Monday, April 16, 2007

A Movie And A Show

I watched a good movie over the weekend. It's Namastey London. On one side you can say as per the movie all young British desis are club going vodka-sipping dancers who are in love with white people that are secretly racist and unfaithful lovers.

On the other hand, you can say the movie depicts the life of one young spoilt desi girl who is a coconut - brown on the outside but white all the way through - whose troubled Indian father decides the best way to control his daughter would be to take her to India on the pretext of a vacation - and get her married off by force to an Indian guy from Punjab. What follows that idea is the crux of the movie.

The movie is a complete entertainer and works without going into exaggerations that Hindi movies are prone to take. Akshay Kumar wants to win the love of his wife but you don't see any of the cliche scenes where a group of thugs will try to harass Katrina Kaif and he has to fight ten men with bare hands. Speaking of Kaif she looks like a million bucks and her Anglo-Indian accent is very believable.

Lot of other issues (racism/generation gap/fobbiness) were raised in the movie, but what I took back after it ended was the song 'Viraaniya'. It was such a melodious tune!

Speaking of acting and Indian, we had our Boisakhi (Bengali new year) party on the weekend. It was mostly composed of our friends and families (Bangladeshis) who had moved to Canada from the Middle East. One of the skits involved a reporter for BTV interviewing Sachin Tendulkar after India lost to Bangladesh in the World Cup. And of course Tendulkar was played by yours truly *cough*

It was a blast, as the reporter asked him why India lost and 'Tendulkar' replied (in that high pitched voice), "Well we were busy doing ads the night before the game - you know important stuff." And then 'he' starts touting Nirma - the washing detergent - during the interview.



I could not but help think if you are a kid born and brought up here whose parents took them to such Bengali functions and other cultural and religious events, maybe you won't feel so out of touch with your brown-ness when the time comes to get married.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

I haven't seen the movie but I have heard that they are making a sequal called "Salam Toronoto" in which a desi Bengali guy from Toronto goes to Dacca to get married and all the drama that ensures before and after. Hmmm, a Bengali in Toronto, now where have I heard that before?

Anonymous said...

Hehehehe@saqi namah,do they want an audience too??? :)
Btw,have you read this?

http://news.google.ca/news?q=richard+gere+kisses+shilpa+shetty&hl=en&um=1&sa=X&oi=news&ct=title

sf

The Bengali Fob said...

I usually don't like Akshay Kumar movies... but I just might check it out since you recommended it! As for the Sachin Tendulkar thing, I would like you to record yourself for us. (an audio version!) Let's hear how good your potrayal of him was. :P

Anonymous said...

"maybe you won't feel so out of touch with your brown-ness when the time comes to get married."

heh? what's that supposed to mean? i don't understand. people push all sorts of ideas about arranged marriage under the category 'brown-ness' - are we supposed to automatically feel 'in-touch' with all of them? i think Aisha's fantastic post on desi marriage highlighted the issues very clearly: different people have different sets of issues but issues there are.

my parents took me to all sorts of 'functions' when i was a kid but that didn't mean that i accepted their ideas about marriage. was that down to not being 'brown' enough? i don't think so - though some people did try to paint it that way - luckily not to my face as they would have had me to deal with.

mezba said...

Saqi: haha... I know at least three Bengali bloggers in Canada who can fit your criteria !

Sf: my goodness is there anything not offensive to muslims/hindus in Pakistan/India?

Bfob: Let me know what you think.

Sonia: brown-ness = desi culture = some desi ideals about marriage. obviously individual cases differ.

Anonymous said...

I can't imagine a guy hangin around in the masajid and multiplex! too bad bro:(

mezba said...

It's actually easy to do that imagination. A guy goes into a mosque. And then he goes to a movie shop and rents a DVD. As simple as that.

Anonymous said...

haha you make a good Tendulkar. Bahhh why is everything during finals? Or better yet, why do we always have exams and assignments? :(

You guys look like you put up a good show and had a lot of fun doing it :).

- SH

Anonymous said...

mezba, *smiling*, whatever. But don't waste your time watching movies. It's like wasting your money on haram stuff, when you could be using it in charity or buying Islamic books. And yea, wasting time!

mezba said...

SH: It was a lot of fun - and it was actually one of the few times desi parents were coaxing their kids not to study for exams but have some fun!

Anon: What would be wasting my time is responding to crap comments like yours - someone who doesn't have the guts to comment under his or her real name but feels religious enough to pass fatwas around - you go spend your money on charity or "Islamic" books, I will spend my money as I fit - that's one of the benefits of living under a democracy you see. Go on, move over, nothing to see here now for you.

The Bengali Fob said...

you said let me know what you think. Did you actually put up a link? Where?!?!

mezba said...

Bfob: I am sorry, think what?