We must concede that the aesthetic of the Ambani wedding invite is who we are now.
There is no point critiquing it from an artistic perspective or calling it kitschy or distasteful. Our tastes do not define Indian sensitivities any more. Theirs do.
Indeed, to put it in more left-liberal-friendly language, the masses have control of art and have redefined beauty, wresting it from the sweaty hands of the disapproving savarna doorkeepers who guarded these zealously for millennia, dictating to everyone else what is and is not good art, and what constitutes beauty. Even though the Ambanis are far from the proletariat today, their roots lie there, and their tastes reflect those of the poorest, most dispossessed people who were always afraid to express themselves for fear of being judged as downmarket and unsophisticated by the high priests of art and fashion, the privileged savarnas like us. With the Ambanis, no doubt due to their status and wealth, displaying their aesthetic sensibilities openly and without shame or fear, the masses would find new courage to reject the highbrow keepers of taste and openly rebel against their dictates now. Much to the consternation of people like us.
We better get used to it. Because the faster we get on with the program, the less painful it will be for us. If anything, those of us who are truly with the oppressed must rejoice that this is where we find ourselves.
Long live the Ambanis. Long live the revolution. Inquilab zindabad!
P.S.: Since you read this far, do read this too.
