Photo by Oakley Marton '25. Above, students view "Shalom Bollywood," a film that features Indian Jewish actors in Bollywood.
By Oakley Marton ’25
Contributing Writer
Content warning: This article discusses antisemitism and colonial violence.
On Dec. 1, a cold Thursday night after Students of Hinduism Reaching Inwards’ weekly evening Puja, a group of students from SHRI and the Jewish Student Union gathered in Eliot House with warm tea, hot cocoa and a selection of Indian snacks to watch a documentary promising to tell “the untold story of Indian Cinema,” called “Shalom Bollywood: The untold story of Indian Cinema.”
The 2013 documentary focused on the stories of Indian Jewish actors who were big names in early Bollywood, with the film’s voiceover claiming with a snappy but lacking metaphor that these actors were “the perfect kosher ingredient to spice up the development of Indian cinema.” Some attendees from the event remarked that this quotation was flippant. “Bollywood is, contrary to popular belief, not Indian film. It is from a very specific region of India, and it really has nothing to do with South Indian film,” Arin Lalsare ’25, an SHRI board member, added later during the post-watch discussion. Axis Familant ’25, a JSU member, also spoke on the quote, adding, “If only one of the ingredients is kosher, the rest of it isn’t.”
The documentary described how it was highly taboo for Hindu and Islamic women to be onscreen in the early days of Bollywood cinema. Indian Jewish women took these roles and became part of movies that changed Bollywood history, such as the first kiss on screen, the first color picture and advancing the trope of the vamp or femme fatale character. However, this narrative does not tell the full story, preferring a flashy picture often riddled with stereotypes of the progressive, sexually liberated Indian Jewish women who “saved” Bollywood, that glosses over many issues. Most egregiously, “There wasn't any discussion really of the colonial effects,” pointed out Lalsare during the discussion.
The early Bollywood chronicled here was one where India was still under British colonial rule, something only mentioned by the documentary when it celebrated Florence Ezekiel, whose stage name was Nadira, an Indian Jewish woman starring in the first globally renowned, postcolonial Bollywood film. Lalsare identified that instead of the absence of Hindu and Islamic women in early film being the product of just a vague societal taboo, it is a specific result of the rise of the sexual demonization of Indian women under colonialism, with harsh laws dictating dress, performance and sexuality. “[The] sexual demonization of Indian women was largely colonial, for example, especially in dress,” Lalsare said. “Saris never used to have blouses. It was literally just nine yards of fabric, and you wrap it around your chest and everything, kind of like a sarong. And then, when we were colonized, the British men decided, essentially, that [it] was too sexual. And so they said, ‘You have to put blouses on to be more like our women.’ You know, it was a method of oppression. And a lot of that played into, later on, the pop culture of India. Many performers or many performances that used to be taken on by women were banned because that's one of the first things that colonizers do — they oppress the women. And it was just really interesting to me to see that there was really no discussion of that, and [the documentary] was kind of like, well, this is just how it is.”
Emma Mair ’23, a co-chair of the JSU, also had concerns about this simplification of history and how it promoted a savior narrative. “I’m imagining in my head, like this horror of white Jewish communities … [that] think they’re really progressive being like, ‘Let’s watch ‘Shalom Bollywood’ and learn about how Jewish Indian women saved Indian film!’ I'm imagining them watching this movie being like, ‘Look at all we did for Indian cinema,’ without this critical lens, [and] it’s kind of painful to think about the work that has to happen for so many white, so-called progressive Jews in the U.S. to examine their privilege.”
While “Shalom Bollywood” fell short for the group, they were deeply interested in and wanted to learn more about the film’s original goal, which was to shine a light on the often erased stories of Indian Jewish communities. The film specifically focused on the experiences of Baghdadi Jewish and Bene Israel communities, which Nina Baran ’25, the JSU senator, pointed out are typically overlooked, and Familant acknowledged that there are many more Indian Jewish ethnic groups not in the film.
Overall, despite the disappointment, the group’s post-watch discussion added important criticism, exchange of opinions, cultural and religious knowledge and jokes. As the conversation moved on from the movie, the JSU discussed Hanukkah events coming up, broke down the holiday’s hyper-commercialization and laughed about bad Hanukkah Hallmark Channel movies and products like “The Mensch on a Bench,” a product marketed as a Hanukkah-themed version of “Elf on the Shelf.” SHRI members talked about their Diwali celebration, which took place at the end of October, where students and community members, including Vice President for Student Life and Dean of Students Marcella Runell Hall and Interim President Dr. Beverly Daniel Tatum, came together to enjoy delicious food and celebrate. The group also looked forward to celebrating Holi, the festival of colors, in the spring. SHRI and JSU board members looked forward to collaborating again, with attendees brainstorming another movie night with gulab jamun, a sweet Indian dessert. Mair recalled that last year after antisemitic graffiti was drawn in a dorm bathroom, the JSU held a Shabbat outside the Abbey Interfaith Sanctuary. “[The former co-chairs of SHRI] Lasya and Ananya, brought us gulab jamun after the service and were like, ‘We want to give this to you as an offering of solidarity,’” Mair said. “I literally cried right into Lasya’s arms. I was like, ‘This is the nicest thing anyone’s ever done in the history of ever.’ And then we ate them, and we were like, ‘wow’” — here, Mair’s face mimed a look of amazement — “and had them that Hanukkah too.” “Can that be a tradition from now on?” AJ Johnson ’23, a member of SHRI, asked — Mair agreed.
In some ways, this event was a quiet example of the work students and staff from many different backgrounds have done over the years to build an Interfaith community on campus. From the Interfaith LLC to events like the upcoming Festival of Light and Dark — an event that hopes to give students the space to honor and share holidays across different faith, spiritual and cultural traditions — it’s easy to see not only how hard different students and religious advisors work together to create welcoming religious organizations, but the strength that these communities hold when they are working together.