One Week, Seven Movies & Indian Characters
“I feel most uncomfortable, when I start to feel comfortable" said one of the managers in my office some day. I don't know whom he was quoting, but I found it interesting enough to memorize it. Anyways, it was the great suburban Chicago summer of 2005, when I started feeling comfortable in above sense and had to find something which will keep me busy for at least a week after my office hours are over. Watching movies on DVD was never a bad idea, especially when it's for free. Likelihood of, me watching Hollywood/American movies back home is very less, as my country produces largest number of movies each year in the whole world and I don't find time enough to even watch just 2% of them per year. So I was kind of geared up for movies on DVD week.
I borrowed five movie DVDs from the community library; of course five was the maximum limit, each was issued for a week. I was not looking for any specific movie, so I had to pick and choose from whatever was available on the shelf. So the list goes this way. The very first I picked up was “The Terminal”. I had never heard of the name but saw director's name on the cover and it read “Steven Spielberg”. So, I thought let's give it a try, above all Steve has been 'The Directore~' since ‘Jaws’ and he made millions of new international fans with “Jurassic Park” series.
Next movie which I picked up was "Harold and Kumar go to white castle". But this was not an unheard name for me. One of my American associates in my office told me once that it is the most raw comedy movie he has seen ever, I had no option but to grab that up. Next in line was "The English Patient". Of course it rang some kind of bell and I could figure out that this was some kind of best picture at Oscars for some year. The note on the DVD cover confirmed it. Next two movies that I grabbed were both Ben Stiller starred flicks. First was "Along Came Polly" and second was "Starsky and Hutch". I barely knew anything about Stiller until I watched "Meet the Fockers" in the flight from Paris to Chicago.
So I had these five DVDs with me on Monday evening. I started with "Startsky & Hutch" on Monday. I'd like to quote the scene from the movie , where Snoop Dog is inside a ‘Godfather’ like den and an Indian Shopkeeper comes to him for some kind of underworld protection and Snoopy assures him of that and at the same time other bad guys in the Den were trying to mock Indian accent of this frightened shopkeeper. I said to myself, wow there's an Indian in this movie.
Tuesday was the day for "The English Patient". It was a long tiring movie with a very sad ending. This movie also had a Sikh character named Kip. The character was some kind of bomb disposal expert in British reign beautifully played by Naveen Andrews and his role was one of the vital roles in the movie. Come Wednesday and I watched "The Terminal" starring Tom Hanks. There was a character in this movie with the name Gupta Rajan. This guy plays a substantial role in the movie and wins hearts of everyone by stopping the plane on runway in a heroic act to help Hanks so that he can do, what he intended to do. His last act in the move really touched heart.
I was overwhelmed with the sentimental stuff till now and it was the time for Comedy and believe me "Harold and Kumar go to white castle” was not a disappointment by any means. It is amongst the most hilarious comedy I’ve seen ever. The 'hero' Kumar plays an ABCD lad in the movie and is just superb. Last but not the least was Friday's "Along came Polly". I t doesn't had any significant Indian character there in the movie but it has an Indian restaurant where Aniston takes Stiller to have lunch (or may be dinner) and they meet Stiller’s parent in the restaurant. Definitely Indian restaurant was shown in the context that Indian food is spicy and stiller would throw out again as he had this weird Irresistible Bowel Syndrome, but I liked the act where Stiller's mom call an Indian waiter in the restaurant while imitating slow Indian accent “that native American guy” and Stiller replies to her that she can call him “Indian” and it is actually an Indian restaurant. So by now, you might have figured out what I am trying to say here. All these movies had Indian characters in them and it was mere coincidence because I just picked these movies at random except "Harold and Kumar ...' as the name Kumar explicitly indicates Indian character. So I was thinking wow or in Will Smith’s style ‘Woh Woh’, is it real or I just got lucky.. Americans can't make movies without an Indian character… Indian characters are so important for Hollywood movies….But my astonishment did not end here.
It was Saturday night, I had no movies to watch at home and therefore planned to go out to movie theatre for watching "Dukes of Hazzard" and by this time I was again expecting at least one Indian character in the movie but none showed up until last 20 minutes of the movie. There was a fat desi (Indian) guy with faked American accent who was playing campus cop in the movie. It was a very small appearance of his and was carrying no significance whatsoever and when I told my friend sitting beside me watching the movie that this guy looks like an Indian , he said “ Damn Right , he is and he is the director of the movie and name is Chandrasekhar , Jay Chandrasekhar” . I was in aw.
Sunday is a fun day, but was not for me that week. This was this bright Sunday noon and I had nothing to do but watch one more Hollywood movie in theatre and I decided for sweet "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory". There was an actor in the movie who played the role of 65 “Oompa Loompa” – Watch “C and TCF” for understanding the meaning of this darn word. His looks were definitely Indian. At the end of the movie, came to know that his name was Deep Roy and on further research found that he is from Kenya not India. But none the less must be of Indian origin. And, and …. There was one more character in the movie played by Nitin Ganatra ; the name of the Character was Prince Pondicherry.
This was all about the seven movies I watched in a week and all of them were having some Indian characters or Indian actors in them. It was definitely something not very usual or regular. I am not trying to point any kind of BJP's “India Shining” concept or increasing popularity of Indians in American movies. I just wanted to let others know about this was a wonderful coincidence which happened to me and I enjoyed all of these movies, especially pinch of Indian character in each of them made the each movie’s dish real tasty.
I borrowed five movie DVDs from the community library; of course five was the maximum limit, each was issued for a week. I was not looking for any specific movie, so I had to pick and choose from whatever was available on the shelf. So the list goes this way. The very first I picked up was “The Terminal”. I had never heard of the name but saw director's name on the cover and it read “Steven Spielberg”. So, I thought let's give it a try, above all Steve has been 'The Directore~' since ‘Jaws’ and he made millions of new international fans with “Jurassic Park” series.
Next movie which I picked up was "Harold and Kumar go to white castle". But this was not an unheard name for me. One of my American associates in my office told me once that it is the most raw comedy movie he has seen ever, I had no option but to grab that up. Next in line was "The English Patient". Of course it rang some kind of bell and I could figure out that this was some kind of best picture at Oscars for some year. The note on the DVD cover confirmed it. Next two movies that I grabbed were both Ben Stiller starred flicks. First was "Along Came Polly" and second was "Starsky and Hutch". I barely knew anything about Stiller until I watched "Meet the Fockers" in the flight from Paris to Chicago.
So I had these five DVDs with me on Monday evening. I started with "Startsky & Hutch" on Monday. I'd like to quote the scene from the movie , where Snoop Dog is inside a ‘Godfather’ like den and an Indian Shopkeeper comes to him for some kind of underworld protection and Snoopy assures him of that and at the same time other bad guys in the Den were trying to mock Indian accent of this frightened shopkeeper. I said to myself, wow there's an Indian in this movie.
Tuesday was the day for "The English Patient". It was a long tiring movie with a very sad ending. This movie also had a Sikh character named Kip. The character was some kind of bomb disposal expert in British reign beautifully played by Naveen Andrews and his role was one of the vital roles in the movie. Come Wednesday and I watched "The Terminal" starring Tom Hanks. There was a character in this movie with the name Gupta Rajan. This guy plays a substantial role in the movie and wins hearts of everyone by stopping the plane on runway in a heroic act to help Hanks so that he can do, what he intended to do. His last act in the move really touched heart.
I was overwhelmed with the sentimental stuff till now and it was the time for Comedy and believe me "Harold and Kumar go to white castle” was not a disappointment by any means. It is amongst the most hilarious comedy I’ve seen ever. The 'hero' Kumar plays an ABCD lad in the movie and is just superb. Last but not the least was Friday's "Along came Polly". I t doesn't had any significant Indian character there in the movie but it has an Indian restaurant where Aniston takes Stiller to have lunch (or may be dinner) and they meet Stiller’s parent in the restaurant. Definitely Indian restaurant was shown in the context that Indian food is spicy and stiller would throw out again as he had this weird Irresistible Bowel Syndrome, but I liked the act where Stiller's mom call an Indian waiter in the restaurant while imitating slow Indian accent “that native American guy” and Stiller replies to her that she can call him “Indian” and it is actually an Indian restaurant. So by now, you might have figured out what I am trying to say here. All these movies had Indian characters in them and it was mere coincidence because I just picked these movies at random except "Harold and Kumar ...' as the name Kumar explicitly indicates Indian character. So I was thinking wow or in Will Smith’s style ‘Woh Woh’, is it real or I just got lucky.. Americans can't make movies without an Indian character… Indian characters are so important for Hollywood movies….But my astonishment did not end here.
It was Saturday night, I had no movies to watch at home and therefore planned to go out to movie theatre for watching "Dukes of Hazzard" and by this time I was again expecting at least one Indian character in the movie but none showed up until last 20 minutes of the movie. There was a fat desi (Indian) guy with faked American accent who was playing campus cop in the movie. It was a very small appearance of his and was carrying no significance whatsoever and when I told my friend sitting beside me watching the movie that this guy looks like an Indian , he said “ Damn Right , he is and he is the director of the movie and name is Chandrasekhar , Jay Chandrasekhar” . I was in aw.
Sunday is a fun day, but was not for me that week. This was this bright Sunday noon and I had nothing to do but watch one more Hollywood movie in theatre and I decided for sweet "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory". There was an actor in the movie who played the role of 65 “Oompa Loompa” – Watch “C and TCF” for understanding the meaning of this darn word. His looks were definitely Indian. At the end of the movie, came to know that his name was Deep Roy and on further research found that he is from Kenya not India. But none the less must be of Indian origin. And, and …. There was one more character in the movie played by Nitin Ganatra ; the name of the Character was Prince Pondicherry.
This was all about the seven movies I watched in a week and all of them were having some Indian characters or Indian actors in them. It was definitely something not very usual or regular. I am not trying to point any kind of BJP's “India Shining” concept or increasing popularity of Indians in American movies. I just wanted to let others know about this was a wonderful coincidence which happened to me and I enjoyed all of these movies, especially pinch of Indian character in each of them made the each movie’s dish real tasty.
posted by Naveen at 9:59 PM
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