On our News tab, Haldiram writes:
Noureen DeWulf (of “Americanizing Shelley“) is featured in a new spoof of sports movies (a la ‘Not Another Teen Movie’) called “The Comebacks” – while she plays a football player (who wears part of her sari over her uniform in one shot??) her character’s name (why do people think confusing American Indians and South Asian Indians is funny?) and the other bizarre scenes in the preview do not make one optimistic. Time will tell if it’s another Harold & Kumar-like breakthrough – or just offensive.
In The Comebacks, Noureen plays Jizminder Featherfoot.
Wow.
There are so many things wrong with that character’s name, my head is paining. But it gets better– they don’t just mash up Native Americans with desis; one scene depicts faux athletes training…while Jizminder gyrates like a belly dancer, up on a platform.
Maybe I am getting anxious about further filmy humiliation for no reason. Over at WorstPreviews, they don’t even mention Noureen/Jizminder, despite her memorably madcap adventures on the field, during which she tackles someone while wearing her helmet AND a chunni!
Eh, what am I so upset about…East is all East, right? Aladdin, turbans, Ayatollahs, Jasmine, Ali Baba, Taj Mahal. I wonder, since we’re conflating everything, could we claim Esther as one of our own? I have always loved her. Persian, Indian…close enough. Now if you’ll excuse me, I must wrap up this post. I’m running late– I was supposed to bhangra outside my teepee, for no discernible reason, a full hour ago.
noureen dewulf is awesome. i met her at sundance and other LA events. she is awesome
Jacob and Darmendra are the same person. Shocking.
We ban for handle-switching on the same thread, especially if you’re attempting to game the discussion and make your own contentions seem more popular.
Perhaps the two people who left the last three comments didn’t realize it, but no one is slamming the actress or attacking her for anything– this post is about a movie. Not your friend. The movie.
I think the “jizmindeR” thing is gross as well.
Fathima, I don’t know if it’s a common experience, but I’ve been confused for Native (usually in less diverse parts of the U.S.), but strangely have not been confused for Latina, not even in Arizona. Strange.
do you have a latina look goin on?
puli, is this another one of your ‘types’?
never thought about it. just wondering why shes surprised no one thinks shes latina. that must mean she thinks she looks latina. curiosity….anyways, i like too many types to keep track of.
thinking about my ‘type’ might be detrimental to your mental health. ive got all sorts of freaky things going on in my mind.
don’t worry, i didn’t give it too much thought, puli 😉
Puli, a lot of desis and Latinos “pass” for one another in California. Part of this is, no doubt, because being Latino is not racial (i.e. you get all sorts of mixes of folks who might “look” Asian, white, Middle Eastern, desi, vaguely ethnic, etc., who are Latino). So I don’t think I look or don’t look Latino — I just look brown 🙂
In Arizona it was weird because, when I was there, there were three major ethnic/race groups — folks who were white, folks who were Latino, and folks who were Native… which meant that if you were anything else, you often got assigned to either the Latino or Native camp. I think it was weird that (where I lived when I lived there) desis were asked if they were Native more often than asked if they were Latino, that’s all.
i have some family in AZ. i saw crap loads of desi computer programmers walking around, mixed in with assorted h0t ponytailed bubbly blond university of arizona cheerleader types and a bunch of mexican migrant workers and the occasional redneck. not sure if i saw a lot of natives. i love az.
…dont we all….
Puli, there’s a much larger desi population now. When I was growing up it was practically non-existent. 🙂
u grew up in az? cool. my love of sunshine and mexican food makes AZ an ideal enviornment for puli.
Yeah, once when I was in LA with my family, the cashier at some tourist place asked my dad if he was Mexican. My father had the south Indian ‘stache going on then (I have since convinced him to get rid of it), and to me he just looks really really south Indian. Like this. That, coupled with the fact that we were a HAIRY desi family, made this really really amusing to me.
On topic? This looks sooo bad.
Oh and there was the time a missionary from Sweden tried to proselytize to me and my Filipina-Jewish friend in Spanish. That was funny. 🙂
would be sweet if you could respond in sweedish.
“Noureen DeWulf is the only desi who has EVER STARRED in an OSCAR winning film (West Bank Story).”
Ben Kingsley?
Farah and j/d,
none of that would necessarily make this movie any good–and if it is bad, the movie deserves to be panned. Even great actors can’t rescue terrible recognized-genre movies with terrible screenplays and indifferent acting from the rest of the cast. Remember, Ben Kingsley was in Bloodrayne and it was still a gigantic stinker.
RE : 68 · muralimannered
ok, agreed if the movie sucks you should pan it–but lets give our indian hollywood starlet ( Noureen DeWulf) some love…starring in an oscar winning film and getting on Maxim’s Hot 100 is pretty awesome for a first generation indian….remember she also starred in American Dreamz with Hugh Grant, Oceans 13 (although it was a small role) and West Bank Story (which won an oscar)…some links on DeWulf ;
MAXIM MAGAzINE: http://www.maximonline.com/girls_of_maxim/pictures_and_bio/1285/NoureenDeWulf.girl Maxim Magazine Hot 100: http://www.maximonline.com/slideshows/index.aspx?imgCollectId=190 IMDB: http://imdb.com/name/nm1715275/ Oceans 13 http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1809699091/photo/970430309 West Bank Story http://www.westbankstory.com
oh and here is the poster for the Comebacks which features DeWulf wearing a green sari ala Bend it like Bekham
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Thecomebacksmp.jpg
OR
http://www.foxatomic.com/comebacks
farah,
i understand that we should give her a chance.
but you shouldn’t assume that guys will be convinced by a juvenile, hormone-driven, panting, review from a lad-mag like Maxim. 😉
ok muralimannered, touche… what about the oscars? is that legitimate enough?
“Now if you’ll excuse me, I must wrap up this post. I’m running late— I was supposed to bhangra outside my teepee, for no discernible reason, a full hour ago.”
LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HILARIOUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Call me Captain Obvious, but it also appears that they are taking shots at Punjabi, Sikh names tainting them with derogatory Western slurs: (Jiz)minder: Jiz = the male reproductive fluid that Aristotle had so deeply loved.
Also is “Jizminder’s” character ridicule or satire?
Although if it were satire, I would imagine that the somnambulist, numb-fuck masses would take it as ridicule anyways.
Now if you will excuse me, I am not only late for my cab driving job, I am also late for my wife beating class, the curry is burning on the stove and I still need to tie my gigantic turban while practicing taking my thick, unattractive “Paki” accent to the moon when speaking.
Ooops, reading previous after my post I have just realized two things: 1. The jiz thing was already mentioned and 2. they are making fun of the bend it movie… my appologies. I have repressed my memories of that movie and now thanks to this they have resurfaced… god damn………… I should eaze off the bhang………
Except for Ben Kingsley.
1. Noureen DeWulf is the only desi who has EVER STARRED in an OSCAR winning film (West Bank Story), so cut her some slack
Except for Ben Kingsley.
Other examples are:
IS Johar in Lawrence of Arabia The whole Indian cast in Gandhi movie Victor Banerjee and others in Passage to India
There are probably more if one went with a fine comb and searched Oscar winning movies in all categories.
Satyajit Ray received an Oscar for lifetime achievement for his body of work…especially for his Apu Trilogy.
I was just reading this over and wanted to clarify…
She is half-brown (by way of Pakistan) and half-white so calling her Indian is simply incorrect, as is referring to her as desi (without mentioning that she is half white). Plus, I was browsing through older posts and there was one about an interview with her around the time that National Lampoon’s Pledge This! (starring Paris Hilton) came out, and she played the same sort of stereotypical ‘fobby’ Indian character (and basically insinuated that FOB=ignorant in the interview). sigh I feel for her; it’s hard to get good roles as a woman, let alone as a nonwhite woman. But no matter how good of an actress she apparently is in other films or how nice she is in person, I do not take kindly to people exploiting stereotypes of people who look like me for their work and then turning around and making fun of those same people who look like me. It seems pretty obvious to me that The Comebacks isn’t gonna have the subtle type of humor, where they make fun of the ignorant; rather, it will just continue that same brand of ignorant, and more importantly, UNFUNNY, humor. That said… I in no way expect Noureen Dewulf or this movie to ‘educate’ people–they go to the movies to be entertained, after all. But please, let’s not act like this movie is a huge step forward for us brown folk in America or like we should look up to this actress as a role model just cuz she’s out there and has some brown connection.
re: 78/nala
why on earth would you assume anyone thinks this movie is to ‘educate’ people? its a comedy and slapstick spoof at that. it will probably be just like scary movie–mediocre. i was simply pointing out the fact that DeWulf is an indian hollywood actress– one of the few consistently working in big Studio films, who is also the star of a film that won an oscar and on Maxim Magazine’s Hot 100 List– these are huge accomplishments for any 1st generation ethnic person or for any actor–so we should simply recognize that she is making strides–thats all
she is full indian. both her parents are from india. google it !!
Farah, you sound like DeWulf’s agent– and by that I mean to say that you are veering towards “commercial comments”, which we delete. No one hates your friend. Chill.
Nala said:
Nirali claims:
At the very least, Dewulf claims that she is Indian. I don’t know the rest of the story.
ooops you’re right ennis. i tried looking for where i read that she is mixed, but couldn’t find it–possibly i mixed her up with another actress.
btw here‘s the link to the previous SM entry about her that I mentioned.
honestly, if i don’t like how someone represents me or my community, i don’t see why i should recognize/celebrate the strides he or she is making. now i’m not saying i don’t like noureen (haven’t read anything that made me think she’s totally lame a la lucy liu and how the asian-american community feels about her being a ‘sellout’), but based on that interview excerpt with a non-south asian-oriented magazine, i felt like she was taking the term ‘fob’ too lightly. of course other people may not have seen it that way, and will admire her because she’s out there and she is doing something, and that’s totally fine, but what i’m saying is that i don’t see why i should have to celebrate her achievements simply because she is brown when i may not like how i think she represents or talks about brown people.
also, is dewulf her family name, and not simply a stage name?
“”Now if you’ll excuse me, I must wrap up this post. I’m running late— I was supposed to bhangra outside my teepee, for no discernible reason, a full hour ago.””
Simply beautiful. My compliments to you.