Julie, 1975

I am always intrigued by the portrayal of Christianity in films, and my interest has been piqued especially by how strongly religion effects Indian movies in particular. I picked up Julie on from the library shelf because the back spoke of the struggles of "an Anglo-Indian Christian family" struggling together through a terrible ordeal.

Note to self: stop getting so many movies from the library or you'll owe them a million dollars in late fees.

Getting back on track, the terrible ordeal that Julie and her family had to face was (dunh dunh dunh) baby-making premaritally. Baby-making that resulted in a baby, mind you. With the Hindu neighbor, no less! No doubt a progressive film in its time, it can't help but seem dated and excessively Lifetime-y now. The plot is as follows: Julie loves Shashi, Shashi loves Julie, Shashi's parents go out of town, Julie's mother goes ballistic, vegeta vegeta vegeta. Julie is sent away to a relative's to have the baby after confiding in her best friend Usha, who is conveniently Shashi's sister. Dad dies while Julie is away, so Mom decides to relocate the whole family to England, which would separate Julie from her child forever (on a tangentially related note, I never spell "separate" correctly). Of course, Shashi et al. aren't about to let that happen, and a teary good-bye turns into a teary reunion and they all live happily ever after the end.

Of course, the one reason I picked this film up in the first place was a disappointment to me throughout the film. The only religious aspect about Julie's family was the glowing picture of Jesus hanging up in their living room. It was only a device to establish Julie's "otherness," as though to say "This sort of thing would never happen to a good Hindu girl" - enter Usha as Julie's foil - and even Julie's dad was a drinker, unlike a good Hindu dad. Julie's family had Anglican names and her mother was always concerned about how they were viewed in "the community," but that had nothing to do with religion and everything to do with superficiality. The only smidgen of even treatment I saw was Shashi's mother's dismay at Julie's habit of walking into the house with her shoes on, but her quick turnaround at the end went against her previously created character and re-established her as the good guy, as opposed to Julie's scheming mother.

Good points about the film? Well, Laxmi as Julie is really pretty. And it also features Sridevi in her first Hindi film as Julie's little sister! Aside from that, though, I'm at a loss. Typical Indian melodrama at the expense of the Christian Anglo-Indian community.