During one of our few casual interactions, one of my colleague who hails from China declared that he was planning on watching Slumdog Millionaire over the weekend, which triggered my curiosity to learn his reaction to the movie. Not that I feel it is the best movie (even though it bagged quite a lot of awards) nor does the movie represent any of the bright or good side of the India, but somehow the fact that it is gaining so much popularity makes me happy.
The discussion of the movie started with few common questions about India and the “Who wants to be the Millionaire” show aired in the movie. I believe he was trying to learn about life in India. After some discussion on the movie came his puzzling question. A bit surprised at first, I quickly gathered the question to be very obvious coming from a bachelor. The answer to his question was a very simple Yes/No, but have you been in a situation when a simple yes/ no demands a lot of evaluation before you can take your stand. Well, that was my situation when he asked, "Do you think the girl in the movie was beautiful per Indian standard?"
If I answer yes, I thought I would not be able to introduce the famous beauties of India, Aishwarya Rai, Priyanka Chopra alike to this bachelor friend of mine. Part of my heart wanted to boast about the Indian beauties, the fact that they have been winning so many beauty pageants lately sure was something to be showcased here. But my mind didn't agree with me. Why should I categorize the actress as not beautiful when she was representing the common Indian girl and I believe that is what was in the mind of the movie director. In my opinion, Frieda Pinto (the actress in the movie) is one of many intelligent looking girls who might not be categorized as beautiful by technical standards but are quite appealing and easy on eyes to many!
So how did I answer to his question, I said "No". Yeah I wanted to show off the famous Indian beauties and I quickly did an image search for few popular Indian actresses to change his perspective towards Indian beauty. We talked on this topic for few more minutes and then he kind of concluded that, because the actress was representing the slum area of India the director did not choose a beautiful girl to play the part.
Honestly, I was not planning on giving him that idea, nor did I put it that way in words. And yes I was a bit thrown away by the conclusion myself. But for him the average women are not beautiful was the point to take away.
I kept re-evaluating our discussion for quite some time to figure out how I could have changed the conclusion only to realize that may be he hoped or already knew that No was the answer to his question.
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Maybe he had come to you with an answer in mind, nonetheless, you certainly had it within your powers to influence him otherwise. Pinto might not be Rai but she certainly is good looking. Maybe you could just have told him that she isn't beautiful but she is good looking or that she is a 6 on 10 or something relative instead of absolute. Ofcourse, hindsight is always perfect :)
ReplyDeleteYes I believe I could have and did try but then I concluded that it is not easy to change the definition of beauty for a bachelor :)
ReplyDeleteYou know what, some of my colleagues drooled over Frieda pinto albeit, I agree with you. Per most Indians she would definitely not be there in top 25 Indian beauties...
ReplyDeleteIs she beautiful? Yes, but not one of the most beautiful Indian gals.
Does she represent an Indian woman well enough? Yes, for the most part.
Hey, Pinto is NOT beautiful, but she is pretty with a very pleasing smile, above all she has confidence, she carries herself very gracefully among all those foreign designers and models and that is truly an achievement for an Indian.
ReplyDeletePlease do write on Indian beauties e.g. Aishwarya, Hema Malini, Manisha Koirala...i'll be waiting for it.
Exactly the point I was trying to convey Preeti....but as mentioned earlier for my colleague the answer to the beauty question was a simple yes or no.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the support anstuff
ReplyDeleteCould you just tell me as to what made u decide that Pinto isn't "beautiful" ? And you could have answered it differently instead of putting a straight 'No'.
ReplyDelete@Shruti...I am not categorizing Frida Pinto as not beautiful. As mentioned by anstuff above, per my perspective, I don't think she is the most beautiful women and a 'yes' wouldn't have allowed me to show off the few very beautiful women.
ReplyDeleteI agree, I could have answered vaguely to the question rather than a straight No.
Sometime i feel we are too generous to Plain Janes so as to critize the ones who are considered beautiful, with no fault of theres!
ReplyDeleteI dont agree with ' ohh you are beautiful in your own way..dear' Drama, we all know that.Period. Some of us are just off the hook and dont have it. we have to live with that and figure out what we have.
So if some one thinks Frieda Pintoo is not beautiful per say indian standard...the Reality is Yes that is the case..not just by indian but outside perspective too!
Some of us have a different definition of beauty like u and me and do like faces like Pinto a lot. But then we cannot say we are the authority to define beauty!
By Authority to define beauty, i mean for other..
ReplyDeleteKusha
There we go people...Frieda Pinto is 10th sexiest woman in the world as rated by FHM :D...
ReplyDeleteohh and btw, Britney Spears is on the third sport beating Adriana Lima who is at 5th spot!!!
ohhh well !!