Nah, that’s not my India, Wachowski sisters

Six years after it was released, I finally discovered the mind-bending series, Sense8 directed by the Wachowski Brothers (now, sisters). Definitely a binge-worthy show from the makers of the Matrix trilogy, Sense8 immediately got me hooked with a storyline revolving around eight sensates (individuals with extra sensory perception/ESP). All of these individuals are placed in different countries and while I can barely imagine the amount of research that might have gone into each subplot of this extremely gripping show, my problem lies with their representation of India.

At a time when Indian actors in Hollywood are consciously trying to move away from stereotyped roles, Sense8’s India is full of clichés and even goes a bit overboard at some points. One of the sensates, Kala Dandekar is a pharmacist set to marry her boss, Rajan Rasal. The coy bride-to-be, the song and dance before the wedding and the girl talking to Ganesha in the temple right before the wedding is difficult to stomach for these stereotypes are past their shelf life even in the urban Indian. An Indian show or movie might well have been able to get away with these, but a sci-fi show keeping India where it has been for decades in international movie plots — a land of snake charmers — gives us no credit.

We cannot deny the premise of politics entwined with religion; well, most elections are won that way at home. But a priest well-versed in scriptures running a campaign to oust Rajan’s father, a businessman who prefers the tangibility of science over God, and almost leading a campaign within the temple is not something that you would actually witness in the country. Then, the attack on the father inside the temple — bloodshed by extremists within the very sanctuary that they are trying to protect — again, a flight of fancy by the creators that crash-lands in disappointment.

As for the language, the characters are always conversing in English. Unlike scenes featuring the Kenyan sensate Capheus, where Swahili words have been thrown in, not a single Hindi word comes up during the course of the first season. This becomes a bit unconvincing when even the name of a Bollywood movie featuring Shah Rukh Khan is translated into English. It took me a while to realise there was an actual movie reference— ‘A match made by God’ aka Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi. It looked like a figment of the characters’ imagination at first. The Dandekar family, devout Hindus, also run an Irani restaurant. If that was not enough, there is mention of a traditionally Parsi fish preparation, Patrani Machchhi, as a family recipe.

If not for these bloopers, I would have indeed been very happy with our country coming up so prominently in an international series. We should give them credit for not being miserly with the Indian scenes — the shadi, the Ganesh Utsav, the Mumbai crowds — all do lend an air of colour and chaos that India is soaked in.

Tina Desai as Kala is shown to embrace her Indian-ness, but that is not what the women of India today stand for. We have embraced our sexuality, even if we don’t make a show of it. We are not shy of kissing a fiancé, nor are we scandalised by looking at a very ‘large trunk.’ In spite of great Indian cinema and shows reaching out to millions across the globe, thanks to online streaming platforms, the cliche of India paraded by Bollywood’s stories and foreign visitors to India is so strong that the show simply went ahead with their take on the country and amplified it instead of tapping into the shift in the Indian generations in the new millennia.