Illustration/Uday Mohite
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“When you married him, was he Sitmari's DM? Are you saying he is of no use now?” a reporter asks. Manasi scoffs. Miss imagines arriving in the grand future, but someone has to book a ticket in the present. Mithu wants that ticket to be their YouTube channel. “Bass Follower Millane,” says Miss. “Followers will bring good content,” Manasi quipped, hinting that Mitu never did.
Watching this video (understandably) sent me down the rabbit hole. I came out grinning like a Cheshire Cat. Mithu-Manasi's vlog is one of his several in the Wild West. Or is it an enchanted forest? – Social media self-documenting love marriage. For example, the old one by Nandini and Ashish is simply called 'Love Wedding couple'.
It is understood that in order to become a loving couple, one must rebel against one's family, make one's own way in a different world, and need social support. The world may see us as deviant, but these video diaries of daily life seem different. Nandini makes katar. She will set up the cooler. What should I do in case of “Hamare Batteryka Distilled Water Katomhogaya”? At some point, family reconciliation will occur. Perhaps propelled by the birth of Guru's baby? It is recorded sideways in a video titled 'Pehli baar ma ke liye banayi chicken curry'. Marital discord arises from the heavy labor of childcare and housework. Later, Nandini's sister's anxiety about the board exam hints at further reconciliation. Viewers are also supporting us.
Mithu Manasi's channel clearly begins as Manasi's business. Her first video reads, “Hello, welcome. I am from the 12th pass of Sitamarhi. I got into a love marriage but there is no support. So please support me.” . After a few videos, Miss appears, clumsy but learning as she goes. Their channel promotes drama involving jealousy, suspicion, and even violence, culminating in a video where divorce appears to be imminent. The twist? At first it looked like a news video, but it was created by Manasi-Mitu himself (title: Jald Hoga Talaq), featuring impressive improvisations by reporters. Sorry Ollie, I'm late baby.
Manasi-Mitu argues that elites, supported by their own media worlds and ideological bubbles, create self-narratives about tradition and modernity, presenting themselves as exceptional, while at the same time He is directing the downfall of the Japanese government, and is probably planning a comeback. What is real and what is not? Asking that question is like asking what is love and what is not love. Who is traditional and who is modern?
Women here perform traditional male and female roles such as cooking and cleaning at Sindoor Bali Man. However, the undertaking of producing a video story about an incomplete life after love marriage, the search for charm and significance, is clearly a collaborative effort aimed at self-assertion and an endorsement of love marriage as a model. Not. These stories do not stop at the threshold of a happy ending, nor maintain the boundaries between public and private, realism and fantasy, as the bhadralok media prefers. This DIY love project of hers is an ongoing and messy project, much like the construction of a new reality mixed with an old reality called life.
Paromita Vohra is an award-winning fiction and non-fiction filmmaker, writer and curator based in Mumbai. Please contact paromita.vohra@mid-day.com.