The Indecent History of Indecent Proposal (1993)
Tracing the Roots of the Story to 14th Century Sindh
INDEX
1. An Introduction to Indecent Proposal
2. Psychological and Moral Themes
3. The Sindhi Folktale
4. The Black Swan Archetype
5. Anti-fairytales and the Conclusion
The grasping, discreet, wonderful movie Indecent Proposal captured hearts with a simple storyline and beautiful filmmaking, and I always wondered, how a theme and idea so common, has not been narrated before until I stumbled across the work of an old folktale.
The movie claims to be based on Jack Engelhard’s novel Indecent Proposal (1988). Revolving around Joshua Cantor, a man burdened with financial difficulties, who worships money and billionaires, simply because they are rich, to the point that he pimps out his beautiful wife, Joan to Ibrahim for a night and for a million dollars.
Exploring psychology, human nature, good and evil, through this book, Jack was able to spur the question, “What would you do for a million dollars?”
To your surprise, this answer seems to have not changed, even over centuries…
Evolutionary psychology suggests that throughout history humans have possessed an innate drive for self-preservation and self-advancement. As time progresses, the idea of being productive as valuable has been immensely strengthened. Social comparison - people constantly measure themselves against others in a desire to be better and outperform them — forms the basis of self-image.
In Indecent Proposal (1993) David falls into ego depletion, aka he runs out of self-control, and acts out of selfishness - by giving away his wife, Diana for a night. The billionaire, John, who wants Diana, does so from a point of moral licensing, where his moral giving, is that he is helping a financially constrained couple, negating his amoral selfishness of adultery.
This story, so apt in socio-economic concepts, owes its roots to the land of Sindh, many, many hundreds of years ago.
Written by none other than the Sindhi Sufi mystic and poet, Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai. This is a Sindhi folktale dating back to the 14th century during the rule of Jam Chanesarr of the Samma Dynasty and is a story often retold in Persian and Sindhi. It is one of the 7 stories in Shah Jo Risalo, feuilletons of Sindh’s seven tragic romances and queens, a paragon of Sindhi folklore.
The story goes as follows…
In the ancient city of Deval Kot, in Sindh, Pakistan was a well-known ruler called Raja Chanesarr. His beautiful wife, Queen Lilan, was a lover of diamonds and jewelry and adored them endlessly.
In the ancient city of Deval Kot, in Sindh, Pakistan was a well-known ruler called Raja Chanesarr. His beautiful wife, Queen Lilan, was a lover of diamonds and jewelry and adored them endlessly.
On the other hand, in Kutchh in India, the ruler of Lakhpat, Rao Khengar (Rana Khangar), had a daughter who, too, was quite beautiful. Her name was Kaunru and she was deeply obsessed with her looks. The king and his wife had decided to get their only daughter engaged to her cousin, Utmadi.
One fine day, Kaunru's friend Jamni, who happened to be Utmadi's sister, made fun of Kaunru's behavior, teasing her that she was acting as if she was going to be the queen of Chanesar. This ruffled Kaunru's feathers and she confided in her mother that she would either have to marry Chanesar or end her life. Although her parents were concerned, they knew that Chanesar was already married and deeply loved his wife, Queen Lila.
After discussing the matter with her husband Mirkhi, Kaunru and Mirkhi disguised themselves as traders and traveled to Dewal. There, they sought the help of Jakhiro, the king's minister, and requested him to help them. Jakhiro promised that he would talk to Chanesar and convince him to marry Kaunru.
Jakhiro spoke to Chanesar about Kaunru, but the king was furious and refused to look in the direction of another woman or hear even a whisper about her. Quickly apologizing, Jakhiro delivered this unfortunate news to Mirkhi and her daughter, reminding them that it was futile to try. Determined nonetheless, the two women disguised themselves as maids and left for King Chanesar’s palace.
Lila took pity on them and hired them as personal servants and Kaunru's job was to arrange Chanesar's bed every day. However, Kaunru's tears while doing her job caught Lila's attention as she told her about her past luxurious life as a princess and the valuable necklace she owned, called the 'Naulakha Har' which literally translates to 'a necklace worth 9 Lakh Rupees (9,00,000).'
Lila, skeptical at first, asked to see the necklace. She fell in love with it at the first glance and offered to buy it. But the sly Kaunru agreed to give her the necklace for free but on one condition: as long as she got to spend one night with Chanesar. Lila was impatient to obtain the necklace and agreed to the condition. The King refuted this idea, but his dear wife was desperate. One night, she allowed Kaunru into her bedroom while Chanesar was heavily drunk.
The next morning, Chanesar was shocked to find Kaunru in his bed instead of Lila. Mirkhi, Kaunru's mother, told him that Lila had sold him to Kaunru in exchange for the 'Naulakha Har' and Chanesar immediately felt deeply saddened and humiliated and divorced Lila, only to marry Kaunru in the blink of an eye.
Lila tried to apologize and beg for forgiveness, but Chanesar refused to listen to her. He considered her preference for the necklace over him as an insult. Lila was heartbroken and went back to her parents, where she lived in misery and solitude. Her greed for a necklace cost her her husband and marriage.
The minister of Chanesar, Jakhiro, who was engaged to one of Lila's relatives, intervened and asked for Chanesar to attend his wedding. On the day of the wedding, Lila and the other girls welcomed Chanesar's party with singing and dancing, but Lila kept her face veiled.
Chanesar was fascinated by the voice of the girl whose face was covered and begged her to unveil it. When Lila finally removed her veil, Chanesar fell to the ground and died and his true love, Lila, upon seeing this, also died.
There exists a Farsi version of this story of Queen Leela penned by the poet and historian Idraki Beglariunder, in 1601.
Lilan Chanesarr and Chanesar Nameh are more culturally diverse and rich storytellings of the modern-day film Indecent Proposal (1993) starring the beautiful Demi Moore and Robert Redford. They dive further into understanding God, amorality, and sanctification than any new-age retelling would attempt to do.
The Black Swan Archetype and Lilan Chanesarr:
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