Dadi's Family (Odyssey season 1 unknown episode) (1981)(excerpt)
Title
Dadi's Family (Odyssey season 1 unknown episode) (1981)(excerpt)
Subject
Families--India
Kinship
Families
URL
Excerpt
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Description
Content description from Documentary Educational Resources (https://store.der.org/dadis-family-p852.aspx):
Dadi is the grandmother, or, as she explains, the "manager" of an extended family living in the Haryana region of Northern India. Women here leave their natal villages and come as strangers to the households of their husband's parents. This film explores the extended family and its problems, particularly through the women of Dadi's family. Going by the age-old Indian belief that the larger the family the more the hands to help, Dadi runs her household with an iron fist, trying valiantly to make sure that her children stay together in harmony. The daughters-in-law speak about inherent tensions created by the authority of Dadi, their loneliness as 'outsiders', and their husbands' unrealistic expectations that wives should labor in the fields, perform all chores, raise children and still have food and water waiting at home. Beyond the internal tensions, social and economic changes outside the village also threaten the stability and cohesion within the family. Dadi's third son, for example, marries a teacher in the city and Dadi frets that he will no longer contribute financially to the farm and that all the family wealth will be subdivided. Within the family, says Dadi, "we can bear anything because we all suffer together." Yet it is clear that her children's generation is already ambivalent about life on the farm and want a different life for their children. Dadi herself is keenly aware of these processes; despite her conservative upbringing, she tries to understand the different needs of her children and adapt to their more contemporary thinking. A strong comment on the lives of women in 1980's rural India Dadi's Family spans the thinking of two different generations and essays the struggle between the two to commit to their different interpretations of an ideal family life.
Ephemera: none available
Limitations: This page displays video content associated with a videotape in the CCDR Collections audiovisual library recorded by Joann W. Kealiinohomoku. Please be advised that, because this videotape has not yet been digitized for direct access, we cannot guarantee that the video content on this page is an exact match with the content originally recorded by Dr. Kealiinohomoku. We also cannot guarantee function or access for re-hosted video content.
Dadi is the grandmother, or, as she explains, the "manager" of an extended family living in the Haryana region of Northern India. Women here leave their natal villages and come as strangers to the households of their husband's parents. This film explores the extended family and its problems, particularly through the women of Dadi's family. Going by the age-old Indian belief that the larger the family the more the hands to help, Dadi runs her household with an iron fist, trying valiantly to make sure that her children stay together in harmony. The daughters-in-law speak about inherent tensions created by the authority of Dadi, their loneliness as 'outsiders', and their husbands' unrealistic expectations that wives should labor in the fields, perform all chores, raise children and still have food and water waiting at home. Beyond the internal tensions, social and economic changes outside the village also threaten the stability and cohesion within the family. Dadi's third son, for example, marries a teacher in the city and Dadi frets that he will no longer contribute financially to the farm and that all the family wealth will be subdivided. Within the family, says Dadi, "we can bear anything because we all suffer together." Yet it is clear that her children's generation is already ambivalent about life on the farm and want a different life for their children. Dadi herself is keenly aware of these processes; despite her conservative upbringing, she tries to understand the different needs of her children and adapt to their more contemporary thinking. A strong comment on the lives of women in 1980's rural India Dadi's Family spans the thinking of two different generations and essays the struggle between the two to commit to their different interpretations of an ideal family life.
Ephemera: none available
Limitations: This page displays video content associated with a videotape in the CCDR Collections audiovisual library recorded by Joann W. Kealiinohomoku. Please be advised that, because this videotape has not yet been digitized for direct access, we cannot guarantee that the video content on this page is an exact match with the content originally recorded by Dr. Kealiinohomoku. We also cannot guarantee function or access for re-hosted video content.
Original Format
TV broadcast recorded off air by JWK: Betamax tape
Creator
Rina Gill (director and writer)
Michael Camerini (director, producer, and writer)
James MacDonald (producer)
Publisher
Public Broadcasting Associates, Inc.
Worldview Productions
Public Broadcasting Service
Date
1981
Citation
“Dadi's Family (Odyssey season 1 unknown episode) (1981)(excerpt),” Cross-Cultural Dance Resources Collections, accessed May 1, 2024, https://ccdrcollections.omeka.net/items/show/364.