Overdose of Clichés, the White Savior Complex – Basmati Blues Has All this in Spades!

Surprisingly, the village boy speaks fluent English with a trace of a foreign accent (doubtless an explanation will emerge). He also canoodles with the good white girl. There is also the obligatory smarmy Indian who is on the side of the Americans, as well as the brave courageous Indian who is not. Also, of course, India is this ‘exciting journey’ where feet are washed and aarti performed. Wait, there is dance – traditional as well as the nightclub variety too.

However, the end-to-end clichés are not even the worst part – it is the whole White Savior Syndrome that appears to be the leitmotif of the film. Sure the villain is a white guy, but the hero is white as well; the fact that it is a heroine, in this case, is neither here nor there. “One Woman will Fight for Justice” claims the trailer loftily.

This white savior cinematic trope is a recurring one; a throwback to colonial times and appears to be out of touch with the modern realities of the so-called third world. The moral tone of the narrative, a messianic central figure who rescues the hapless brown locals, and also gets in touch with their own inner self in the process, the essential narcissism of such a plot structure are quite common. We have seen this phenomenon in films such as

• City of Joy (Patrick Swayze is the good white doctor who ‘rescues’ the locals from disease and oppression).
•  Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom ( where Harrison Ford saves the peasants from some bizarre snake and monkey brain eating cult).
• Million Dollar Arm (where talented but clueless Indian boys are plucked out of obscurity and catapulted into big league sport, thanks to American talent hunters).