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Abstract

This article applies theories of diaspora and diasporic consciousness to the study of a film produced in Canada by an independent South Asian film maker, Srinivas Krishna. The film, Masala, a dark comedy filmed in Toronto against a backdrop of South Asian immigrant groups, multi-culturalism and the 1985 Air India bombing and drawing upon the magico-realism of Bollywood productions and Indian devotionals, offers commentaries on questions of identity and life among South Asian diasporic communities in Canada, Canadian social policy, religion and diasporic consciousness. The article examines the way the film is located in diasporic space and how the film maker plays upon the different locations and sensitivities of his audiences to represent, explain and critique diasporic space. The article considers the way caricature and stereotype inform the negotiations of identity among members of diasporic communities, the way objective and subjective spaces are redefined in a diasporic setting and how Hindu beliefs are represented in such settings. The article examines how the film maker draws upon traditional techniques of Indian story telling as well as a mixture of cinematic techniques to tell a diasporic version of a Hindu avatara story. It argues that in simultaneously affirming and challenging the religious beliefs that inform that story, the film maker raises some provocative questions about the vitality of religious and cultural traditions in the diaspora. The article concludes with a brief examination of how the film was received by audiences in India and in Europe and North America.

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Hindu Diasporic Consciousness

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