Cowboys and Indians

A lot of the people I work with here on the rig are from India. Christopher Columbus was looking for these guys when he ran into the New World in 1492 and somehow Native Americans were saddled with the label. Since a few of these real Indians I know are about my age, native English speakers (Anglo Indians) and likely to have grown up on cowboy movies, my question seemed obvious (at least to me): “when you were growing up did you play Cowboys and Indians and if so which were you”? As expected Anglo Indians were more likely to play Cowboys and the more Indian (as in Hindu) Indians had to be the Indians.

I’m told that Hollywood movies are not all that popular in India except in some large cosmopolitan, metropolitan areas. To the vast majority of Indians who speak many different languages the more formulaic films produced in Bollywood (corrupted label for the center of Indian film making, Bombay.) are more entertaining: good guys, bad guys, good guy wins and gets the really pretty girl. Films are made in the predominant language of Hindi, but everyone can understand a few words, a kiss, a fight, a dance and the music. The everyday life of survival in India for the vast majority seeks the “happy ending.” Going to a movie is relatively inexpensive. I believe Bollywood also produces more movies than Hollywood by a factor of 10 or something incredible like that.

There have been some exceptions to the general rule. When the movie “Titanic” was on the world stage and everyone needed to see it the popularity overflowed to India. Some enterprising souls in villages would put up a large banner with “Titanic now playing” draw a large crowd and profit and then show any movie they could find with a boat in it and preferably a sinking boat. Lots of folks left the theater wondering what the hubbub was supposed to be all about.

In a nation with almost a billion people there are lots of talented actors and lots of pretty girls and handsome men. Somehow their fame has not reached our shores, but John Wayne is famous in Trivandrum. Citizens of the sub-continent want to know why Indians are always the bad guys and wear those funny headdresses?

(by Marc Adami, Guest Columnist)