Cultural Studies and Postcolonialism

This blog is about my response on online discussion on Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy's Academy Award for her documentary, "A girl in the River"

Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy's academy Award for her documentry, A girl in the River, has been much celebrated at home. Deservedly so.

           Like her first Oscar-winning documentary, saving face, which spotlit the horror of acid attack, this too is a visceral, urgent piece of film-making. But alongside the jubilation is another view, persistent and petty, that is inevitably voiced at such occasions. Widely shared by politicians, journalists, religious leader, in short 'patriots' of all stripes, this opinion has it that sharmeen  has done a grave disservice to her country by highlighting the misery of ordinary Pakistanis to further her own career. Hence, the twitter trend: DisownSharmeen. 

            Why, he asked, 'had Adiga chosen not to write about the so many nice, nice things that are happening in India? The same critique was also trotted out when Danny Boyle's film, Slumdog Millionaire, won big at the Oscar. or when Malala won the Nobel prize. Or Sharmeen her first Oscar. Really, why can't  all these people just Photoshop our reality? why can't the hide our flaws and emphasize our virtues so we can win respect and admiration of Western societies? many 'concerned citizens' in Pakistan ask why Sharmeen did not make a film about that tireless humanitarian, Edhi, or better still, about the victims of drone strikes, cataloging American injustice, rather than our own.

            Truth wins: The buzz around Sharmeen's film has prompted Nawaz Sharif to say that the practice of honor killings in Pakistan should come to an end.

• Cultural Study:-  The prime duty of any literary writer is to present the contemporary issues and picture of nation. Everyone has the right to voice and freedom of expression. So they are free to portrayed the condition of their country. But many follower of ideology and political discourse try to banned this kind of harsh reality, because they do not bear the bad images of their culture and country.

• We have recently example of Film Padmavat in which the group of people banned film because the do not like that people see about their culture. Another one is the documentry film "Nirbhaya gang rape" which was banned by government because they believe that our new generation become spoiled because of the movie. 

• Post-colonialism:

                       General belief of the people is that writer must write about the glory and positive side of their country, and we Asian believe that western people give awards on our bed images and they happy because western people feel happy when they see our poor condition. But this is not right, we have many examples from the western works:Oliver Twist ,Sense and sensibility ,The west land etc.

                 

           These all works portrayed the reality of the society. In 'Oliver Twist', Dickens portrayed the poor law of Victorian Britain that how the cruel law for the poor and orphan children. After the publication of the novel 'Oliver Twist' British government pass the reformation bill and law about child laboring. So, we can say that is is not about western people that they feel happy on our poor condition.