Chapter 10

Harbhajan Maan: The transnational ­migrant success story of Harjant S. Gill

From airplane to ‘roadplane’ tone of voice. ‘This world-class luxury bus will pick you up directly from the airport arrival gate,’ The advertisement for the Indo-Canadian Bus he informs the audience. ‘As you leave the comfort Company opens with an Air airliner, of your airplane, experience the comfort of this prominently displaying the red maple leaf across roadplane!’ its tail, touching down on the runway. The arrival Indo-Canadian is a privately owned bus of the airliner is followed by time-lapse shots of company operating across ’s northern state passengers exiting the gates at the New ’s of that has, over the last decade, success- Indira Gandhi International airport. A long queue fully capitalized on the rapidly growing demand of cars stretches into the distance, presumably for transportation between major cities across waiting to receive the arriving passengers. Dressed Punjab to the nearest international airport, which in a pink polo shirt and denim jeans, with a blue lies 275–300 km south in the ’s capital city cardigan draped over his shoulders, and dark of Delhi. Maan, one of the most successful singers aviator sunglasses covering his eyes, Harbhajan and actors in Punjabi cinema, also rose to prom- Maan, one of the most celebrated actors of inence over the last decade for his portrayals of Punjabi cinema, breezes past the awaiting cars diasporic and transnational Punjabi migrants. making his way towards the camera. ‘Landing at For Indo-Canadian to feature Maan as its spokes- the Delhi airport just to wait for delayed trains or person is no mere coincidence. This assemblage relatives? Leaving an airplane’s comfort to endure of the private bus service that specializes in the hustle and bustle of public transportation servicing the route that transnational Punjabi stuck in India’s notorious traffic jams?’ laments migrants take on their journeys to and from the Maan (in Punjabi). ‘For every Punjabi settled airport, with images of Maan, the poster boy of abroad, wasn’t this the primary impediment Punjabi cinema seen peddling services related to keeping them from returning home?’ Maan transnational mobility, speaks directly to the aspi- retorts as he approaches a luxury bus with the rations of middle-class Punjabi families across words ‘Indo-Canadian’ sprawled across its side. the region. For young men growing up in Punjabi ‘You no longer need to suffer in vain … Indo- countryside, many of whom regard transnational Canadian bus is here to change the game,’ Maan migration as their only path to middle-class continues, shifting from the frustrated traveller mobility and economic success, Maan represents persona into his characteristically paternalistic the embodiment of contemporary notions of

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successful Punjabi masculinity; a transnational (We Are Proud of Our Nation, , migrant who can effortlessly travel across national 2004); Dil Apna Punjabi (Our Heart is Punjabi, boundaries, undergoing the various bodily trans- Manmohan Singh, 2006); Mitti Wajaan Maardi formations such movement requires, and claiming (The Soil Beckons, Manmohan Singh 2007); Mera citizenship and belonging in diaspora as well as at Pind (My Village, Manmohan Singh, 2008); Jag home in Punjab. Jeondeyan De Mele (To Meet and Celebrate While Alive, , 2009) and Harbhajan Maan and Punjab (Harjit Singh, 2009) (Figures 10.1, 10.2). cinema Maan’s career also remained one of the most illustrious as his films ushered a revival within Born in 1965, Harbhajan Maan started his career a fledgling cinematic industry at the turn of the as a playback-singer in the early 1980s, performing century. This revival followed nearly a decade of Punjabi folk songs and music. He gained steady decline in the number and quality of films mainstream recognition with his 1992 song, being produced in , resulting ‘Chithiye, Ne Chithiye’ (Letter, Oh Letter), a pain- partly from the political and economic turmoil filled lament of a Punjabi mother writing a letter and religious insurgency the region experienced to her migrant son. Maan went on to star is nine in the late 1980s and early 1990s (Dhillon 2006; prominent Punjabi films, most of which feature Gill 2012; Singh 2006). During this time period narratives centered on transnational migration Punjab also witnessed a steady increase in emigra- and diasporic communities living across North tion from the region as many landed families, America, and . Compared to fearing the political instability, sent their sons his peers, Maan’s tenure as the poster boy of abroad (Chopra 2010). While the insurgency has Punjabi cinema has lasted the longest, from 2002 since ended and the region has stabilized, the to 2009. Maan’s most notable films released in trend towards transnational migration continues these eight years include: Jee Aayan Nu (Welcome, among Punjabi Sikh families. Even though the Manmohan Singh, 2002); Asa Nu Maan Watna Da inherent distrust among most Punjabi of the

Figure 10.1 Harbhajan Maan with his wife Harminder Kaur Maan at a publicity event for his 2009 film Heer Ranjha. Author (Harjant Gill)

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Figure 10.2 Maan being interviwed on PTC Punjabi News Channel at a publicity event for his 2009 filmHeer Ranjha. Author (Harjant Gill)

Indian government makes the decision to leave and diasporic communities’ relationship with their homeland easier, current migration trends the nation (Benei 2008; Singh 2012). I examine are largely economically driven. It is motivated by the performances and popularity of Maan as a the desire among landed Punjabi families across Punjabi film hero, his rise to stardom in conjunc- the state to be part of the growing middle class tion with the global circulation of Indian films and participate in the kind of consumerism only (regional as well as Hindi films) and the growth of made possible by remittances and investments a new genre of ‘NRI [Non Resident Indian] films’ of transnational capital sent back home (Chopra that celebrates the experiences of transnational 2010; Mooney 2011; Walton-Roberts 2004). migrants and member of the diasporic commu- As the cultural, economic and political shifts nities. In doing so, I explore the ways in which enabled by late twentieth and early twenty-first such circulations differ on regional levels, produc- centuries globalization has resulted in an accel- ing varying terms of engagement and meanings erated mobility of images, capital and people around notions of class, gender, citizenship and across national boundaries, providing increas- belonging. ingly greater prominence to diasporic citizens Maan’s on-screen persona and representa- within ’ political and cultural apparatuses, tions of heroic masculinity diverge from prior the terms of these movements and participation more traditional archetypes of Punjabi and Sikh vary from region to region (Appadurai 1996; manhood popularized by the veteran actors of Clifford 1997; Benhabib and Resnik 2009; Schiller Punjabi cinema. Films released in the 1980s and et al. 1995 Singh and Thandi 1999). Given the the early 1990s celebrate the rural, landowning linguistic diversity of Indian popular culture, the upper-caste ‘Jat’ farmer, his hyper-masculine overarching narrative of migration from India that physique cultivated through manual work, and encapsulates varying experiences of transnational his unwavering commitment to his land and the migrants and diasporic citizens is often translated agrarian landscape of the region, as the pinna- and articulated within regional histories to gain a cles of his achievements (Gill 2012). Contrasting deeper sense of ethnic loyalties, regional affinities Maan’s popularity and performances against

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his predecessors’, his arrival signals a shift in the socialization among diasporic communities, and notions of nationhood, belonging and the poli- they play a crucial role in the creating of imag- tics of representation within Punjabi cinema and inary homelands for diasporic subjects’ (1999: popular culture to privilege the experiences of 732). Drawing on familiar tropes of nostalgia and transnational migrants over the rural farmer, and overt paternalism directed at diasporic viewers, privileging diaspora over homeland as the site for Maan’s films equate the consumption of Punjabi cultivating cultural authenticity and influence. cinema with servitude to regional culture, priv- The settings and plotlines of Maan’s films echo ileging the region over the nation as a space to this change as focus shifts from regionally situated anchor belonging. narratives set exclusively in Punjabi villages to an Maan’s popularity within Punjab can also be increasing move into more urban, transnational credited to his role as the de facto cultural ambas- and diasporic landscapes. Above all, through sador between regional and diasporic audiences discursive practices around the concepts of of Punjabi cinema. Maan’s films serve as a window cultural authenticity and traditions encapsulated into audience interests and experiences, emblem- within the notions of ‘’ (the sense of atic of greater shifts taking place in gender roles being Punjabi)1 and ‘Punjabi Sabhyachar [culture and social life of Punjab as the region’s economy and traditions]’, Maan’s film regards the inclusion and landscape is gradually transformed through of Non Resident Indians (NRIs) and diasporic processes related to , globaliza- Punjabi Sikh communities as given, providing tion and the neoliberal restructuring of the Indian transnational citizens with a renewed sense of economy (Brosius 2010; Chopra 2010; Mooney prominence and participation within regional and 2011). Maan’s onscreen migrant persona solid- national imaginaries. ifies a new archetype of Punjabi transnational Drawing on Inderpal Grewal and Caren manhood that serves as a source of encourage- Kaplan’s use of the term ‘transnationalism’ to, ment and affirmation for the growing desire and ‘problematize a purely locational politics of glob- willingness among , especially young al-local or center-periphery in favor of … the unmarried Punjabi men, to leave their homes in lines cutting across them’ (1994: 13), this chapter search of a better, more financially prosperous also unpacks Maan’s performances and cinematic future abroad. persona to think about how the circulations of Punjabi films challenge the centrality of Farmer, soldier, migrant and the Indian nation-state in representations of and processes related to transnational migra- Prior to Maan’s arrival on the cinematic screen, tion, while simultaneously reproducing regional Punjabi film heroes largely occupied one of two gendered and caste hierarchies within the dias- of the following archetypes: the hardworking poric milieu. As Purnima Mankekar notes, ‘mass Punjabi farmer committed to caring for his family, media are among the most crucial channels of his village and most importantly his land; and

1Srijana Mitra Das provides a useful definition ofPunjabiyat . ‘It refers to a commonly held, all-encompassing view of , society and being Punjabi as an individual. The term thus refers to larger structures of social or community organi- zations (such as kinship networks, caste identities, religious beliefs and practices, understanding of gender roles, etc.) as well as to individual Punjabi values (such as bravery, resilience, honor, heartiness)’ (2006: 468–469). Also see Singh for a detailed discussion on the notion of Punjabiyat in a global context (2010).

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the loyal Punjabi/Sikh solider or revolutionary note ‘catering largely to a male audience from committed to defending his nation and his faith. the poor and illiterate sections of society’ (2010: Cultivated through hours of manual work in his 154). In Punjabi films from the 80s and the 90s, fields, as Radhika Chopra notes, practices related the hero’s masculine identity was equally shaped to learning masculinity and being a man in rural through landownership and his patrilineal descent Punjab have historically been shaped above all and his landed caste status as belonging to a Jat through the relationship of a man to his land, (land-owning) family, a group that has historically and are transcribed on to the body itself (Chopra enjoyed economic and political hegemony in the 2004: 44). A Punjabi farmer’s sculpted physique, region (Gill 2012; Mooney 2011). The popular- his strength, his posture, his adornment in ity of the 1981 film, Putt Jattan De (Son’s of Jat traditional attire such as a paag (a turban), a kurta Farmers, Jagjit Gill), and the perennial circula- (a long cotton tunic) and Punjabi (pointed tion of the title song and references to the film, leather slippers), continue to define these historical serve as testaments to the salience of the land- representations of hegemonic Punjabi manhood. ed-farmer status as the idealized embodiment of In addition to borrowing from Hindi cinematic heroic masculinity in Punjabi cinema and popular traditions, as regional films often do, popu- culture. lar Punjabi films released in the 1980s and the Putt Jattan De popularized a whole genre of 1990s often took their aesthetic and stylistic cues what are colloquially referred to as Jat-themed from Pakistani and cinematic traditions films orbadla (revenge) films (Figure 10.3). Most (commonly referred to as ), as well as of these films deploy fairly formulaic cinematic Urdu stage plays. Produced with low budgets and tropes where the annexation of familial land and/ poor production values, Punjabi films released or the loss of familial honour resulting from the in the 1980s and the 1990s often relied on crude violation of women’s izzat (sexual propriety), serve jokes and featured overtly exaggerated theatrical as the inciting incidents that challenge the hero’s performances, as Ali Khan and Ali Nobil Ahmed manhood and his position within his community.

Figure 10.3 Actors Guggu Gill (left) and (right) faceoff in a revenge-themed Punjabi film Anakh Jattan Di (Ego of Jats) from 1990.

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The circumstances of his life compel introspec- (brave-hearted warrior), a heroic stature rooted tion, ultimately leading him towards realizing his in Sikh history, and later in colonial-era practices agency. He is duty-bound to rectify the injustice and policies that strategically privileged Punjabi by exacting revenge on the perpetrators, result- and Sikh soldiers over their Hindu and Muslim ing in an action-packed climax and ending where counterparts within the British Army (Cohn he emerges as victorious with his masculinity 2004; Kalra 2005). Given the hegemony of Punjabi unblemished. Popular Jat-themed and badla films masculinity within the broader landscape of South featuring veteran actors including Guggu Gill, Asian masculinities (Chopra et al. 2005; Kalra Yograj Singh, and Veerendra person- 2009), it is no coincidence that until the 1980s, ified familiar tropes in regards to masculinity, in addition to farming, joining the Indian armed borrowing liberally from films being produced forces or law enforcement remained the preferred in neighbouring regions in places like occupation for most men across Punjab. However, (Ahmed 1992: 317), as well as Bombay, where films the early twenty-first century, following the effects like Sholay (Embers, Ramesh Sippy, 1975) defined of globalization on the region, birthed new desires the dominant style and aesthetic popular among for neoliberal consumption and transnational Indian audiences in the 1970s and the early 1980s travel. And as the costs associated with agricul- A slightly less common, yet equally sali- ture continue to rise, making farming increasingly ent archetype of heroic masculinity in Punjabi unsustainable, Nicola Mooney notes, ‘migration is cinema remains that of a Sikh fauji (soldier) a now the singular stuff of Punjabi dreams of family turban-wearing soldier fighting on the frontlines progress’ (2011: 170). of a battlefield along his comrades to defend his While transnational migration from Punjab, nation’s honour. Narrated in the form of historical especially of Punjabi Sikh men, has been an ongo- reconstructions, these cinematic representations ing phenomenon that dates back to the colonial also privilege the physical achievements and period (Axel 2001; Bhachu 1986; Brah 1996; emotional resolve of the film’s hero. Confronted Leonard 1992; Shah 2011), the archetype of the with a series of moral ambiguities and challenges, Punjabi migrant remained largely absent from the hero demonstrates his masculine resilience the cinematic screen and popular imagination through unwavering devotion to his nation and until Maan’s arrival. Only a handful of Punjabi faith. His willingness to sacrifice individual films made in the 1980s and the 1990s feature comforts and desires by engaging in the reli- transnational migrants as the central characters. gious tradition of shaheedi (martyrdom) serves Most notable of these include a film titledLong as a testament to his heroic masculinity. Another Da Lishkara (Reflection of the Nose Ring, Harpal equally prolific Punjabi singer-turned-actor, Tiwana, 1986), about a returning migrant named , has frequently portrayed these Raja (starring ). Whereas within Maan’s characters on screen. films the process of migration is presented as an Both archetypes of the landed-farmer and opportunity and actively sought after, in Long the Sikh-solider glorify and celebrate the male Da Lishkara the act of leaving home is equated body, its physical characteristics and association with voluntary exile necessitated by familial of masculinity with steadfast doggedness, as the circumstances. Serving as the inciting incident idealization of Punjabi and Sikh masculinities. that propels the plot forward, Raja’s return from They attempt to embody the concept of soorma Canada is also prefaced by the familiar shot of an

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airliner touching down on a runway, followed by prospective lover and partner. Far from challenging a celebratory homecoming sequence where Raja or abandoning traditional identity categories and steps out of a taxi dressed in a silver jacket, denim caste hierarchies, the popularity and success of the jeans, and riding boots as he crosses the threshold transnational migrant characters Maan portrays of his ancestral home where the entire village has rely on the recuperation and reinforcement of these gathered to greet him. social boundaries, both at home and in the dias- Yet unlike Maan’s seamless arrival at the pora. Unlike Raja, Maan’s characters rarely struggle airport, Raja’s return is fraught with tensions and to reincorporate themselves into the social space of contradictions. His return to his village in adult- their homeland. Instead of resisting regional class hood where his mother resides is presented as an and caste privileges and hierarchies, Maan’s char- eventuality. Even after having studying abroad acters often draw on his patriarchal descent and in Canadian universities, he is expected to take his status as a son of a landed Jat farmer to serve up farming and devote himself to managing his as a source of inspiration and celebration to claim family’s property. The film ends without offering what he perceives as his rightful space within the any indication that Raja would leave again. On village’s social structure. The transformations from the contrary, his gradual physical transformation being a transnational migrant to being a Jat famer from looking like a transnational migrant to look- and back to transnational migrant are seamlessly ing like a landed-farmer, which forms one of the achieved with minimal effort. narrative arcs of the film, is accented with a sense of absolution. Tension arises within this process The ideal migrant of reincorporation as Raja struggles to negotiate his progressive outlook on caste and class with Maan’s films are not the only ones to satiate the customs of his homeland that remain fixed desires for a glimpse into diasporic life and the in the region’s social history. Raja’s attempt to experiences of transnational migrants. In fact, challenge existing caste and gender hierarchies as regional filmmakers across India have often mark him as an outsider. His presence is met with done in the past, Punjabi filmmakers follow the suspicion and mistrust, as villagers increasingly contemporary trends within the larger and more see him as a threat to the social fabric of village resourceful Hindi (also referred to life. When he falls in love with a woman of lower as Bollywood), creating localized representations social status, the quest that ensues is equally about of narratives and themes popular on a national Raja’s attempts to challenge the norms of village level. Indian cinemas, led by the Hindi film life as well as trying to reincorporate himself into industry, ‘went global’ in the early 1990s, the social space of his ancestral home. While Raja following the neoliberal restructuring of Indian emerges triumphant in carving out a space for economy that gave birth to the category of the himself and his desires, audiences are left with NRI, an economic and cultural strategy endorsed the sense that his acceptance into the landscape by the national government to increase diasporic surrounding him is far from complete. investment, involvement and commitment to Contrasting Long Da Lishkara with more the homeland (Brosius 2005; Jolly et al. 2007; recent films featuring migrant narratives, Maan’s Kavoori and Punathambekar 2008). Maan’s films characters are rarely seen transgressing caste and borrow heavily from the aesthetics of Hindi films class boundaries, especially in their selection of a released in the mid to late 1990s, particularly the

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1995 blockbuster hit Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge formation of the ideal NRI and second-generation (The Brave Hearted Will Take Away the Bride, diasporic citizen, within Hindi films like DDLJ, Aditya Chopra), DDLJ hereafter, a film that is migrant women often represent the embodiment widely credited for having established the ‘NRI of traditional South Asian womanhood, what genre’. Though in Hindi and featuring Bollywood Gayatri Gopinath refers to as the ‘emblems of actors and Hindi cinematic sensibilities, DDLJ too national traditions and morality’ (Gopinath 2005: chronicles the lives of a Punjabi family living in 18; Sharpe 2007: 77). As we see in DDLJ, women’s and their return to their homeland and mobility is carefully surveilled and policed by the village set within the agrarian landscape of Punjab. family’s patriarchs, and often their only access to While their journey across national boundaries is transnational migration is mediated by the men the central feature of most NRI films produced in their lives, as daughters and brides of NRI in Hindi as well as Punjabi, the nuances within husbands (Mankekar 1999; Mehta 2007; Sharpe these migrant experiences and how the diaspora 2007). Whereas in Hindi films likeDDLJ, it is often is represented differ significantly. the female protagonist who represents the site of Carefully crafted within NRI films (in Hindi transformation, as we see Simran (DDLJ’s leading and Punjabi), the journey across national bound- character) abandoning her Western clothing and aries and the practices related to transnational sensibilities in favour of traditional Punjabi attire travel, represent important sites of transition and obedience to regional customs and rituals and transformations as a way of reincorporating (Sharpe 2007: 78), in Punjabi films starring Maan diasporic subjects within the social milieu of the the focus of these transitions and transformations homeland (Gill 2012; Mankekar 1999; Sharpe remains fixed entirely on the male body. 2007). Building on James Clifford’s classification of Maan’s debut filmJee Ayaan Nu also narrates travel as a, ‘range of material, spatial practices that the story of a successful Canada-based Punjabi produce knowledges, stories, traditions, comport- family with a marriage-aged daughter (named ments, musics, books, diaries, and other cultural Simar), who during a visit to Punjab falls in love expressions’ (Clifford 1997:35), Mankekar notes with Inder, a college-aged son of a landed family that ‘diasporic subjects do not just travel, they played by Maan. Despite the two families’ shared also forge identities and communities shaped by caste and class status, Simar’s family calls off the particular forms of longing and dwelling’ (1999: engagement upon Inder’s refusal to emigrate 749). The popularity of NRI films featuring dias- to Canada as a gharjamai (live-in-son-in-law poric narratives underscores the significance or house-husband). In the aftermath of their of popular cultural forms, including cinema, in breakup, Inder resolves to move to Canada on his reproducing particular types of diasporic subjects own merits, proving to Simar’s family that he is for audiences back home. capable of accessing transnational migration and The emergence of what Jenny Sharpe refers being a successful diasporic citizen without his to as the ‘respectable NRI’ in Indian cinemas in-laws’ support, and thereby worthy of claiming coincides with the growing urban middle class Simar as his bride without having to endure the in India at the turn of the century, financed humiliation associated with being a gharjamai, a partially though the transnational circulation of status often imbued with a sense of desperation capital, remittances and increased investment and failure within a culture where matrilocal resi- in the homeland (2007: 77). In keeping with the dence patterns are rare.

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Unlike Hindi films such asDDLJ , where dias- and driving in a convertible through the streets poric women are seen actively choosing to submit of San Francisco to wearing a white kurta (cotton to the institution of the patriarchal Indian family, tunic), a colorful turban and cultivating his fields these choices for Punjabi women are rendered with his tractor upon arriving in Punjab without further invisible in Maan’s film where the focus any significant obstacles. Unlike Raja inLong the remains squarely on the men within their fami- Lishkara, Maan’s characters remain vested in their lies, and their ability (or inability) to access caste hierarchies. Being a Jat is part of their inher- transnational migration. Far from being moni- itance that remains dormant until their return to tored or surveilled, Maan’s mobility and ability Punjab, where its recovery allows them to fully to migrate is depicted as the ultimate exercise realize the process of reincorporation. of his patriarchal privilege and an affirmation of Punjabi films starring Maan also differ signif- his upper-caste Jat manhood. As Maan’s charac- icantly from Hindi films likeDDLJ featuring ters repeatedly reinforce, in the early twenty-first transnational migrants largely in the way in which century, migration from Punjab is no longer a the diaspora is conceived and depicted. Where as one-way journey out of the country but a ‘circu- in DDLJ London is shown to be a place fraught lar process’ where visiting and remitting money with physical dangers and moral depravity that home is just as important a feature in the narrative only intensifies the longing for the comforts and of being a successful migrant as the initial act of nurturance of the homeland, Maan’s films depict leaving to seek a secure a more prosperous future the diaspora as a safe and familiar place; a mere elsewhere (Chopra 2010: 113). extension of Punjab. Instead of arriving in a cold, Maan’s cinematic personas mark the emer- unfamiliar, foreign land where newly arriving gence of a new model of idealized masculinity that migrants are usually confronted with different is able to claim citizenship and belonging through languages and customs, Maan’s films feature idyllic the types of ‘flexible’ practices necessitate by trans- images of diasporic communities residing in the national mobility (Gill 2016; Ong 1999). In doing comfort of suburban ethnic enclaves like Surry, so, Maan’s characters also repudiate the prior stere- Brampton and Yuba City, located in safe prox- otypes of Punjabi migrants as either Sikh refugees imity from crime-ridden cities like , in exile who have tumultuous relationship with Toronto, and San Francisco, seen as repositories the nation, or disaffected second-generation of immorality and corruption. youth who have lost their sanskar (moral values) Even though Mitti Wajaan Maardi (The Soil and forgotten their sabhyachar (culture), whose Beckons) opens with the iconic images of San return might be fraught with the types of tensions Francisco’s skyline and landmarks like the Golden and contradictions confronted by Raja in Long Da Gate Bridge and Lombard Street, the camera Lishkara. Maan, on the other hand, is shown as quickly shifts to lengthy montages of the lush navigating the unfamiliar terrain of transnational green fields of Yuba City, a predominantly Punjabi mobility with the ease of a seasoned globetrotter, suburb in central California. We see shots of effortlessly shifting from his white-collar occupa- Punjabi families enjoying the midday sun in tion (as a doctor or engineer) in the USA or Canada their neighborhood parks while elderly men and to performing manual labour and tilling his own women wearing turbans and shalwar kameez (a land back in Punjab. In Mitti Wajaan Maardi, we traditional outfit worn by Punjabi women) shuffle witness Maan go from wearing a sports jacket in and out of a Sikh temple. Through this careful

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reproduction of the landscape of home within the central themes in most of Maan’s films. Moral diaspora, Maan’s films promote the sense that the corruption in the diaspora and greed back in the diaspora is merely an extension of the homeland, village where the absence of family members makes minimizing the kinds of linguistic and cultural illegal seizures of land and property more likely, barriers that Hindi films likeDDLJ often highlight. often operate as the central devices for producing The inner-city fears of violence, discrimina- conflict in almost all of Maan’s films. The respon- tion, exploitation and even moral corruption are sibility and privilege of recovering sabhyachar and replaced with less threatening suburban concerns modelling for the diasporic community how to be of being overworked, longing for home and the a ‘respectful NRI’, rest squarely on Maan’s shoul- perennial worries related to the loss of sabhyachar ders. Imbued with overtly paternalistic rhetoric, (culture, traditions, language). Maan’s cinematic personas and the characters he Representations of the diaspora and home- portrays narrate the script for successful mascu- land within Hindi and Punjabi films also differ in linity that most young Punjabi men, especially a key manner that is significant. In Punjabi films unmarried ones, eagerly embrace and aspire to featuring Maan, the references to watan (nation) follow, defining to a large extent what it means to are often ambiguous defined, the expression ‘mera be an ideal transnational migrant and diasporic watan’ (my nation) referring interchangeably citizen. from my pind (village), to my Punjab, to my India. Despite its refusal to explicitly endorse the separa- Touring abroad tist Khalistani project following the Sikh struggle for a independent homeland that lasted through The cinema-going audiences in Punjab, largely the mid 1980s and 1990s (Axel 2001; Mahmood young men and women across the region, 1996), Maan’s films reinforce regionalist notions approach Punjabi films likeJee Aayan Nu and of a Punjabi Sikh nation as an imagined spaced Mitti Wajaan Maardi very differently from Hindi that extends beyond the national boundaries to films featuring narratives about Punjabi migrants incorporate diasporic communities across the like DDLJ, and more recently Singh is Kinng globe. This discursive ambiguity is deliberate, ( 2008), an over the top slapstick as Maan’s film attempt to simultaneously cater comedy about a Sikh migrant who finds himself to audiences in Punjab as well as audiences in caught up in the criminal underworld of Sydney. the diaspora, many of whom remain critical of While most of the young men and women I spoke India’s role as their nation-state, if not still vested to while conducting fieldwork across Punjab in the possibility of a separate Sikh homeland. In consume Hindi films with the expected sense doing so, Maan’s films promote what Rajanpreet of scepticism, knowing that these portrayals Nagra notes as, ‘Punjabi nationalism’ over ‘Indian are exaggerated, fantastical and unrealistic, the nationalism’, legitimizing ‘diasporic identity as same audience members regard Punjabi films, Punjabi identity’ (2011: 167). especially Maan’s films, as a far more authentic The concern with the loss ofsabhyachar and believable representation of their own and (culture), and the preservation of Punjabiyat are their community’s experiences.2 As an audience

2Based on interviews and ethnographic research conducted across Punjab between January and December 2009.

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member once instructed me, ‘Singh is Kinng is rooted in traditional patriarchal values and caste just another Hindi film cloaked in Punjabi tardka and gender hierarchies. These unthreatening, [flavoring],’ he continued, ‘If you want to see the idealized and inviting depictions of life in the asli [authentic] Punjab and Punjabi sabhyachar diaspora further reassure men like Jassi about you have to watch Maan’s films.’ their decision to emigrate, subduing their fear As we exited the movie theatre in , about the foreign land they will soon arrive in, the capital city of Punjab, after having seen one legally or illegally. Whether he is helping young of Maan’s most recent films,Jag Jeondeyan De men like Jassi to navigate the unfamiliar terrain Mele, with a young man named Jassi who was just of transnational migration, or helping relieve getting ready to move to Canada on a student visa, the travel-related anxieties of migrants returning I asked him about his impressions of the film and home, Harbhajan Maan has acquired a unique Maan’s acting. Jassi replied, ‘theek he si! AC di status in Punjabi cinema and popular culture: hava kha li, Canada di ser kari li, hor kee phaldan that of a tour guide, or a cultural ambassador hai?’ (‘the film was average, but you got to sit in an of sorts, bridging the gulf between diaspora and air-conditioned room for three hours, and he took home. you on a scenic tour of Canada, what more do you want?’) Jassi’s reply was instructive in the sense Works Cited that it made me realize that, above all other quali- ties, Maan’s on screen representations are popular Appadurai, Arjun (1996), Modernity at Large: Cultural among young Punjabi men because they offer an Dimensions of Globalization, Minneapolis: University idealized glimpse into a life in a community they of Minnesota Press. themselves aspire to one day join. Ahmed, Akbar S. (1992), ‘Bombay Cinema: The Cinema of Metaphor for Indian Society and Politics’, Modern While Maan’s films are instilled with a sense Asian Studies, 26 (2): 289–320. of authenticity and realism rarely afforded to Axel, Brian Keith (2001), The Nation’s Tortured Body: Bollywood or even Hollywood films, Punjabi Violence, Representation, and the Formation of Sikh audience members also realize that for many “Diaspora”, Durham and London: Duke University who cannot afford to finance the kind of travel Press. Maan undertakes (a one-way ticket on Indo- Bachu, Parminder (1986), Twice Migrants: East African Canadian costs 2200 Rs, around thirty-five Sikh Settlers in Britain, London: Routledge. American dollars) the possibility of similar Benei, Veronique (2008), ‘“Globalization” and mobility remains a distant dream. For many Regional(ist) Cinema in Western India: Public young Punjabi men, Maan’s films allow them Culture, Private Media, and the Reproduction of to indulge in a fantasy of being transnationally Hindu National(ist) Hero, 1930s–2000s’, South Asian mobile and living in the diaspora, which, unlike Popular Culture, 6 (2): 83–108. the popular Bollywood representations, holds Benhabib, Seyla and Judith Resnik, eds. (2009), Migrations and Mobilities: Citizenship, Borders and Gender, New some promise, however bleak, of turning into York: New York University Press. their reality someday. Brah, Avtar (1996), Cartographies of Diaspora: Contesting The characters that Maan portrays on screen Identities, London: Routledge. are considered successful for their ability to Brosius, Christiane (2010), India’s Middle Class: New circumvent the limitations of everyday life at Forms of Urban Leisure, Consumption and Prosperity, home and in the diaspora while remaining firmly New Delhi: Routledge.

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