I'm legit confused as to what in that movie was supposed to be racist. Is the food inaccurate? So much of the scene looks like it is at the expense of Indy's companions and making fun of their naivete while worldly, experienced Indy is chill about the differences.
Is it me or the problem being portraying non-westerners as... not western?
Indian cuisine is nothing like that, for sure. The general explanation, I think, is that this is representative not of Indians or Hinduism but specifically of the depraved cult (er, I mean, fine, upstanding religious organization) that had taken over Pankot Palace.
Which brings us to another criticism: the depiction of Kali is completely fucked. While Kali
is "the Destroyer," my admittedly poor understanding of Hinduism is that what's in the movie is laughably terrible and bears no resemblance to reality, not even the Thuggee cult (which was a real thing back in the day).
But none of that is the point. At the end of the day
Temple of Doom is a throwback to pulp serials, which were concerned with adventure and excitement and danger and how foreign stuff was exotic and scary -- and there's specifically a huge debt owed to
Gunga Din. Observe my inspiration, my light, my hero -- the Guru:
(And he was played by an
Italian. Talk about racist!)
So I guess, to use a word I hate, the movie is sort of problematic (barf); the Indian government condemned it and might even have banned it ... but let's be serious. If you think real world Indians or Hindis are
anything like what's in
Temple of Doom, you're a moron. Just one more step in the inevitable journey toward not allowing any villains at all but straight white men.
