Coldplay's new music video shows India as the land of exotic clichés (yes, again)
All the boxes have been checked.
Sadhus, check. Holi, check. Ganja smoke, check.
In Mumbai, run-down cinema hall, black-and-yellow taxi, little boy dressed like a blue-skinned god, check check check.
This breathtaking work sees India with an entirely new gaze (see video above), without a hint of exotica. Not.
It is, however, going be watched around the world as the music video of Coldplay's Hymn for the Weekend, from its new album A Head Full of Dreams. And millions of people will get a confirmation of what they always suspected, that India is the land of fire-eaters, dilapidated mansions, saffron flags, bioscope machines, Hanuman masks, the list goes on.
A collaboration with Beyoncé, with a cameo by Sonam Kapoor, the video is a journey through Mumbai. Except it's not the Mumbai that people live in – it's a Mumbai as imagined by the Western gaze.
Oh, and did we mention the boats in saffron, white and green?
