There is no greater way to convey the trials and tribulations of your standard Indian arranged marriage than a power pop ballad. This was the belief of three IIT students, when they decided to make a video parodying singer Carly Rae Jepsen’s song, ‘Call Me Maybe’, for a contest that was taking place on campus, entitled Be Our Pondati . Final-year students Asmita Ghosh and Anukripa Elango revamped the lyrics, while Krupa Varghese took centre stage as the typical Indian mother on a vehement mission to find the perfect bride for her son. On a whim, they uploaded it on YouTube.
In a little more than a week, they’ve gone viral, with hundreds of shares and more than 40,000 views. “It’s been overwhelming because this was just supposed to be our submission for a parody contest we were entering,” says Anukripa, “A few days after we uploaded it and the views started to climb, we thought that even 5,000 would be too much.”
“In a few days it peaked,” continues Asmita, “We started to get attention, and we got around 20,000 views in one day.”
Be Our Pondati features a tale that has been told and witnessed many times; a conservative parent’s quest to find their offspring their own idea of perfection in the form of a spouse. In the video, Krupa, draped in a Kanjeevaram sari embellished in gold, demands that her prospective daughter-in-law submit samples of her chappatis and bring forth her grandchildren.
The girls didn’t have to look too far for inspiration, Krupa says, “You don’t see these tropes of the quintessential Indian mother and the arranged marriage exist only in pop culture; just look at any of the classified ads in the papers. It’s a stereotype that’s justified by the society I’m in.” “You grow up witnessing your cousins and friends going through similar things,” explains Anukripa, “It’s just a standard presence in our culture.”
The video was thrown together quickly, says Anukripa, “It was just a fun, creative idea that we had a blast doing. Creating a serious discussion wasn’t the primary intention, but it happened along the way, and we encourage those conversations.” The serious side of the issue was never intended to be overt, but the girls believe that it was always present as subtext. “As feminists, we wanted to call out the double standards and hypocrisy both men and women have to face in the matrimonial process,” they say, “We looked at actual matrimonial ads to get inspiration for our lyrics, and some of them said the most ridiculous things. When a parody is someone’s reality, it’s actually quite sad.”
“We’re not attacking the institution of marriage at all; we’re just trying to say the form it’s being expressed in needs to change,” affirms Krupa.
The comments and shares have been building steadily. “People are responding well because it’s an issue they can relate to and laugh about,” says Asmita, “I even had someone write to me telling me that it was great that we were using humour to make cultural commentary.”
It may be a while before they return to producing content again, but there has been talk amongst them of further projects, “This took us by storm, so we’re still recovering,” they say, “We dabbled with the idea of another video, but now we realise we want to do something completely different. For now, we’re enjoying riding this wave, and we’re waiting for genius to strike again.”
Watch the video >here .
