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| The original Jai Ho dance from Slumdog Millionaire - www.danceinforma.com/magazine /?p=4672 |
The movie Slumdog Millionaire was a pop culture phenomenon in the year of 2008 – it had huge box office success in America, won 8 Academy Awards as well as a hundred other awards (IMDB). The focus of the film being the love story that triumphs against all odds, many people connected to the movie’s theme and relatable plot, as well as sympathized with the tough life of the young characters in the slums of Mumbai. The climax of the movie involves a Bollywood-inspired dance sequence to the song “Jai Ho” after the moment protagonist Jamal finally meets his long lost love in the train station, and the dance focuses on the happiness of the reunited couple. It makes sense that this moment in the movie was the one that many people latched onto, and several interpretations of the Jai Ho dance number have surfaced in the media, both by professional artists and amateurs. Although some focus on the love story aspect, others more on the energetic dance sequence itself. What they all have in common is that they are taking on a slightly different interpretation of the original each time, interpreting how Slumdog Millionaire showcases a traditional love story and India at the same time, and are purposefully showing it in an international media outlet.
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| The Pussycat Dolls rendition of Jai Ho http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yc5OyXmHD0w |
The official video from Slumdog Millionaire has the dance sequence with clips from the feature film cut into it. The focus of the dance is on the couple, but the large Bollywood dance crew in the background is also a large part of the number (Youtube 2009f). The Pussycat Dolls have picked up on the love story aspect – the English version of the song contains the lyrics that focus this, the main phrase being “You are my destiny” (Youtube 2009a) However, the overall feel of the video is a little different from the original. The Pussycat Dolls version is more of a music video, and the focus is mostly on the belly-top sporting Nicole Scherzinger strutting through a dark train station and what seems to be an Indian marketplace where a surprising amount of Americans are shopping and two teenagers shopping for CDs ogle her as she walks by. The setting and clothing are “Indian inspired”, as opposed to the original Slumdog Millionaire video that I would say feels a little more realistically modern Indian, and more for fun and to showcase the movie than a slick American production. This particular version makes me think of Walter Benjamin’s discussion of the reproduction of art in “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction”. The video is inspired by many of the original elements, but the reproduction has altered the original so that it isn’t really the same cultural expression anymore, but something new, although the attempt seems to be to reproduce the original a little.
However, the Pussycat Dolls are not the only international media to take on the Jai Ho dance – I was astounded at the amount of amateur videos appear online of dance companies, people in their living rooms, and flash mobs, doing the Jai Ho dance. The videos that are usually two or three people in their living room dancing focus more on the steps and the fact that they are doing the dance. Almost all of them seem to be Americans, and seem to be just some people having fun doing the dance. The focus is more on reproducing the moves, although there still does seem to be some sort of fascination with the exotic Indian aspect of the origins of the dance, as many of the females often throw in a few of their own belly dancing moves (see Youtube 2009b, 2009c, 2009d as examples). On Youtube there are also a plethora of semi-professional interpretations. Two I looked at in particular were one of a recital performance in what seems to be a Tamil show in Tampa, Florida, and a flash mob group in Chicago doing the dance in an empty parking lot, nearly getting kicked out, but then continuing the dance. Both almost take on the dance for their own purposes, the Tamil group actually making their own dance for the recital, and the Chicago group taking the original moves, but for the purpose of being a little rebellious and doing a fun dance in defiance of authority in the form of security guards.
What is fascinating about the Jai Ho dance is how far it really travels from its original context, and the different ways this seemingly Indian movie (although actually American/English produced) is culturally translated then put up into the worldwide web. I feel that all of the reinterpretations reflect Arjun Appadurai’s concept of the “global ethnoscape” and the concept of deterritorialization. As he says in his article, “One of the principal shifts in the global cultural order, created by cinema, television and video technology…has to do with the role of the imagination in social life…In the past two decades, as the deterritorialization of persons, images and ideas has taken on new force, the weight has imperceptibly shifted. More persons throughout the world see their lives through the prisms of the possible lives offered by mass media in all there forms.” (Appadurai 1996: 53-54) I feel that these video reinterpretations of an Indian, yet at the same time American cultural expression are a perfect example of what Appadurai is describing – the original movie is a cross-cultural media expression, and individuals have responded to this media form to the extent that they take on the story of Slumdog Millionaire and show a part of their world through the medium of the Jai Ho dance.
Citations
Appadurai
1996 Global Ethnoscapes: Notes and Queries for a Transnational Anthropology. In Modernity at Large: Cultural Dimensions of Globalization. Pp. 48-65. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press
IMDB
N.d. Slumdog Millionaire. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1010048/ Accessed January 23, 2011
Youtube
2009a Jai Ho (You Are My Destiny) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yc5OyXmHD0w Accessed January 23, 2011
2009b Jai Ho dance. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znxCTZGQrJo&feature=fvw Accessed January 23, 2011
2009c Jai Ho Dance. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEgtwOm2BHM&feature=related Accessed January 23, 2011
2009d Slumdog Millionaire Dance – Jai Ho. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7AuQKFlhXI Accessed January 23, 2011
2009e “Jai Ho” in Chicago (the Slumdog Millionaire Dance) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxofohmohJY Accessed January 23, 2011
2009f Slumdog Millionaire – Official Jai Ho Music Video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRC4QrUwo9o Accessed January 23, 2011
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