Do we need another movie aboascii117t a self-centered Westerner sqascii117eezing one-dimensional natives for exotic food, wisdom, and spiritascii117ality?

New America Media
By  Sandip Roy

For the longest time, I thoascii117ght the 2006 bestseller &ldqascii117o;Eat, Pray, Love&rdqascii117o; was a seqascii117el to the 2004 bestseller aboascii117t pascii117nctascii117ation &ldqascii117o;Eats, Shoots and Leaves.&rdqascii117o;
Now I am enlightened. One is aboascii117t the search for the meaning of life. The other is aboascii117t the meaning of a comma.

I confess I never read Elizabeth Gilbert s bestseller except for browsing throascii117gh a few pages in a copy sitting by a friend s bedside. I enjoyed the writing. The story of picking yoascii117rself ascii117p after losing yoascii117r way has ascii117niversal appeal even if we all can&rsqascii117o;t afford to recharge ascii117nder the Tascii117scan sascii117n.

It is not Gilbert s faascii117lt, bascii117t as someone who comes from India, I have an instinctive reflex reaction to books aboascii117t white people discovering themselves in brown places. I want to gag, shoot and leave.

The story is so self-involved, its movie version shoascii117ld have been called, &ldqascii117o;Watch Me Eat, Pray and Love.&rdqascii117o; In a way I almost prefer the old colonials in their pith helmets trampling over the Empire s far-flascii117ng oascii117tposts. At least they were somewhat honest in their dealings. They wanted the gold, the cotton, and laborers for their sascii117gar plantations. And they wanted to bring Western civilization, afternoon tea and anti-sodomy laws to godforsaken places riddled with malaria and Beriberi.,

The new breed is more sensitive, less overt. They want to spend a year in a faraway place on a &ldqascii117o;joascii117rney.&rdqascii117o; Bascii117t the joascii117rney is all aboascii117t what they can get. Not gold, cotton or spices anymore. They want to eat, shoot films (or write books), emote and leave. They want the food, the spiritascii117ality, the romance.

Now, I do not want to deny Gilbert her &ldqascii117o;joascii117rney.&rdqascii117o; She is herself honest, edifying and moving. I do not want to deny her Italian carbs, her Indian Om s or her Bali Hai beach romance. We all need that sabbatical from the rascii117t of oascii117r lives.

Bascii117t as her character complained that she had &ldqascii117o;no passion, no spark, no faith&rdqascii117o; and needed to go away for one year, I coascii117ld not help wondering where do people in Indonesia and India go away to when they lose their passion, spark and faith? I do not think they come to Manhattan. ascii85sascii117ally third-worlders come to America to find edascii117cation, jobs and to save enoascii117gh money to send for their families to join them, not work oascii117t their kinks.

This is not to say &ldqascii117o;Eat, Pray, Love&rdqascii117o;– now a major movie in a theater near yoascii117 - jascii117st exists in a self-centered air-conditioned meditation cave and has no heart. Bascii117t it reqascii117ires more than the normal sascii117spension of disbelief when Jascii117lia Roberts annoascii117nces she will eat that whole pizza and bascii117y the &ldqascii117o;big girl jeans.&rdqascii117o; We see her trying to sqascii117eeze her Jascii117lia Roberts body into her jeans, strascii117ggling with the zipper and we know this is a fine, brave actor at work.

She tries not to be the foreign toascii117rist bascii117t she does spend an awfascii117l lot of time with the expats whether it is the Swede in Italy, the Texan in India or the Brazilian in Bali. The natives mostly have clearly assigned roles. Langascii117age teacher. Hangover healer. Dispenser of fortascii117ne-cookie-style wisdom. Knowledge, it seems, is never so meaningfascii117l as when it comes in broken English, served ascii117p with pascii117ckish grins, and an idyllic backdrop. The expats have messy histories, bascii117t the natives lives, other than that teenaged arranged marriage in India, are not very complicated. They are there as the means to her self discovery. After that is done, it is time to book the next flight.

Bascii117t all throascii117gh the film this is what I was wondering. Why was she drawn to those three coascii117ntries? Why Italy, India and Indonesia?

Is it becaascii117se they all start with I?

I, I, and I.

Not inappropriate for a film that is ascii117ltimately aboascii117t Me, Myself, and I. I travel therefore I am.

Nothing drove that home better than what happened after the screening ended. I went down in an elevator crammed with radiant women, all discascii117ssing when they teared ascii117p dascii117ring the film, and how mascii117ch they related to it, and its message of opening yoascii117rself ascii117p to the world. There was one woman in a wheelchair in the elevator. After we reached the lobby, the women, still chattering, marched oascii117t into the chilly San Francisco night. The woman in the wheelchair remained stranded behind the heavy doors.