Wedding Videos
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P1: IML/IKJ P2: IML/IKJ QC: IML/TKJ T1: IML PB199A-20 Claus/6343F August 21, 2002 16:35 Char Count= 0 WEDDING VIDEOS band, the blaring recorded music of a loudspeaker, the References cries and shrieks of children, and the conversations of Archer, William. 1985. Songs for the bride: wedding rites of adults. rural India. New York: Columbia University Press. Most wedding songs are textually and musically Henry, Edward O. 1988. Chant the names of God: musical cul- repetitive. Lines of text are usually repeated twice, en- ture in Bhojpuri-Speaking India. San Diego: San Diego State abling other women who may not know the song to University Press. join in. The text may also be repeated again and again, Narayan, Kirin. 1986. Birds on a branch: girlfriends and wedding songs in Kangra. Ethos 14: 47–75. each time inserting a different keyword into the same Raheja, Gloria, and Ann Gold. 1994. Listen to the heron’s words: slot. For example, in a slot for relatives, a wedding song reimagining gender and kinship in North India. Berkeley: may be repeated to include father and mother, father’s University of California Press. elder brother and his wife, the father’s younger brother and his wife, the mother’s brother and his wife, paternal KIRIN NARAYAN grandfather and grandmother, brother and sister-in-law, sister and brother-in-law, and so on. Alternately, in a slot for objects, one may hear about the groom’s tinsel WEDDING VIDEOS crown, his shoes, watch, handkerchief, socks, and so on. Wedding videos are fast becoming the most com- Thus, songs can be expanded or contracted, adapting to mon locally produced representation of social life in the performers’ interest or the length of a particular South Asia. These two-to-three-hour cassettes are pro- ritual procedure. duced by professional videographers hired by families Sung by women, even when describing events on to record wedding ceremonies and receptions. Video the groom’s side, wedding songs enshrine women’s technology has been available in South Asia since the points of view. Apart from ritual insults, whose hu- early 1970s, but wedding videos became popular only mor draws on systematic inversions of the expected, in the 1980s, and production exploded in the 1990s. wedding songs portray conventional emotions associ- Although at first only the richest families could af- ated with the kinship roles that are brought into focus ford them, increasingly competitive videographers have by the rite of passage. In North India where village ex- caused prices to drop sharply, putting wedding videos ogamy and patrilocality are practiced, songs depict a within the reach of even middle- and lower-middle- bride lamenting her departure from all that has been class families in many parts of South Asia. Indeed, familiar. Her father, mother and brother may weep, but wedding videos and videographers have become ex- her brother’s wife is usually triumphant. A mother-in- pected at middle-class Hindu, Muslim, and Christian law and husband’s sister are presented as tyrannical weddings, both urban and rural. creatures to whom the new bride must submit. These Wedding videos compete with photography, which songs thus underscore kinship arrangements as given has been common in South Asia for over a century. and natural. They envelope individual experience in Early images of weddings were confined to one or two culturally approved symbolism. When performed by black-and-white studio photographs, but with the in- unmarried girls, wedding songs serve as a powerful creasing popularity of location photography and color agent of socialization. film, representations of weddings expanded to include Many Hindu wedding songs naturalize their content full-color albums of twenty-five to two hundred pho- by recourse to mythology. The groom is frequently tographs. In the early 1980s both clients and photog- compared to Ram, Krishna, or occasionally Shiva; raphers began to see video as the next step, and many the bride to Sita, Rukmani or Parvati. These gods of photographers became videographers. Sanskritic mythology become domesticated around re- However, wedding videos differ significantly from gional practises, giving contemporary weddings an aura photographic representations of weddings. First, videos of mythic timelessness. incorporate movement and allow for continuous cover- Other wedding songs directly invoke present social age of events. The wedding video industry in South Asia conditions. They may speak of changing practices (for is known as “video coverage,” and videographers and example a bride being taken off in a bus rather than a their clients often cite “full coverage” as the measure red palanquin), objects, or events (such as the election of the professional video. Some consumers apparently of the current Prime Minister). It is sometimes possible see videos as very long series of still photographs, so to date a song through such references. they find wedding photographs redundant. For them, Although wedding songs have been extensively stud- videos provide more “pictures” more cheaply than any ied among Hindus of North India, studies from South photographer could. India, from tribal groups, and from religious minorities Second, videos allow the producer much more free- are scant. dom to manipulate images than photography does. 631 P1: IML/IKJ P2: IML/IKJ QC: IML/TKJ T1: IML PB199A-20 Claus/6343F August 21, 2002 16:35 Char Count= 0 WEST BENGAL Although hand photo retouching has a long history summary fashion. The major folklore genres of West in South Asia, it cannot compare with the videogra- Bengal may be grouped as folk literature, folk song, phers’fluid use of camera effects, video editing, mix- drama, dance, religion and festival, belief and supersti- ing, and special effects to reshape images. Using these tion, art and craft, foodways, games and sports, trans- tools, videographers craft images that fit aesthetic ideals port, medicine and ethno-therapeutics etc. drawn from cinema and photography, emphasize cul- Folk literature of West Bengal is manifested in dif- turally significant moments in the wedding, and focus ferent genres such as narrative (myth, ritual tale or on particular symbols for dramatic effect. This creates a vratakatha,¯ legend, “frolic tale” or rangakatha, hearsay, distinctive video narrative form. Since weddings are in- fables etc), ballad, nursery rhyme, doggerel verse, song, creasingly experienced through this video narrative, the riddle, proverb, dramatic narrative, folk epic, etc. All audience’s expectations of and reactions to weddings these exist in two modes, oral and written, and oper- are to some extent the product of the videographer’s ate in three-fold directions: classical-folk-popular as craft. well as tribal-folk-elite exchange. Folk literature ex- Third, videos add sound to images. Often videog- presses fantasy as well as practical experiences of life raphers replace the original wedding sound track with and presents religious, secular and didactic elements in cinema songs, which link the wedding video to cin- different genres. ema through lyrics and through implicit references to The traditions of Bengali folk song are numerous film plots. Such links are sometimes emphasized by and diverse in content and musical patterns. Major repeated switching between wedding images and film identified genres include Bhawaiya, Chatka Huduma, excerpts, using song to connect the two. This makes the Gamira; Jhumur, Bhadu, Tush; Kheur, Kabi, Pala geet; bride and groom film stars, and gives the video a dis- Marriage songs; Murshidya, Marfati, Baul, Bhabergeet, tinctly cinematic, “romantic” tone. Such videos may Matuageet, Pagalgeet; Pachali, Kathakatha, Kirtan; either reflect or create a new emotional and cultural Work songs; etc. All forms exhibit different regional conception of marriage, particularly arranged marriage, variations and ethno-ecological peculiarities. The de- the contours of which can be glimpsed in cinema lyrics votional songs of para-folkloric religious sects express and scripts, and in the form and content of wedding their own philosophies mainly in “Sawal-Jabab” (ques- videos. tion and answer) forms. “Palageet” constitutes an oral epic tradition. ‘Jhumur’ originated from agricultural References work songs. ‘Kheur geet’ is rooted in weaving work songs. Changes are taking place in folksongs in terms Gutman, Judith Mara. 1982. Through Indian eyes. New York: of “Lokchalana”, their folk or ethno-musicological Oxford University Press/International Center of Photography. features. Supporting instruments of folksongs are Zeff, Adam. Forthcoming. Marriage, film, and video in Tamil Nadu. Ph.D. diss., Department of Anthropology, University made of string, skin, pipe, metal and clay or wood of Pennsylvania. of which Dhamsa-Kara-Nakara, Dhol, Madal, Khol, Kartal, Gopijantra, Gabguba, Ektara, Dotra, etc. are ADAM ZEFF important. Several living Folk dramas are popular in West Bengal: Jatra, Song, Gambhira, Bolan, Astak, Alkap, WEST BENGAL Khan, Palatia, Kushan, Chor-churni, Mecheni, Halua- A part of Eastern India, West Bengal (87,853 Sq. kms) Haluani, Banbibipala, Domni, Bahurupi, Puppetry, etc. extends from the Himalayan ranges in the North to the are noteworthy. Folk plays are performed in open fields, Bay of Bengal in the South and from Bihar and Orissa courtyards, small platforms or proscenium stages with in the West to Bangladesh in the east. The land in- the aid of music and dance. Usually males plays the fe- cludes the Northern hill tracts, Western plateau region, male roles. Mythological, historical