Indian-Born Cinema Duh

5 TERRIBLE NRI MOVIES

Now that One Dollar Curry has hit movie halls all over the country, film-goers must be asking themselves: is this as low as we can go?

NRI films, many made on small budgets, have the potential to make a real contribution to the debate over issues of identity Indian diasporic communities face, and while there have been many attempts at crossover films, most of them seem to have fallen short of the mark, some by a whisker, but most by a mile. Samyukta Bhowmick picks five of the very worst.

One Dollar Curry

Nishan (Vikram Chatwal) arrives in Paris a political refugee (his girlfriend's father has kicked him out of India, and after the film runs for a while it is not hard to see why), and starts a stall selling One Dollar Curry.

With the help of some friends, Fixer and Nathalie (Gabriella Wright), he fibs his way onto French television as the descendant of a long line of royal chefs.

There is much hilarity on the way, most of it involving Chatwal falling over things in the kitchen; Nathalie, for no fathomable reason, falls deeply in love with Nishan; and everything ends happily.

It's not just the plot though. The acting is so wooden, the dialogue so toe-curling, and the hero so deeply unlikeable, it's hard to sit this one through all the way till the end.

Flavors

This film tries to offer an insight into the lives of Indian immigrants to America, but what has the potential to be an interesting take on a modern dilemma many face today, instead turns into a string of pointless, meadering scenes (with bad acting and bad dialogue) about the long-distance relationship of two friends (Reef Karim and Puja Kumar), the loneliness of a housewife whose husband works long hours (how difficult is it to get a hobby?), and the completely bizarre antics of three jobless friends hoping to get jobs in software.

The Guru

This film, starring Jimi Mistry of East is East and Heather Graham, is about a struggling young dancer (with a very peculiar accent, smacking of The Simpsons' Apu) who moves to the US dreaming of riches, and on the way somehow becomes a phenomenal success as a sex guru.

Enough said?

American Desi

This film is supposed to portray the ABCD's (American Born Confused Desi, if everyone doesn't know by now) trials and tribulations in college.

Krishna Reddy (Deep Katdare) is, of course, relieved to be out of the house and away from his overly devoted mother (the first in a long list of stereotypes scattered artistically throughout this film), but the moment he arrives in college, he falls in love with a girl (Purva Bedi) who is strongly passionate about her Indian roots and ravingly indignant about how he dismisses his.

Many betrayals, fights and humorous misunderstandings later, this couple is reunited, 'Kris' is suitably Indian-ised (that is, he learns the dandiya) and everyone can go home.

American Chai

Following closely in the footsteps of American Desi, American Chai also takes up the battle to represent Indian kids abroad.

So, of course, like every kid of Indian origin in the States, Sureel (Aalok Mehta), has strict parents who are determined for him to be a doctor (Sureel is actually a music major), a white girlfriend (who his parents of course, don't know about, tauba tauba), but in the end, falls in love with someone exactly like himself "" Maya, (Sheetal Sheth) also a dancer, and also struggling under her parents' yoke.