In the academic discourse of modernity, identity mainly refers to establishing self-awareness in the relationship between subjects, and obtaining a sense of self-belonging and direction from the tension of universally valid value commitments and special identity awareness. process, it often gives people an imagination of space, a feeling of being at home, and a sense of ontological security and history. Its connotation can be divided into three levels: First, it is a subjective reflective consciousness . This kind of reflective consciousness is formed in the inter-subjective relationship between self and others. It is a process of self-denial, self-transcendence, and ultimately sublation of others and return to oneself; secondly, it is a spiritual sense of belonging.
This need for a sense of belonging has ontological and existential significance; third, it is a result of socialization, which will be affected by ideological discourses such as gender, class, ethnicity, and race. It will also be shaped by culture, history, and social imagination. Therefore, it is complex and multi-layered, and its dominant forms of identity are different in different historical and cultural atmospheres. If in the expansion of colonial history, the imagination of racial memory and national identity occupied a core position, then in the post-colonial scenario, the imagination of cultural identity and history are the mainstream forms.
The main story of the movie "Win the Heart" is that Raj and Simran, a young Indian man and woman living in London, met and fell in love during a trip to Europe. The man, Raj, learned that Simran was engaged. Later, in pursuit of their pure love, Raj and Simran broke through the obstacles of the dross of the traditional Indian marriage system and finally came together.
The deep meaning of this film is the collision and conflict between traditional Indian culture and Western culture, and this conflict and collision is not expressed in terms of war, religion, history, etc. in this film. Instead, a love story is used to convey thoughts.
Since what this film wants to express is the collision of two cultures, one can be determined from the many plots and song and dance language in the film, that is, Indian traditional thought, and the other is influenced by Western culture. This is the unique thought of the native Indians, a mixture of East and West. In this film, Indians who carry Western culture still attach great importance to their own local culture. Take Raj as an example. The most direct evidence is that in the second half of the film, Raj and Simran’s father are in India. While watching pigeons on the country meadow, after the pigeons were injured, Raj said that he learned from his mother that the land in his country had magical powers, and after Raj returned to India, at Simran's fiancé's house, he learned about traditional Indian etiquette. It was also done in an orderly manner.
The above can explain that in this movie, the opposite of traditional Indian culture is "Indian culture that is influenced by Western culture and integrated with it." In this sentence, after this influence Indian culture, at the ideological level, is actually similar to Western colonization, except that this kind of colonization is not in terms of force, politics, religion, and education, but directly in terms of ideology.
In this film, the caste system, which is the biggest obstacle to free love in traditional Indian culture, is not reflected too much. It is more about the film conveying the traditional customs of Indians. The carrier of communication is Simran’s father. In the beginning of the film, a scene of Simran’s father feeding pigeons in a small square in London leads to an inner monologue and narration song of the character. In the inner narration, Simran’s father talks about himself. It is a dove with broken wings, unable to fly. This sentence is linked to the narrator's song, where the lyrics say that the motherland is calling to those who have left home.
The fusion of these two sentences can make people realize why Simran's father appeared in a depressed mood at the beginning of the film, that is, missing his hometown and being wandering in a foreign land. Bored. Later, when Simran's father returned to his supermarket, he found that in the supermarket opened in London, England, there was a traditional Indian statue similar to the Chinese God of Wealth. It can be learned from the subsequent content that Simran's father had no idea about this. Statues of gods are taken very seriously, and those who break them are unforgivable.
In addition to Simran’s father’s emphasis on traditional Indian culture in his own body, he also looks at other Indians in London from an outsider’s perspective, and treats young Indians who are infected by Western culture Simran's father was very angry and thought that such people were not Indians and should be drowned.
Simran’s father not only sets an example for Indian traditional culture, but also tries to make others accept Indian traditional culture. When it comes to love, Simran's father also strictly abides by the "childhood engagement" concept of marriage in traditional Indian culture. And after learning that her daughter had a shadow of free love while traveling in Europe, she felt very angry. Although Simran did nothing and did not elope with Raj, her daughter had her own concept of love. In the eyes of Simran's father, Not in line with tradition, not in line with one's own will.
Why does an Indian who has moved to London still have such an obsession with traditional culture? In the film, there may be two sentences that can be explained: First, what Simran's mother said: "Over time, this becomes a habit." Although this sentence is used by Simran's mother to express herself in the film Love for my husband, but think about it, it is indeed the case, an idea, if it is put into practice for only one or two days, it may not have much impact on people's lives, but if it is done like this 365 days a year If you do it, then it will become a habit, and this habit will lurk in people's subconscious. You don't have to do it deliberately, but you must do it.
The same is true for culture. After deliberately insisting on it for a period of time, it will be integrated into people's thinking. No matter what time or place, no one can get rid of it. What's more, in the film, Simran's father has deliberately maintained traditional culture for such a long time. In addition, in the film, Raj also said to Simran's father on the grass in the countryside that the land in his country has a magical power that can heal wounds. This sentence is somewhat poetic, but looking back, no matter how poetic this sentence is, Okay, so be it rational, but what you want to express is nothing more than the superiority of your own national culture compared to other cultures, and its capabilities that other cultures do not have. This culturally superior attitude can be seen from Raj's words that the superiority of national culture actually exists in the heart of anyone.
"In postcolonial literary works, the compound state of 'exile' is manifested in that the protagonist often experiences 'exile' in region, culture, blood and soul at the same time. These feelings of 'exile' are mutually causal. , intertwined with each other, making this living state of 'exile' appear more complex and profound. The 'exile' of the soul seems to be the inevitable result of the 'exile' of region, culture and blood. The 'exile' of the soul can be understood as a A feeling of 'infinity'"
In "Win the Heart", there are still many manifestations of Indian traditional culture. In the heart that is deeply rooted in traditional culture, coupled with the understanding of one's own culture. This incomparable sense of superiority makes the traditional Indian culture have the upper hand in the film compared with "colonial culture". In the content of the film, this has also become the biggest factor hindering the love between Raj and Simran.
At this point, I actually don’t want to use an individual person in the film to express the reflection of this idea in the film, but rather a "story" and a "process". This story and process is the love between Raj and Simran.
In this film, some people say that if you want to find a representative of "colonial culture", it should be Raj, but Raj's role in the film is to create a love story. The other protagonist in this love story, Simran, before leaving home, before, during and after meeting Raj, is more reflected in the carrier of traditional culture and is gradually influenced by another kind of thought. The process of finally breaking through traditional culture. In this process is the process of Simran and Raj being together.