Like that VW ad, NYC sometimes has moments of spooky synchronicity. Like the time two weeks ago when I hailed a cab to SoHo. The fellow who picked me up was an uncle crooning along to Hindi ghazals in the direction of his steering wheel. After crossing the Williamsburg Bridge, we passed a Sikh guy with a black pug and a cute Punjaban walking toward chic bar Mecca. A block later, a group of desi high school kids sounded their barbaric yawps over the sidewalks of the world. The louche lounge turned out all Arabic and Hindi tunes, Turkish lanterns and Bombay tones; ’twas hookahs and wine, you know the kind.
Similarly, both major movies released last weekend, Madagascar and The Longest Yard, had desi influences. In the animated film Madagascar, a major character speaks in a comical desi accent mouthed by Ali G. His Julian the lemur king is pompous and faintly ridiculous, though aside from the accent he’s funny in his own right. The sound isn’t exactly Sellers, but this movie confirms the cycle of immigrant visibility: first ignored, then laughed at, then accepted. (And finally The Man? Only in spelling bees.)
The hilarious thing is, American movie reviewers couldn’t place the accent. It was clearly a desi parody, though rounded off via the West Indies or just the fertile mind of Sacha Baron Cohen. Reviewers guessed all over the map: Eurotrash, Middle Eastern, Caribbean. Here’s what the director said:
We had this two-line character, Julian, and we got a tape of the show “Ali G” with Sacha Baron Cohen. He came in and he invented this Indian accent. We gave him a couple of lines and he turned them into eight minutes of dialogue. We were just in tears on the floor and thought, “This guy has to be the king.” So that was just a two-line part that he invented and it turned into that role.
This stereotypical crap is too denatured to be offensive, but it’s consistent enough to be tiresome. Leave Hank Azaria and Ali G to make money off the Peter Sellers gravy train. I’d love to see a weekend when two mainstream releases have desi romantic leads. Then the rest would be a lot more palatable.
i thought ali g’s accent worked. with the subtle influence of the west indies, it added to the whole island atmosphere the movie was trying to create. as an aside, believe me, m’car is that beautiful.
For years, African American actors couldn’t get those kinds of roles in Hollywood either. In the 80s, most of the roles available to black actors were comedic, and quite a few of them exploited racial stereotypes (think of Eddie Murphy…).
There was the occasional Sidney Poitier type of character. But Poitier was always presented as a “serious black actor who is going to teach us something important about race.” He didn’t have many roles where he was just acting. Very stiff, artificial, and ultimately, not so helpful to the African American image on screen.
It may be that desi actors will have to go through the same B.S. for some years before the other sorts of roles start to happen more consistently. Even then, we’re such a small minority that it will probably remain a bit rare.
(Even your boy Kal Penn did his time with the comedic Indian accent in that National Lampoon movie, Van Wilder.)
On a separate note, I don’t know what to make of Ali G. Just when his shtick starts to get predictable, he comes up with something hilarious, completely out of nowhere. I definitely caught myself laughing a few times while watching his HBO show a couple of years ago, though a big part of that was the sheer idiocy of his guests, not so much the “Me de gangsta, mon” shtick.
Indians are starting to make cultural waves in America and it will improve. Back in the 1970’s it was open season on Indians and Pakistanis in British society, on the television, in the newspapers, everywhere. Then things changed when people started kicking and making noise for themselves, especially the ones born here.
I think Sacha Baron Cohen is funny, but I am waiting for the Desi comedian who retaliates and does a good and hilarious impression of Uncle Solly from Golders Green, Jewish schmuck with his Yiddish spiel, would be funny, why not?
What a relief. I thought I was the only one who noticed the King of the Lemurs as having a distinctly desi accent. Although it certainly did slip into Carribean territory sometimes. Kept me guessing.
You left out the part about getting deported or beaten to death without adequate police investigation or substantial news coverage.
I too thought Desis in Hollywood (except Night and our man Kal) had never got beyond taxis and pizzas and grocery stores, then a few months ago I stumble on this superbly wacky film called SuperTroopers, and then the credits roll and it’s directed by a Jay Chandrasekhar. Man, we have another gem in our midst (okay, for fans of the National Lampoonesque brand of humour). His Club Dread wasnt great, but now he has ‘Dukes of Huzzard’ coming out this month. But how come we dont see this dude in the desi blogs much? (well, I was over in the Des till a while back, so it just might have missed it I guess.)
I salute Chandrasekhar and stoner flicks.
Where is this hookah lounge Mecca?
Lower East Side, SoHo and East Village in Manhattan: Kush lounge, Le Souk, take your pick.
Well, considering that the one character in Madagascar who happened to be desi also happened to be a king, it’s not so bad (and, c’mon, all the characters in the film are ridiculous). As for the other items…
I don’t really see a connection between Dalip Singh & Deep Roy and “desi-ness,” as both are fetished for their relative sizes and not much else. They fit the role because they looked the role and casting a desi as an Oompa Loompa is not the same as casting a desi as a cabbie…
When Attenborough made “Gandhi,” it didn’t piss me off that a Britisher was behind the whole thing, but it did rub me the wrong way that South Asians were listed after Edward Fox, Athol Fugard, John Gielgud and other whites in the original credits. That seemed like something worth protesting, but this…
I don’t know, it seems odd to pick on little things like this when Penn, Chadha, Rai, etc. do more to stereotype desis than anyone (but somehow still get props here). Why not get on them a little more, as they’re the ones that are reinforcing the bias rather than trying to change it.
Anyhow, if you want trip on a dwarves, check this: Ron Howard in talks to direct remake of ALBUTHA DWEEPU
Re: Ali G
What seems to have been lost along the way is that Ali G is basically satirising the way British born kids of S.Asian background have adopted West Indian slang and ‘rude boy’ behaviour.
As his name suggests he is a nice middleclass Jewish boy, he went to a fairly mediocre private school in leafy suburban outer London – Haberdashers’ & Askes’ – which is full of middleclass Jewish and S.Asian kids (proof is here), and went to Cambridge university (ditto!). I’m sure most of his material comes from these quite well-to-do nerdy kids trying to be cool by adopting rude boy slang/attitude/style of dress. In fact, they are everywhere in London and it is not restricted to a particular economic class.
What he’s doing is satirising the young men in all these various ethnic groups, who having realised they will forever be perceived as ‘uncool’ in main stream media/public, have embraced what they see is the style and attitude of the ‘cooler’ under-dogs.
Ali G is not making fun of a particular aspect of black culture, he’s making fun of S.Asian kids pretending to be ‘blackÂ’, and of course heÂ’s also making fun of the assumptions people make of each other according how the other is dressed and speaks and ‘acts’. He mocks all of us, thank goodness.
There is much much more to be discussed on this topic of young men from immigrant communities identifying with a stronger more accepted (yet still considered ‘dangerousÂ’ – and thus cool) community; and of course the irony of immersing themselves in the ‘cooler’ culture but not accepting the people who create that very culture in to their lives, but I will leave it to someone else.
If its an item in pop culture that relates to desis, chances are Sepia Mutiny has already covered it.
I also notice that when “desis” stereotype or make fun of desis, well that’s ok, but when non-desis do it, it’s not. Why?
To quote Run DMC,
“cuz its like that, and that’s the way it is! HUA!”
Well, it ain’t gonna be like that for long, yaar.
Ok to be more serious about it….I think most desis are very comfortable with being made fun of by nondesis who are well aware of desi culture, food, religion, politics, people, etc. Its just the the uneducated nondesis we worry about.
Most desis are educated about these things and most nondesis are not, but there are many exceptions both ways.
So I agree with you, ethnicity shouldn’t be one’s passport to making jokes against desis. Knowledge and benevolence should.