classes for the migrant community. Other Non Profits/Faith Groups also conduct similar language classes for the respective community groups for migrants.

This will be thus truly, empowerment through language.