The Viceroy’s House – My Husband’s Reaction
I and my husband have created a family tradition out of movies. On each of our birthdays we get to choose a movie to watch in the cinema, and the other will just have to watch it irrespective of the genre. On my birthday a few days ago, I chose the movie ‘The Viceroy’s House’ , directed by Gurinder Chadda. My husband is a South African man of Indian ethnicity. The history of his country is not the history of my country and he is not really aware of India’s colonial past. He does not yet know how magnificent India was before the British invaded us, but he is aware of the legacy of colonialism. Movies such as ‘Lagaan’ showed him that the British were racist, unjust and evil, but ‘The Viceroy’s House’ told him a different story. Within the first 10 minutes of the movie my husband said his blood was boiling in anger at the way Indians were being treated in their own country. His reaction to the movie was an eye opener for me and I felt a cold stab because I was only watchi...