AMERICAN DESI


saw this humorous film - American (Born Confused) Desi recently. a
review here. (sorry if u had already seen it and sorry of course, for
forcing u read some crap)

the film tells the story of how second generation indian students in
american univs lead their lives. main characters were the lead pair of
kris-nina, kris's friend salim who falls for farah, a muslim indian
student, there's this chubby bubbly sardar, jagjit, who wants 2 b an
artist but is compelled by his dad 2 do engineering and there's this
other fun guy Ajay. these 4 guys (kris, jagjit, salim & ajay) live
together. of course as in any desi film, there is a villain student who
tries wooing nina and gets all beaten up in the climax.

there's this indian lecturer who takes class for these 4. in the intro
scene, the way in which he repeatedly asks for 'rubber', intending 2 get
an eraser was so funny. but the banal fly-open-students-laugh scene cuda
been avoided. another scene where he gets drunk and does all sortsa
nonsense is hilarious too. just cudn't stop laughing thru' out the film.

kris has a major identity crisis. he identifies with everything american
and hates everything indian. nina, just the opposite. naturally the
poles attract, but whenever nina tries 2 b close 2 kris, some event or
other messes their relationship up. there's this proposal of seeing 3
hindi movies (aradhana, sangam & tere mera sapne) at a stretch. kris
gets so vexed up seeing these that at one point of time, he blurts out
"i've seen porno films with a much better story line than that!". and
there's this scene of the guys calling nina up for a home-cooked dinner.
they try hard 2 cook the dinner and end up messing the whole house,
throwing at each other whatever they had 'cooked' till then. kris, who
doesn't know/like anything indian, learns dandya/bhangra, does other
such things & tries hard 2 please nina.

the climax is an indian association function where all the
students/parents meet. jagjit uses all his artistic vigor in designing
the sets & other arrangements for the function. the entrance designed as
a ganesha and the godess durga over a lion with all her hands flying
were real good but the writing up of 'om' in every light bulb makes it
too much 'indian'ness. finally, its a sweet end, the pairs pairing up
and jagjit's dad complimenting his son (he asks jagjit, 'putra, what did
u use for durga matha's hands - pulley system or a gear system?' for
which jagjit promptly replies 'gears, dad')

there'll of course b reruns (star movies). c it if u haven't yet

btw, there's 'Leela', starring (still) charming dimple kapadia. tonite
at 8 in zee. the film made ripples coz of its story line, young college
guy - middle aged woman relationship (similar 2 her 'dil chahta hai'
role). hope the film doesn't disappoint



(Feb 27, 2003)