In The World of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction Walter Benjamin argues that, “Even the most perfect reproduction of a work of art is lacking in one element: its presence in time and space, its unique existence at the place where it happens to be” (2). I have considered this statement in terms of the Pussycat Dolls’ version of Jai Ho (You Are My Destiny) and the original version of Jai Ho created for Slumdog Millionaire. The Pussycat Dolls’ version lacks the context that makes the original Jai Ho special and meaningful, and trivializes the story of Slumdog Millionaire.
In the film, Latika and Jamal manage to find each other after immense challenges such as poverty, the Bombay Riots, gangsters, the sex trade, crime lords and corrupt interrogation. The Pussycat Dolls’ version takes an epic love story fraught with seemingly insurmountable obstacles in Mumbai and turns it into a teenage girl’s dream. The lack of context romanticises the story and ignores the numerous challenges that Latika and Jamal faced together, which in turn created a bond between the two of them. The Pussycat Dolls’ version of Jai Ho (You Are My Destiny) forgets Latika’s agency as a young woman living in poverty in Mumbai. There is no mention of her strength, courage and independence ostensibly visible throughout the film. Latika’s agency is replaced with the Pussycat Dolls’ dependency present within the lyrics:
You are the reason that I breathe
You are the reason that I still believe
You are my destiny...
Catch me, catch me, catch me
C’mon catch me, I want you now
I know you can save me
Come and save me, I need you now
I am yours forever, yes forever I will follow
Any way and any day, never let go
In the reproduced lyrics, Latika’s agency is replaced with subservience and dependency upon others. Through-out the film, she appears as nothing but independent and capable, certainly never asking to be “saved” by another.
In Global Ethnoscapes Arjun Appadurai argues:
More persons in more parts of the world consider a wider set of possible lives than they ever did before. One important source of this change is the mass media, which present a rich, ever-changing store of possible lives, some of which enter the lived imaginations of ordinary people more successfully than others (53).
Certainly, this is true to some extent. While I would argue that it was fairly unsuccessful for the reasons aforementioned, The Pussycat Dolls had the chance to view Jai Ho, interpret it and finally represent it from within their imaginations. However, Appadurai fails to recognize that this ability to imagine a wider set of possible lives is uneven. Let us assume that Jamal, Latika and Salim are real individuals living in Mumbai, India, in similar impoverished conditions. The Pussycat Dolls come from upper class backgrounds, in a developed country. Jamal, Latika and Salim come from a poverty-stricken background often without the basic necessities to live. In this, the Pussycat Dolls are exposed to mass media that Appadurai argues presents an ever-changing store of possible lives. On the other hand, Jamal, Latika and Salim are not exposed to these sorts of mass media. While these characters obviously had some exposure to the media, since Jamal was a fan of the Bollywood star Amitabh Bachchan, their lack of exposure to education and other forms of media was visible when they found themselves at the Taj Mahal and did not know what they were looking at. As Jamal explains to the police inspector, knowledges are informed by locations. The imagination of an individual is very much informed by their accessibility to the mass media.
Works Cited
Appadurai, Arjun.
Global Ethnoscapes: Notes and Queries for a Transnational Anthropology. In Modernity at Large: Cultural Dimensions of Globalization. Arjun Appadurai, ed. Pp. 48-65. Minneapolis, London: University of Minnesota Press.
Benjamin, Walter.
2011[1936] The World of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction.http://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/philosophy/works/ge/benjamin.htm, accessed January 22nd, 2011.
Pussycat Dolls
2011[2009] Jai Ho (You Are My Destiny). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yc5OyXmHD0w, accessed January 22nd, 2011
Slumdog Millionaire
2011[2009] Official Jai Ho Music Video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRC4QrUwo9o, accessed January 22nd, 2011
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