{"id":3402,"date":"2016-07-28T05:48:55","date_gmt":"2016-07-28T00:18:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=3402"},"modified":"2016-07-28T05:48:55","modified_gmt":"2016-07-28T00:18:55","slug":"what-jk-rowlings-fantastic-beasts-can-learn-from-our-ichhadhari-naagins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/?p=3402","title":{"rendered":"What JK Rowling\u2019s Fantastic Beasts Can Learn From Our Ichhadhari Naagins"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

F<\/span><\/p><\/div>

antastic Beasts <\/span><\/i>has come an awfully long way from its first mention as one of Harry Potter\u2019s humble third-year textbooks at Hogwarts. The second instalment in what is slated to be a five-part series, <\/span>Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald<\/span><\/i> releases today \u2013 but the latest film in the ever-expanding Potterverse has already been making headlines for months. <\/span>\n\nAfter the first <\/span>Fantastic Beasts<\/span><\/i>, starring an appropriately <\/span>neurotic<\/span><\/a> Eddie Redmayne as 1920s magizoologist Newt Scamander, the prospect of delving more deeply into JK Rowling\u2019s wizarding world is an exciting one, and the kicker for fans has been the promise of seeing the <\/span>backstory<\/span><\/a> of Voldemort\u2019s ultimate Horcrux, Nagini. <\/span>\n\nThroughout the books, Nagini is Voldemort\u2019s pet serpent and his closest companion. With <\/span>The Crimes of Grindelwald<\/span><\/i>, Rowling has dropped a bomb: Nagini is not a snake at all, but a woman who is cursed to live in snake form \u2013 what she calls a \u201cmaledictus.\u201d Audiences will be introduced to Nagini, played by Claudia Kim, before the curse takes hold.<\/span>\n\nPerhaps predictably for a movie that has been dogged by controversy (following the casting of Johnny Depp), the role of Nagini has sparked another furore. Throughout the film, Nagini is given half a dozen lines and precisely one snake transformation, and spends the rest of her screen-time looking panicked by the proceedings around her. Some have called Rowling out for retroactively inserting a character of colour for extra diversity points, since Nagini\u2019s human form was never mentioned in the books. Others have accused her of Asian <\/span>fetishisation<\/span><\/a>, since Nagini is a downtrodden circus freak with no proper characterisation. Rowling responded with a lesson on the imaginary Naga snake-people of Indonesian mythology \u2013 despite the fact that Kim is actually South Korean \u2013 insisting that Nagini was an \u201cAsian\u201d woman all along.<\/span>\n\nEven as Rowling was beginning to grasp the scale of the <\/span>continent<\/span><\/a> of Asia, Indians around the world were drawing a collective gasp. Naturally, it was only a matter of time before a national hero called Rowling out on her tweet. Fellow author Amish Tripathi <\/span>quickly<\/span><\/a> set her straight on the true origins of Nagini (India, he said, #SavedYouAClick). But was his truth-bomb enough to dull the sting of our homegrown Naagins being ignored?<\/span>\n\nAmid the commotion, one thought stood out clearly in everyone\u2019s minds: How could this new human Nagini be played by anyone but the <\/span>iconic<\/span><\/a> Mouni Roy, of our top-rated <\/span>Naagin<\/span><\/i> serial?<\/span>\n\nIf a woman cursed to live as a snake is a big deal for Rowling, then Roy\u2019s Shivanya, a vengeful daughter of two poorly CGI\u2019d shape-shifting parents, will no doubt come as a revelation to her. And <\/span>Naagin <\/span><\/i>boasts of not one, but two snake-women cousins, whose casting in <\/span>The Crimes of Grindelwald<\/span><\/i> would be fitting reparations for Padma and Parvati Patil\u2019s godawful Yule Ball <\/span>lehengas<\/span><\/a>. <\/span>\n\n

Throughout the books, Nagini is Voldemort\u2019s pet serpent and his closest companion. With The Crimes of Grindelwald, Rowling has dropped a bomb: Nagini is not a snake at all, but a woman who is cursed to live in snake form \u2013 what she calls a \u201cmaledictus.\u201d <\/p><\/blockquote>\n\nThen there\u2019s the rich mythological universe that Ekta Kapoor \u2013 affectionately known as India\u2019s <\/span>George RR Martin<\/span><\/a> \u2013 has built around <\/span>Naagin<\/span><\/i>. Rowling will no longer need to pull out <\/span>20-year-old<\/span><\/a> plot twists and resort to convoluted, last-minute reveals like she does in <\/span>The Crimes of Grindelwald<\/span><\/i>. Who needs an Obscurial like the hapless Credence Barebone, when you have the all-powerful and easily stolen Naagmani? Why watch Newt Scamander and Co. faffing around with side quests and an impending fascist war, when we can watch Shivanya go straight for the jugular, single-mindedly pursuing her parents\u2019 killer?<\/span>\n\nBesides, no one could accuse Rowling of fetishising Asians with a character that, back on Indian TV, infiltrates a man\u2019s house and marries him for revenge, only to lose all her powers as soon as she has sex with him. Because Naagins can only maintain their supernatural shapeshifting as long as they are <\/span>virgins<\/span><\/a>, Nagini would simply have to be celibate forever. Problem solved.<\/span>\n\nNaagin<\/span><\/i> also has its own touching, Severus Snapesque scene, wherein Shivanya dies and spurs her daughter on the exact same revenge mission she was on, for one whole season more. For an author who likes to turn every stray detail of her books into its own Hollywood spin-off, the ability of a Hindi <\/span>serial<\/span><\/a> to endlessly replicate itself for thousands of seasons without changing a single soundtrack, is a dream come true.<\/span>\n\nIf Rowling wants to prove to her fans that she\u2019s serious about introducing them to the real Nagini \u2013 and is serious about appealing to Asian fans \u2013 it\u2019s not too late. As for the casting of Claudia Kim? Nagini can always come back as Mouni Roy in the next movie. Rowling will just need to write in a Hindi-serial-patented <\/span>plastic<\/span><\/a> surgery.<\/span>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald releases, we finally see the much-hyped Nagini \u2013 and she is underwhelming. Should just have asked us, JK Rowling, we\u2019re the experts in poorly CGI\u2019d shape-shifting snakes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":208,"featured_media":3403,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[82],"tags":[6524,6525,1070,1071,309,724,666,1813,6526,1881,6527,1074],"class_list":["post-3402","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pop-culture","tag-claudia-kim","tag-crimes-of-grindelwald","tag-eddie-redmayne","tag-fantastic-beasts-and-where-to-find-them","tag-game-of-thrones","tag-george-rr-martin","tag-jk-rowling","tag-johnny-depp","tag-mouni-roy","tag-naagin","tag-nagini","tag-newt-scamander"],"yoast_head":"\nWhat JK Rowling\u2019s Fantastic Beasts Can Learn From Our Ichhadhari Naagins<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"As Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald releases, we finally see the much-hyped Nagini \u2013 and she is underwhelming. 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