Storyline

This film takes a serious look at the lives of Westernized Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) in North America (Whereas Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge was about NRIs with Indian hearts, Pardes is about Westernized NRIs.) and hence the meaning of the title - "foreign land". Kishorilal is a successful businessman settled in America but still emotionally attached to his motherland - India. So the pardesi comes to India with his "American" son Rajiv to find a suitable '"Indian" girl for him. Kishorilal hopes his soon-to-be daughter in law will instill some Indian values in his extremely westernized son. He finds his daughter in law in Kusum Ganga (a pet Subhash Ghai name just as Chandni was Yash Chopra's favorite for a long time) in the house of his childhood friend Suraj Dev. Mahima Chaudhary makes her debut as Ganga. To finalize the marriage he sends his son along with his foster son Arjun to India. Arjun plays Cupid and returns to America with Kusum and Rajiv. Arjun comes into the movie to get ...

Plot Keywords

love, violence against a woman, violence, blood, family relationships, male female relationship, wealth, patriotism, fight, arranged marriage, one word title, father daughter relationship, dancing, bridge, train, singing, party, song, guitar playing, las vegas nevada

Short Review

The film Pardes produced by Subhash Ghai has a plot in which a Indian man (Kishorilal) has immigrated to the United States and has become widely rich and successful. He wants his American son to marry a Indian woman who is filled with Indian values and culture in order to preserve the Indian culture within the family. However, when Rajiv, the American son of Kishorilal, and Ganga, the Indian bride, meet and have their marriage arranged - their two cultures often clash with one another creating a rather unhappy relationship. We can see this structural feature of arranged marriages in Bollywood films as Rachel Dwyer describes, ï¿ 1/2 1/2that is marriage which to a greater or lesser extent, is agreed between two families rather than being primarily the choice of the heterosexual coupleï¿ 1/2 1/2? (Dwyer 59). Both fathers in this film sternly agree to the marriage even when Ganga later on in the movie realizes that she doesnï¿ 1/2 1/2(TM)t want to marry Rajiv.This film is unique because in many Bollywood films, the bride doesnï¿ 1/2 1/2(TM)t want to marry the man her parents choose for her. However, Ganga in this film isnï¿ 1/2 1/2(TM)t necessarily repelled by the idea of marrying initially. While she is sad that she has to leave India to be with her soon to be husband, she doesnï¿ 1/2 1/2(TM)t really fight the idea. I liked that we actually get to see life with the soon to be bride and husband living together and getting to know one another because in many films the moral universe is often more evident at the beginning of the film. Ganga has never been in love before being scheduled to marry Rajiv so she was willing to settle down with him. It isnï¿ 1/2 1/2(TM)t until this stage that Ganga starts to realize that she doesnï¿ 1/2 1/2(TM)t actually love/ like the man who she will be marrying. This is because Rajiv is so Americanized and doesnï¿ 1/2 1/2(TM)t comply with Indian values. For instance, he smokes and drinks, has intimate relationships with other women whom he has not been married to, etc. Seeing Rajivï¿ 1/2 1/2(TM)s full personality was a big culture shock for Ganga and makes her feel rather uncomfortable. I did not like how violent most of the men were in the film because they were all quick to put their hands on Ganga. Both her father and Rajiv were not hesitant when it came to beating her.Pardes reminds me of features in the film DDLJ, not only because the father of Rajiv and Arjun (Kishorilal) plays Simranï¿ 1/2 1/2(TM)s father (Buldav) in DDLJ but also because he was obsessed with the Indian culture in both films. He wanted to make sure that Rajiv visited India and married a woman from there. Kishorilal was impressed by the fact that Ganga had to much passion and love for Indian which is why he chose her to be his daughter in law. This is seen in DDLJ when Buldav forces Simran to marry Kuljit because he lives in India. Also, a similarity across both films is that he has a very intimidating figure and ultimately gives the final hand in marriage as he does in DDLJ when he lets Simran go away to marry Raj. In Pardes, he lets his adopted son Arjun get the opportunity to marry Ganga. These films demonstrate the power of men to make the decisions. Some aspects of Arjun(Shah Rukh Khan) also stay the same in both films. He is the foreigner who is still knowledgeable of his Indian culture.

Trailer

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