In Dawn, Karachi, Ayesha Siddiqa, author of the book ‘Military Inc: Inside Pakistan’s Military Economy’, on the difference between a non-resident Indian and a non-resident Pakistani:
The other day I had a chance to see an Indian film, Aaja Nachlee. Besides the delicious Madhuri Dixit dance numbers, the story told between the lines was most interesting. It was about an Indian expatriate’s venture to rebuild her village. In many ways it represents the perception of the upwardly mobile middle class from South Asia.
The script was simple. It talked about an Indian girl from a village who elopes with an American leaving behind her family and land. Once in the US, the American husband does not prove right and she is left with a daughter and a career in dancing. The twist in the story comes when she gets news of her dance teacher dying. This forces her to return to India. There she finds her guru dead and the dance school about to be demolished. Only she can save it from destruction, which she does. The film represents the Non-Resident Indian (NRI) phenomenon – a factor that is today critical in the story of India’s progress.
The NRI is a middle-class Hindustani living abroad who has escaped the oppression of poverty at home and made a fortune abroad. He has a sense of superiority and the ability to change the land of his origin. Madhuri Dixit, who plays the NRI, manages to wake the people out of their slumber and excites them into acting in the musical to save the town’s rundown dance school.
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