Today, Bakshi (Sellers) can be viewed as a prototype "Borat" in that he pokes fun at the cultural misunderstandings between the East and West. In a quarrel between Bakshi and an opportunistic movie mogul pawing Michele (Claudine Longet), the Westerner indignant at being deprived of his prey, asks the Indian :"Just who do you think you are?!" To which Bakshi replies: "In India, we do not think who we are. We know!" On the level at which this exchange took place, this is of course a joke. But it is also funny from a philosophical point of view. Western philosophy is dominated by Aristotelian philosophy which is ultimately subjective in that existence is viewed largely from the self and what Aristotle called the "apprehension" of reality. Descartes turned this idea on its head by saying that he knew he existed because he thinks. Both hypotheses are invalid in Hindu philosophy where worldly existence is viewed as pure illusion ("maya")and all that we think exists (including ourselves) is only an idea in the mind of God. This view is well represented in Greek philosophy by Plato who wrote of a perfect "world of ideas" from which the material existence of things in this world derives.
When I was growing up, I usually heard horror stories from Filipino relatives living in the West about how they got in trouble or suffered embarrassment because they cooked oriental food or ate them in the presence of people of Anglo-Saxon descent. In 1958, my lady cousin was the subject of a complaint in the apartment building where she lived in Saginaw Michigan because some tenants complained of the "awful" smell of the garlic she used in her sauté. But today, Americans in the major cities, at least, are probably the most knowledgeable about cuisines of the world. I bring this up because in the movie, the Sellers character inadvertently dips his fist into a bowl of caviar and he was nauseated when he brought up his hand near his face. Westerners display the same expression when they come upon fermented fish paste and dips common among peoples of Southeast Asia. I guess that's why we have the adages:"To each his own" and "There's no accounting for taste."
A southerner who has gone to the Far East asked me if I eat the delicacy called "balut" in the Philippines. The Thais, Vietnamese and Cambodians refer to it by other names in their respective languages and you can find it here in the US in many oriental groceries. Bluntly and scientifically put, it is simply the semi-developed fetus of a duck still in its shell and suspended in amniotic fluid. It is boiled and touted by some as a fortifier for those in ill health or even as an aphrodisiac. The amniotic fluid tastes like a most excellent soup. Most Americans I know are simply turned off in shock at this description. Even today, I get quizzical looks at work when I answer questions about what I am eating. Pickled jellyfish and black century eggs, what else? But guess what? I have a southern cookbook printed in the 1930s that has dressing procedures and recipes for possum, raccoon and squirrel.
But this is neither here nor there about the movie. I have nostalgic feelings about the young Claudine Longet with the wispy, whispery voice and cute French accent singing : "Theenk of rennnn..." ("Think of Rain"). She was one of my absolute favorite female chanteuses of the 1960's along with Astrud Gilberto. Alas! As an aging beauty she committed a crime of passion killing a two-timing boyfriend who was dumping her. She was acquitted for some reason and didn't go to jail for it.
When I was growing up, I usually heard horror stories from Filipino relatives living in the West about how they got in trouble or suffered embarrassment because they cooked oriental food or ate them in the presence of people of Anglo-Saxon descent. In 1958, my lady cousin was the subject of a complaint in the apartment building where she lived in Saginaw Michigan because some tenants complained of the "awful" smell of the garlic she used in her sauté. But today, Americans in the major cities, at least, are probably the most knowledgeable about cuisines of the world. I bring this up because in the movie, the Sellers character inadvertently dips his fist into a bowl of caviar and he was nauseated when he brought up his hand near his face. Westerners display the same expression when they come upon fermented fish paste and dips common among peoples of Southeast Asia. I guess that's why we have the adages:"To each his own" and "There's no accounting for taste."
A southerner who has gone to the Far East asked me if I eat the delicacy called "balut" in the Philippines. The Thais, Vietnamese and Cambodians refer to it by other names in their respective languages and you can find it here in the US in many oriental groceries. Bluntly and scientifically put, it is simply the semi-developed fetus of a duck still in its shell and suspended in amniotic fluid. It is boiled and touted by some as a fortifier for those in ill health or even as an aphrodisiac. The amniotic fluid tastes like a most excellent soup. Most Americans I know are simply turned off in shock at this description. Even today, I get quizzical looks at work when I answer questions about what I am eating. Pickled jellyfish and black century eggs, what else? But guess what? I have a southern cookbook printed in the 1930s that has dressing procedures and recipes for possum, raccoon and squirrel.
But this is neither here nor there about the movie. I have nostalgic feelings about the young Claudine Longet with the wispy, whispery voice and cute French accent singing : "Theenk of rennnn..." ("Think of Rain"). She was one of my absolute favorite female chanteuses of the 1960's along with Astrud Gilberto. Alas! As an aging beauty she committed a crime of passion killing a two-timing boyfriend who was dumping her. She was acquitted for some reason and didn't go to jail for it.