Indian cinema and Vasco de Gama

[Pedro Mascarenhas]

Urumi : The Warriors Who Wanted to Kill Vasco Da Gama, is a 2011 Indian Malayalam Language epic historical drama film.

Urumi is a double-edged, long and narrow flexible sword-like weapon that is fixed to the combatant´s waist like belt.

The film is set in the early 16th century, when the Portuguese dominated the Indian Ocean. The story follows Murikkancheri Kelu , seeking to avenge the death of his father at the hands of the portuguese colonizers.

The plot also incorporates such historical figures as Estêvão da Gama and Vasco da Gama.

This film marks the debut of Genelia D'Souza in Malayalam Cinema.  

Award, Imagineindia Internacional Film Festival Madrid : best film e best director.

As in many indian films, there are hyperbolic scenes, but the objective was to instill in Indian viewers a vision of what the colonial empire was, beyond what appears in school textbooks. It was viewed by millions of speakers of Hindi, Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam languages.

The story cannot always be Eurocentric, but must contain the point of view of the colonized. The colonizer boasts of heroic deeds on a grand scale and presents the colonized as savage and ignorant. This film demonstrated to millions of Indian viewers what the invader was made of.

 

In this long video Vasco appears in the 16th minutes  and one can hear words spoken in Portuguese. 

 

Urumi Tamil Full Movie | Prithviraj | Prabhu Deva | Santosh Sivan | Arya | Genelia | Vidya Balan

Urumi Tamil Full Movie | Prithviraj | Prabhu Deva | Santosh Sivan | Arya...

 

[John de Figueiredo]

“The colonizer … presents the colonized as savage and ignorant”.

Assuming that “colonizer” refers to Europeans or their descendants: what would make Afonso de Albuquerque say that Goan carpenters were better than those from Germany? And Garcia d’Orta refer to Hindu physicians as “great scholars”? And Tomas Ribeiro praise the Goan talent for literature? And Cunha Rivara and Garces Palha encourage Goans to study their language? And Osorio Castro establish a Museum of Hindu Art and Archaeology in Velha Goa (Old Goa)? And Ferreira Martins translate Tagore’s poetry? And Cristóvão Aires find inspiration in Indian epics?

With all due respect, in the case of Goa at least, such generalizations are not helpful.

John M. de Figueiredo 

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On Jun 28, 2024, at 11:57 PM, 'Pedro Mascarenhas' via Goa-Research-Net <goa-rese...@googlegroups.com> wrote:



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[Nuno Cardoso da Silva]

In real history there are no good guys nor bad guys. Everybody is sometimes good and sometimes bad. We Portuguese did both good and bad things. One good thing was the opportunity of having Goans and othe peoples from India living in Portugal alongside us, helping us to shape the Portugal of the future, softening our culture and civilization. Without Vasco da Gama it wouldn't have happened...Was he a bastard? Maybe...

 

Nuno

 

 

Sent: Tuesday, June 25, 2024 at 11:59 AM
From: "'Pedro Mascarenhas' via Goa-Research-Net" <goa-rese...@googlegroups.com>
To: "Goa-Research-Net" <goa-rese...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: [GRN] Indian cinema and Vasco de Gama

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[Pedro Mascarenhas]

John

URUMI, was a huge success and was seen by millions who got an idea of ​​the history of the past. I have now learned that the film was shown in the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Qatar, Kuwait, Canada, UK and others.

The names Rivara, etc. that you mentioned are a drop in the ocean. You should have mentioned the thousands of racists, exploiters, slavers, entire villages massacred, criminal exiles sent to the colonies, the bloodthirsty political police (PIDE/DGS), the xenophobic mestiços or descendentes, etc.

“Colonization itself” is an aberration. 

For this reason, all colonized peoples fought relentlessly and the statues of false heroes were torn down. We must not forget that the Portuguese people also suffered a lot.

To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/goa-research-net/54C8FECC-310C-46B3-B7CE-70B930C87AF1%40sbcglobal.net.

[Nuno Cardoso da Silva]

"...xenophobic mestiços or descendentes..."

 

I love generalizations...

 

Nuno

 

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Subject: Re: [GRN] Indian cinema and Vasco de Gama

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[John de Figueiredo]

Political talk. You stated “The colonizer … presents the colonized as savage and ignorant”. My point is that this blanket condemnation and generalization may please the galleries but it is historically incorrect when we are talking about the history of Goa. This is assuming that Goa was a colony of Portugal, a concept that is highly debatable.

John M. de Figueiredo 

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On Jul 1, 2024, at 10:15 AM, 'Pedro Mascarenhas' via Goa-Research-Net <goa-rese...@googlegroups.com> wrote:



[albe...@sapo.pt]

If da Gama was a bastard? At least he was a pirate, according to the history books printed in Kerala (India) and Mozambique.

Talking about Goans in Portugal. How many Portuguese people went abroad?

Data authored by the Emigration Observatory indicates that in total, there are today around 2.1 million Portuguese people spread across the planet.

Where are there more Portuguese emigrants?

France remains the country in the world with the largest number of resident immigrants born in Portugal (573,000), followed by Switzerland (204,000), the United States (184,000), the United Kingdom (156,000), Brazil (138,000), Canada (134,000) and Germany (115,000). South Africa: Around 200,000 Portuguese and around 500,000 South Africans of Portuguese descent.

 

----- Mensagem de 'Nuno Cardoso da Silva' via Goa-Research-Net <goa-rese...@googlegroups.com> ---------

Data: Sat, 29 Jun 2024 11:01:51 +0200

De: 'Nuno Cardoso da Silva' via Goa-Research-Net <goa-rese...@googlegroups.com>

Assunto: Re: [GRN] Indian cinema and Vasco de Gama

Para: goa-rese...@googlegroups.com

[JOHN DE FIGUEIREDO]

Worth remembering:the following "Descendentes" who most certainly were not "xenophobic"::

Tomás de Aquino Mourão Garcez Palha: expert in Konkani, Marathi, and Sanskrit, who encouraged Varde Valaulicar to devote himself to the uplifiting of Konkani because in his opinion Konkani, not Marathi, was the mother tongue of all Goans

Cristóvão  Aires, a wonderful poet, who described India as his "berço meu amado" (:my beloved cradle)

Ferreira Martins, a distinguished historian, who translated to Portuguese Kalidasa's poem Shankuntala and Tagore's poems Gitanjali and Chitra

Fernando Leal, another wonderful poet, who wrote poetry based on themes of Hindu epics and praised the distinguished Goan poet Floriano Barreto

The countless "Descendentes" who were slaughtered during the Gaspar Dias Fortress incident "in the flower of their age" (to quote Miguel Vicente de Abreu) by the insurrectionists who deposed Bernardo Peres da Silva; those "Descendentes" were there to defend the fortress and they were ready to die for Peres da Silva and his Liberal Cause.(and yet we have distinguished Goan historians like Teotónio de Sousa and Leopoldo da Rocha calling that insurrection a "mestiço revolt" and shoving that incident and other brave "Descendentes" who were loyal to Peres da Silva under the rug)

Calling them "xenophobic" would be offending their memories and falsifying history to satisfy our political appetites..

Compare them to Bishop Mateus de Castro (sometimes called "Mahale", a name he does not appear to have ever used) who believed that only Brahmans should be Bishops and who was a racist and a castist by his own admission.

John M. de Figueiredo

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