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Since I finally have time:
The Orient is considered to be this space where people are *essentially* backwards, irrational, violent. This is the also the foundation of colonial laws, where whole tribes are considered intrinsically criminal.
Jai is from a tribe/community where https://twitter.com/rozenameh/status/1361974821056360449
The Orient is considered to be this space where people are *essentially* backwards, irrational, violent. This is the also the foundation of colonial laws, where whole tribes are considered intrinsically criminal.
Jai is from a tribe/community where https://twitter.com/rozenameh/status/1361974821056360449
boys become men only when they engage in violence and criminality. He himself, however, is a *civilized* and non-violent city-dweller. Throughout the film we see a dichotomy between what Jai is supposed to be as a Rathore (thru the words and actions of his father and cousins) and
and who he is. The movie makes it clear that the only reason Jai isn't a violent Rathore is because Savita, his mother, moved him away from his tribe. The Rathore's are thus the uncivilised oriental race, and Savita's intervention is akin to a *civilizing* act. However,
Jai *does* get angry. There *are* times when he just wants to beat shit out of somebody. This anger is always chalked up to his Rathore genes (the same music which plays when he gets angry, also plays when he does fulfill the three conditions of Rathore masculinity).
But for the most part, his *civilized* upbringing doesn't allow him to express it. So what happens? He lets that "violent streak" out in his dreams. And what happens in his dreams? He goes from a civilized, non-violent, westernised softie, to a sword-weilding, horse-riding,
clad in bandit-style black clothes Jai Singh Rathore, who chases his enemies (Inspector Waghmare, and Sushant) through the desert, which is a very commonly used Orientalist trope. The only way Jai can be violent is when his "tribal genes" overcome him in his sleep.
However, the movie also eventually subverts the same tropes as well. Jai *does* fulfill all three of the conditions of Rathore masculinity. He does beat Sushant up, he does go jail, and he does ride a horse. But he does it all for the same reason that he chose non-violence all
his life: for love. His love for his mother made him forego violence, and his love for Aditi made him embrace it somehow. He became a Rathore man, but he also stayed the same soft and loving boy that he was.
