Aishwarya Abhishek Mystery

I have heard from many people that Aishwarya is not suited for Abhishek, for reasons like age difference between them, Aishwarya’s previous rumours with other men etc, etc, etc… Lot of them have the opinion that it is better that Abhishek marries Rani Mukherjee instead of Aishwarya. We as Indians should not make personal comments, it is their life.

Now that the engagement is done, we must all bless them for their happy married life. My take on this engagement is slightly different, no not personal but the public image of both. Let us ponder. Both Aishwarya and Abhishek have a typical traditional middle class Hindu family background. Abhishek is son of Amitabh and Jaya - hardcore Hindu (remember Abhimaan?) very strict and orthodox family, with high moral values. Amitabh was son of a poet. In short a family of “Sanskaar”. Well dont know much about Aishwarya, other than she is traditional Kannadi Hindu Famliy very similar to the Bachchan’s.

But the one thing which bothers me is this.. What does Aishwarya symbolise? Everyone will remember that after Aishwarya won the Miss World title, India was winning again and again at international beauty contest. Year after year. Then it stopped, just as it was started. Aishwarya became an icon for new age concept of beauty. All this happened after 1991, after the collapse of Soviet Russia, and the decline of socialism, American led capitalism won everywhere. India was also forced to open up. Whatever we associated with as Indian was suddenly called as “ethnic”, "desi", "native", “backward”, and everything western was labelled as “progressive”, “modern”, “cool”. Our concept of beauty changed, the first marked change was the change in hair style, with hairs open and in front. This was done by the forces of cosmetic industry to promote their products. In short our sensibilities and taste were being changed in the boardrooms of these multinationals. Market forces especially foreign multinational organisations began to shape our arts, music, food, culture to suite with their products so as to make profit. Renaming film industry to “Bollywood”, remixing hindi songs in western musical instruments, remaking Hindi films and americanising them..etc etc. Aishwarya Rai was the biggest symbol associated with these changes. Aishwarya Rai was the darling of the forces of the so called “Globalisation”, “Liberalisation” and “Americanisation”. And now Aishwarya is going to be “bahu” of the Bachchan family, who are the biggest symbol of Indian that is “Bhartiya” tradition and values.

Amitabh Bachchan was the super hero of Hindi film industry before it was renamed to “Bollywood”. New age actors who are educated in convent English schools, who cannot speak proper Hindi, who give answers in English when asked in Hindi in an interview, proudly call themselves hindi film actors, Aishwarya also symbolises this, whereas Amitabh is the only actor capable of conversing in pure Hindi. Another point I would like to make here. Hrishikesh Mukherjee, the student of Bimal Roy (of Madhumati and Do bhiga jameen fame), who was associated with films depicting middle class Hindu sensibility, with high moral values, decent pure simple form of entertainment yet with high quality, simply loved and adored Amitabh and Jaya Bachchan and casted them in Abhimaan, Mili, etc etc All I can say is that Aishwarya and Abhishek are the two people who represent the two different ends of a spectrum. How they got engaged is a mystery to me.