“Americanizing Shelley”

“When circumstances throw an American country boy and a Himalayan village belle together, the ‘apple pie’ gets a smattering of ‘masala,’ only to prove that ‘You Can’t Curry Love!'”

That’s from the official synopsis of a film called Americanizing Shelley that’s being released this weekend. It’s a production of something called American Pride Films, and stars Namrata Singh Gujral. It had its premiere at the Nashville Film Festival (wonderfully known as NAFF) a couple of weeks ago. Here’s the trailer:

In the video post here, Michelle Malkin endorses the film, describing a scene that is “highly unpopular in HollyWeird” and says that “for once, it will be worth shelling out the big bucks… to support a movie that supports America.” According to this website, the film is “riling the hate-America brigade.” It interviews Singh Gujral, who says she’s “not a political person,” although as Vinod noted here two years ago, she’s certainly been, er, honored in a political setting. As for the early reviews, the LA Weekly calls the film “minor but sweet,” while the Washington Post dismisses it for “embarrassingly low-rent production values.” Finally, although the film appears made for the mainstream U.S. commercial market, Variety opines that “screenwriter and star Namrata Singh Gujral will probably find her most appreciative aud among young Indian moviegoers who want something outside the arthouse.” Your thoughts?

111 thoughts on ““Americanizing Shelley”

  1. I cannot believe in 99 comments above almost no one had seen the film but were reviewing a trailer with such sharp opinions.

    I think our dear T-Hype said she HAD seen it. Twice.

  2. Michelle Malkin loves a film about how Asian women should play into the Orientalist stereotype and dump the misogynist, small-dicked Asian men for virile, masculine, cultured, sensitive white dudes?

    Wow, this is incredibly hard for me to believe…

  3. Shallow Thinker’s post (#42) speak volumes. It “Shelley” really does perpetuate (or the potential to further) the stereotype of the white male dream husband. Plus, not to mention, the other stereotype of the fear of lusting for or getting physical affection from black men. In fact, I’m surprised that Ronreaco Lee (the black actor) isn’t stereotyped with bling. Usually, if a black male character is in a east-meets-west movie and plays the “white guy’s best friend,” it’s usually boils down to three situations:

    a). He’s pushed in the background, has no life at all except to live vicariously through his white friend, thus making him more alluring to the international hottie du jour.

    b). He’s pushed in the background, as a paper tiger gigolo–always giving advice about women or talking about past sexcapades with women, but yet you never see him with a woman. Like a modern-day Isaac the waiter from “The Love Boat.”

    Or… c). He’s portrayed as the gay black friend living vicariously through his buddy (see ‘a’ and ‘b’), except this time he’s the white guy’s “queer eye” to help him understand the opposite sex and later capture his exotic love interest.

    From what I heard about “The Pelican Brief”, I thought Denzel voluntarily wanted the supposed “love scene” between his character and Julia Roberts’ character cut out of the film, so as to not upset his huge black female fan base.

    If it’s playing in the Atlanta area, I might give it a chance. It’s no “English Patient” but it’s no “Soul Plane” either.

  4. Looks better than bend it like beckham

    “Pappa I want to play football”

    The only thing that made me laugh in the movie was the gay kid. “Your indian” lol, I cracked up at that. Stupid kid didnt know about hijrahs in india I guess.

  5. looks like another cross over movie to me…but yeah the actress is banging :D. It’ll prolly be worth a donwload 😉

  6. “Nayomi Cooper” is she the same as Namrata Singh? The web site lists both of them…the height of PR spinning.

  7. Hey guys, I saw the movie – must say very entertaining!! C’mon, you guys, get a life! Stop wasting your time writing s*** ! go watch the movie and get a laugh!!! Seems like theres one person who keeps logging on to post negative comments.. Perhaps some jealous indian actress who couldnt do big brother????? or is it some c grade horror movie director with a personal vendetta?????? Bye for now, I got stuff to do, unlike some of you 😉 (that was funny – for those who need to buy some sense of humor)

  8. This is in response to shallowthinkers comment -“please give a name of a leading actress in hollywood that was shown to be with a man of color and displayed physical contact on screen”. The movie ‘Love Field’ had Michelle Pfeiffer and Denzel Washington making out.

  9. Oh, MY GOD. I just watched the first half of this movie (don’t ask, friday evening plans got cancelled) and I cannot find words to express my…umm….nausea..Who is this woman who cannot pronounce the name Shalini? The College of Cooking and Cleaning in Himalayas, India? She wants an Indian curry?? And that’s just the factual inaccuracies. Never mind the fact that this movie is insulting to Americans, Indians and everyone in between, that it has an assimilationist agenda that it basically wears on its sleeve, that it panders to EVERY stereotype out there, even ones that don’t really exist, from the blonde cheerleader bimbette to the nerd (who apparently can land a job in LA by walking into the ‘celebrity manager’s’ office) to the sikh boy playing with the goats (WHY are there sikhs living in what looks like a nomadic tribe and mud huts in the himalayas, y’all?) God, this movie freaked me out on so many levels. I thought making simplistic assumptions about other cultures went out with the Indiana Jones movies (although that’s back from the dead as well, so maybe its a trend) Hi, Namrata Singh Gujral…this is 1932 calling, we’d like our limited world view back. Oh, and you’re an idiot.

  10. LOVED THIS FILM…FUNNY, FUNNY, FUNNY. no idea what film nan watched but we thought this was a real funny film and a great comedy. well worth a watch and highly recommended. namrata singh gujral is gorgeous and charismatic. and btw, we love indiana jones too…so maybe just different tastes?

  11. i’m so sick of the ‘non indian/non arab girls are so great’. rang de basanti, american blend, lagaan, and alot of other shit has desi boys with gori rundis….and so many desi boys r obsessed with white girls, latino girls, and black girls, but this is seen as a -ok. and so many cheer on the goris who sneak into bollywood films for god only knows what reason! but desi girls who revolt and do the same r seen as oh my god it’s so wrong. this picture is completely f..cked up.