The Discourse Analysis

of the film The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

The 21th century is the age of globalization, mediatization, technologisation,
digitalization, multiculturalism and intercultural communication. It is possible to say that all
these phenomena exist in continuous interaction and interrelation, forming the discourse of the
21th century. The discourse of the 21th century is a quite complex, ambiguous and miscellaneous
entity. Despite the new possibilities sprung up by media and technologies, the modern world is
still full of perplexing problems, unanswered questions and untried areas.
Cinema has always been an eloquent and credible reflection of the society and its internal
processes. One of the best films that covers a large spectrum of the present-day issues of our
times is The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, directed by John Madden in 2011. The movie of the
English director addresses such important aspects as the inner drama of the elderly and the
attitude of the middle-aged to people who are retired or reaching retirement age, the place of
woman in social environment and in patriarchal society, the loss of the loved one and the afterexistence of those left behind, the challenge for non-digital natives coping with digital
advancement, the indifference of impersonal call centres, the parental love and their ambition to
control childrens lives, Eastern and Western world views, racism, cross-cultural differences and
intercultural communication.
The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel is a perfect representation of the clash of generations,
civilizations and values. At the same time the film is unique owing to its characters the retired
and those who are on the brink of retirement are a major focus of interest. Seven English seniors
experience a kind of turning point in their lives, wherefore they (as if) coincidentally arrive in
India, in a resort for the elderly and beautiful in Jaipur, cherishing a hope to change their
prosaic being and turn over a new leaf.
Recently widowed housewife Evelyn, who had never done something on her own without
her husband, must sell all her premises to wipe off the huge debts of her husband. Evelyn is a
modest, soft hearted and sensitive woman, what can be inferred from the manner she
communicates with a call service executive. Being a digital immigrant, she awaits piety from
the employee and empathy regarding the death of her husband, but her assumptions proved to be
wrong and she receives unsympathetic treatment. This situation supremely well illustrates the
contemporary attitude to elderly people in society.
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The High Court judge Graham retires and finally decides to go to the land he spent some
young years in. He wishes he could have found in India his former lover and get off his own
chest. He appears to be a well-educated intellectual, who is used to comprehend, think and speak
in rhetorical juristic terms and Latin due to his vocation. However, it seems like he is mentally
ruffled. His This is the time! is a declaration of freedom he had been waiting so long for. The
declaration of freedom that he intends to celebrate in the country of freedom. Though to the
rest lawyers who are present at the retirement party this exclamation indicates nothing but the
gladness of the old judge concerning the fact of his retirement, to Graham it means much more
he has matured to resolve, get quit of the worries that have been torturing him the whole his life
and go to his second homeland.
The married couple (Jean and Douglas), where the wife plays a dominant role and
Douglas is none other than a henpecked husband, having invested practically all savings in the
start-up of their daughter, are ought to seek an abode they can afford. According to the
discourse of Jean, it is possible to say that she had always been hoping for another, a better kind
of life. All her discontent she takes out on her husband, variously manipulating him When I
want your opinion, Ill give it to you. Arrogance and grandiloquence, that most probably are the
results of working in the civil service, hinder her to see positive things and be thankful for small
mercies. In comparison to his wife, Douglas is a goodhearted man, who stutters, when arguing
with Jean and who is used to live a life as a man of good morals, playing golf with his friends at
the week-end and being kind and loyal to everybody.
The conservative retired housekeeper Muriel represents old-fashioned British fuddy
with a typical colonial point of view: she is ready to be served only by English people, she
finds Afro-Americans and Indians dirty physically and morally, her language is formal enough
and her tone is didactic that is rooted in her preceding employment as housemistress. Muriel
needs a hip replacement, and in spite of her xenophobia heads off to India, where she can get
inexpensive and quick operation. The airy Madge is still in pursuit of another husband, while old
playboy Norman, suffering from loneliness, still in chase of one-night stands.
Each of the characters comes to India with its own baggage, with its own background
that he or she had amassed over the years. Referring to the schema theory, it is possible to state
that everyone arrives to Jaipur with its own world schema, namely, with definite mental
representations of norms, standards and values. Having found themselves in completely
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unfamiliar environment, major characters understand that this picturesque Indian world is far
from being something they are accustomed to, and thereby they gradually leave their comfort
zone.
Interpreting The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, it is of special interest to analyse, how the
schemata of main characters interplay and develop during their sojourn in the resort hotel. As a
matter of fact, using the terminology of Cross-cultural Communication, it can be ascertained that
all the characters, while abiding in India, undergo a sort of culture shock. It consists of four
distinct phases: Honeymoon, Frustration, Adjustment and Mastery. Culture shock is the way
people interact with the reality, visiting new countries and getting acquainted with foreigners and
another type of life. Culture shock is also something that prompts humans to change, what
happens to the main characters of The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.
Evelyn, from a humble housewife turns into a strong and independent woman, not having
presupposed she is able to face all the difficulties by herself. All the changes that are happening
to her and her cohabitees, she diarises in her weblog one of the best ways how to cope with a
new paradigm of life from a standpoint of psychology and anthropology. She is one of those,
who gradually adapts to the world of heat, motion, colours and bustle. Old habits die easier
than we think and new ones form. Douglas, just as Evelyn, is ready and endeavours to learn and
experience India through his own eyes constantly going out into the city, he forms more or less
objective image of India. However, Jean, pretty annoyed and totally stressed because of the
uncleanness and stink of India, appeared not to be able to adjust herself to the new
environment. She had concrete presuppositions and prejudices about India already before the
arrival, which probably, came about from books and media. Jeans stereotypes were far from
being good and because of her negative attitude to everything, she did not even manage to try
to perceive and understand India with all its traditions she just stuck almost the whole time in
the hotel. Her culture shock ended at the phase of Frustration - she left the country. Muriel, who
initially called the resort and the whole situation she was in a living Hell, having got acquainted
with a real Indian (untouchable) woman, opens her heart. Although at the beginning of the stay
in the resort Muriel thinks in certain stereotypes and prejudices about non-English people, closer
to the end of the story she begins penetrating into Indian culture and appreciating its moral
standards. The only one, who was keenly aware of the Indian norms, common rules, culture and
mind-set, in other words, who could understand and interpret the presuppositions inherent to
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mind of both Indians and Brits was Graham - he had been living some time in India and therefore
did not have any troubles dealing with the local population.
The film is full of hidden subtexts, hints, implicatures, ambiguous situations, indirect
expressions, stereotypes and presuppositions. There are British and Indian cultures that is
possible to contradistinguish in the story. The British culture manifests itself in a rather indirect,
hinting way of communication (however, not so dreamlike and metaphorical like Sonny) and
irony. For example, asking for the access to the computer (to check the drafts of Sonny), Muriel:
-Do you know how to work a computer? I would like to buy some biscuits. I was said that I can
get them on the line? When Jean boastfully tells how she plans to celebrate her 40 th wedding
anniversary, Madge gives a quite satirical comment: Perhaps a minute of silence Inviting
Evelyn to the date, Douglas is also indirect: -What time do you finish? -I get back at 5.
-Teatime. -Yes. -How do you take it? -With milk.
The Indian world in the film The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel is represented through the
ambitious and enthusiastic young manager of the resort Sonny Kapoor, his mother and his
girlfriend Sunaina. It must be noted that Sonnys discourse deeply differs from the one of the
English travellers. With his ambiguousness and indecisiveness the manager of the resort Sonny is
one, who makes the schemata of the main characters change. Compared to the rather blunt
communication of the British tourists, Sonny is prone to paint in bright colours everything he
speaks about and to express himself metaphorically (for example, on the website and brochure
the Marigold Hotel is photoshopped and appears in all luxury and elegance Sonny explains this
as just his vision of the future; he tries to assure Madge, when she puts in doubt the liveability
of the hotel, that it will continue to stand in 100% shipshape condition very long time; he calls
his resort The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, for the elderly and beautiful; to Evelyn, when
she counselled him how to treat Sunaina: stop drilling. You have struck oil, madam!). It is
possible to draw conclusion that Sonny is nothing but an irresponsible dreamer, who tries to
escape from reality, seeing the world through the rose-coloured spectacles and communicating in
an indirect way. He also cannot tell directly his own girlfriend Sunaina that he loves her, and
cannot approve, whom he wants to marry. It is Sonny, with whom are associated most humorous
moments of the story. Because of his indirectness and desire to colour the truth, Sonny gets into
funny situations. Conventional and conversational implicatures are of special interest the
discourse of Sonny creates a comedic aspect of the film. For example, when Jean is about to
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leave the hotel and asks to refund her money, Sonny gives at first a peremptory answer and then
skates around the details: -Absolutely no problem. Ill refund you completely. -Now? Most
definitely. Straightaway in three months. Trying to convince the funder to invest money into
the restoration of the hotel, he uses metaphors and understatements with a small injection this
glorious hotel can rise like a phoenix. I mean small in the sense of medium-sized possibly
larger. Im not detailed. During the supper Sonny calls the dish Welcome British roast. One of
the English guests asks: -Roast what? Sonny again answers metaphorically: A wonderful taste
of Blighty. Then follows the same question and Sonny at last tells a salient fact - Roast goat
curry.
Sonnys girlfriend comes from a quite well-to-do family. She graduated from university,
looks like a young business lady and works at the call centre of her own brother. As she states,
she belongs to a modern youth, who achieves everything on its own. In contrast to Sonny, she
speaks in a director way, her discourse is closer to those of the English retirees. Though she
realises that Sonny is not a matchable one (you cant afford me), she believes in him with
her whole heart. Sonnys mother appears to hold all the aces everywhere. She speaks in an
autocratical tone, takes a decision on selling the resort and is fully against the marriage of Sonny
and Sunaina. Sonnys mother has her own opinion and position on everything. When she sees
Sunaina in the room of Madge, it is her schemata regarding the norms of the Westerns, her
stereotype about Europeans (Brits), what comes to the fore.
The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel belongs to the movies (for example, on an equal basis
with Coming to America, Dschungelkind and One Day in Europe), in which cross-cultural
aspect plays one of the central role. The differences between European (British) and Asian
(Indian) culture run like a scarlet thread through the whole storyline and fill the film thereby with
a peculiar meaning. For example, sitting in an Indian bus it is the sense of space and the distance
orientation (proxemics) what is manifested: the English retirees are concerned about little space
in the bus, while the Indian proverb says that the first rule of India is Theres always room!.
When the doors for the Brits are essential element of the private space, the Indians are likely to
enjoy the freedom to roam, what appears in the dialogue between Madge and Sonny
concerning the absence of the door in her eventual room. India belongs to collectivistic cultures,
while English is rather individualistic. Visiting the maids home and being introduced to her
family, Muriel feels uncomfortable, while the maid wants just to thank the retired housekeeper
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for her kindness. When Jean complains to Sonny about the bad condition of the hotel, showing
him the brochure, in which the resort looks great, she deals with the long-term orientation of
Indians. They believe that everything will be alright in the end, trying to stress positive aspects
and treating disasters just the same as triumphs.
Those, who have to some extent integrated themselves into Indian culture and reality, and
who have understood these Indian values Evelyn, Douglas and Muriel cease to perceive India
as a foreign entity. The film ends with the monologue of Evelyn, wherefrom it is possible to draw
a conclusion that her life has taken on new significance - Everything will be all right in the
end. So if it is not all right, it is not yet the end. The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel gave a strong
impulse to the main characters to do life review and learned them to be spiritual opened. A
completely new milieu India - opened them up to new possibilities and total transformation.
The movie has showed us that the magic can happen, and that all, what is needed, is patience, an
open mind, an open heart and courage, as courage is the power to let go of the familiar1.

1 A quote of Raymond Linquist, an American clergyman and thinker

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