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The colour of desire?

Who decides black is bad and white is desirable?

BEAUTY BEYOND COLOUR Successful model Naomi Campbell

Around you are many fair complexioned men

Why do you eye the dark complexioned me?

(Lyrics from the Rajnikanth starrer "Muthu")

If you thought this is a special lyric penned only for Rajnikanth, try this song from the fair and lovely heroine Malavika

The first man born was black

And so are Gods and their statues

My love

Black is the colour I love

(Lyrics from "Vetri Kodi Katu")

These songs and sentiments are exceptional to Tamil films and understandably so. But what remains as the rule is just the opposite. Black is bad while `white' is desirable.

The dusky Bipasha Basu is always the lustful woman in cinema, while the role of the adorable bahu is reserved for the fair complexioned Aishwarya Rai. Nandita Das could be a great actor, but even if she wishes, she cannot become the romancing heroine. Desire and fantasy have a colour in India. The fairer the skin the better it gets. In the many commercials, businessmen in black suits are always fair. Men these days are shown to steal women's facial cream to get good complexion. Without any discomfort, advertisements show dark skinned women cringe and hide at home. In the real world, bridegrooms seek fair brides in the matrimonial columns. Anxious parents ask doctors online what to do with their daughters who are losing their complexion. Pregnant women are advised to take saffron and pomegranate so as to have fair babies. Prosperous babies and pink always go together. While dark babies are reserved for fund raising cards.

Where do such choices come from? Who decides what is beauty and what is not? It is easy to trace them to visual images. But words are not innocent either. The English language is replete with phrases such as dark clouds, black money and dark times. Not to mention, black market and black Sunday. Words give us thoughts and ideas. We think through them and with them. These words would tell the Indian and African children that black is bad.

According to traditional Sanskrit texts on `samudrika lakshanam', men who are fair and of good complexion will enjoy lordship. It would caution men against having intercourse with dark complexioned women. Against this background, Tamil literature articulates a different sentiment. Dark clouds never meant danger to the Tamil poets. It was a time for the peacocks to dance. It indicated the bounty in store. The Alwars and the Vaishnava saints have sung many poems about the intoxicating beauty of the dark skinned Gods. Bharatiyar saw divinity in black.

In Tamil, the opposite of black is red and not white. Tamil films have an inconsistent position on this. "Nanum Oru Pen" is one of the early films that depicts the travails of a dark complexioned woman. "Theiva Magan" was the story of an abandoned child who looked dark.

However, the predominant sentiment in Tamil films till the advent of the anti-hero phase in the 1970s was not in favour of dark complexion. The emergence of Rajnikanth coincided with the popularity of this phase. Rajnikanth was introduced as a villain and took a while to become a superstar. He consciously played the dark skinned Samaritan. What was a disadvantage elsewhere proved helpful here. Vijaykanth, Parthiban and Murali followed suit.

When it comes to women, Tamil films are no different. Women can be slim or plump but they have to be strictly fair. Dark men and women elsewhere have similar difficulties. African American men and women were typecast in movies and advertisements. In the U.S., they continue to endorse sports goods and things to do with raw power. White models mostly endorsed premium and lifestyle products. Cleopatra, the icon of female beauty, has an African ancestry, but many prefer to remember her as Elizabeth Taylor. Images we know are powerful. Indian commercials and films insensitively cast them without any reflection on what values they portray. Human dignity has no colour and it is more important than selling facial creams.

A. SRIVATHSAN

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