Off The Cuff: Indians use a Western yardstick

She played a stellar role in a movie about doomed love. The film spelt anything but doom for its director - Sanjay Leela Bhansali - or its star cast, and went on to rake in millions at the box office.

It's bloomtime for this diva from Bollywood, who was also a member of the jury at the recently-concluded Cannes Film Festival. Then we heard she may be the next Bond girl. The name is Rai. Aishwarya Rai.(Pierce Brosnan, please note). Though, one Indian magazine reports to the contrary.

Rai, actually, has a double whammy to her credit: being a member of the Cannes jury and a probable Bond role. Both carry gravity.

The fact is, this new role, if it comes through, may spell not just a booster for her career, but also give her image a tremendous fillip, which now carries a prestigious phoren stamp.

Imagine Rai in action sequences over the Alps, or speeding in a speedboat in Amsterdam with the baddies in hot pursuit, or attempting a stunt in a strafed helicopter which sways, lurches forward and almost throws the actress, precariously perched on the edge, out on to the Taj Mahal several metres below. All with the Bond babu by her side.

After all, anything that carries a Western tag of recognition or approbation has to carry a lot of import; so don't forget the export value of the person concerned.

The moment Western honour comes to any celebrity or person in whatever field he or she may be, a star is born. Satyajit Ray made his films primarily for an international audience - his Pather Panchali apparently was the first Indian film to be a hit in the West.

Ignored all along

In the 80s, a then down-on-his-luck Indian actor, Victor Banerjee, roundly rebuked the fourth estate, which had ignored him all along, for flocking to him after David Lean signed him on for his film, A Passage to India. Amartya Sen was just any other economist from India - until he won the Nobel Prize.

Kalpana Chawla was just any other astronaut - until she became the first "Indian" woman to join the crew of the now ill-fated Columbia space shuttle. Arundhati Roy was just any other writer, until she won the Booker Prize for her novel, The God of Small Things. Suddenly, their Indianness was being bandied about, like a piece of jewellery or mannequin placed in a showroom.

For the Indian movie stars, a Filmfare award may be prestigious but then an Oscar is an Oscar. Aamir Khan, a brilliant actor himself, turned up in full finery for the Academy Awards presentation, hoping that his production, Lagaan, would win an Oscar.

It didn't, but that did not stop a million (or maybe more) hearts going a-flutter over that slightest chance that it would bag such an award: that it lost to No Man's Land, the entry from Bosnia Herzegovina at last year's Academy awards function is a different story.

Just another singer

Till yesterday, Norah Jones was just any other singer. Yes, she was Ravi Shankar's daughter (but how many knew that?) Then, suddenly when she got five Grammys, overnight, she became a subcontinental sensation: the media in India was all hysteria: this was our "India'na Jones", seemed to be the refrain. The best part is: this crossover smash hit emphasises her Americanness more than her Indianness.

The Occident seems to be the ultimate gradient. The quest for Western recognition is never-ending.

"New Orleans," says American author Rick Bragg, "is where a lot of people go to when they need a new beginning." The Western symbol of honour is what subcontinental people look for when they need a new prestigious beginning.