Paromita Vohra: Rakhi bandhan

Rakhi Sawant whos been awfully quiet since her brush with politics and her love for Ramdev Baba is back with a new episode of Rakhi Does Anything She Wants In this episode she attended a preIndependence Day event in Chicago wearing a black vinyl dress covered with images of our Prime Minister some a little strategically placed Being so visually arresting it immediately generated both media response and critical comments about vulgarity disrespect and even poor upbringingRakhi Sawant sporting the ModidressMs Sawant would care only if that didnt happen She is a pioneer of the dominant vernacular of our times personalities curated for media gaining validity through reach likes shares and if god is kind trending This is not about wanting to say something but creating cyclical episodes made up of disconnected high points Outrage sensation sex violence are to this media language what MSG is to Chinese dhaba food She hit several trending hashtags with her accompanying interview I Love Modiji I am Indias Daughter I love my country I am going to auction this dress for poor orphans and those who have cancer Whats leftWhat should we make of Rakhi Sawant Is she just another almostwasgreedyforthelimelightatanycost Or is she an agent provocateur confounding our pieties with her stunts Perhaps she is both Rakhis performances fall within the aesthetic termed Camp Its hallmarks as Susan Sontag describes in her essay Notes on Camp are a wholly artificial exaggerated vulgar ribald style which has no moral or instructive aims Camp completely undermines pomposity and selfseriousness not through forms like intentional irony and satire ndash which echo todays reality too much to be anything but banal ndash but through flamboyant theatricality which highlights the absurdity in realityThis might be malicious if intentional But Rakhi is Pure Camp mdash that which is entirely sincere and naiumlve and interested in its own performance not in attacking or disrespecting anyone Consequently if you take the absurdity in her show seriously you are the one who looks ridiculous For instance Rakhi declared that those who objected to her dress could check with Mr Modi and Rajnath Singh as they had given her permission for the dress Even if you are one of the hardcore habitually offended can you imagine asking such a question of the Prime Minister and Home Minister of India You would end up trivialising their office not censuring RakhiAt the same time her declarations of patriotism social commitment and her avowed loyalties mean that Rakhi also does not serve the interests of those who love baiting Rightwing extremists To use Rakhi exposes such baiting as trivial Rakhis symbolic dexterousness owes much to her immersion in the absurd which becomes a mirror to the absurdity present in realityMost of all Rakhi shows this mirror to the very media she uses to promote herself which draws validity from being a teller of truth and uses this to serve moralising and polarising agendas In a postscript video message Rakhi asked media and the moral police to chill When there are farmer suicides child sex abuse and poverty to discuss what kind of people get their knickers in a twist about my dress asked sheTry answering that with a simple yes or noParomita Vohra is an awardwinning Mumbaibased filmmaker writer and curator working with fiction and nonfiction Reach her at wwwparodevipicturescom