Bollywood in the Indian-American Diaspora: Part 2

The second half of the essay is concerned with the images these movies portray of India and Indian life. Critics of Bollywood are constantly asking "is this really India?" after watching a film. Do most of these movies paint a realistic picture of India? The answer to this question, for the most part, is no. "India and Hinduism" are "made into glossy laughable commoditities to be purchased for a high price." These films generally follow the lives of middle or upperclass Indians that do not accurately reflect the majority of the population of India. However, is this picturesque image of India in any way detremental? Viewers in the diaspora would argue that "these encodings function not so much as systematic erasures of class differences, but as referents of 'tradition' whose consumption is critical to sustaining and performing ethnicity, particularly in community events." In short, it is not the subjects of these movies that keep viewers coming back, but rather the tradition in watching them.