The Joyful Absurdity of ‘Caminho das Índias’
Indians are rediscovering a 2009 Brazilian telenovela about them — and loving it. Why does it still hit across borders?
The title sequence opens with the Taj Mahal, women in golden saris dancing kathak, and statues of Nataraja, Ganesh, and Buddha. Turbanned men are meditating, dhols are flying, and rose petals are falling from the sky, all while Sunidhi Chauhan’s “Beedi Jalaile” is playing in the background. No, reader, this isn’t an Indian TV serial. This show is from a country over 8,000 miles away: Brazil.
The concept of Caminho das Índias is wonderfully absurd. The cast looks Indian. The music is Indian. The setting — Rajasthan — is Indian. Only the language gives it away: Portuguese. The show, over 200 episodes that aired six nights a week in 2009, centers a love triangle with ample twists and turns, including family betrayals, fake deaths, an exploration of caste, and more. Yet, for most of its life, not a single Indian knew it existed. That changed recently, when the show went viral online in India. But why did Brazilians make it in the first place, and why does it still hit so hard across borders? The answers turn out to have something to do with two countries that have more history and more in common than either might expect.