Kumail Nanjiani’s and Aziz Ansari’s latest works Big Sick and Master Of None respectively are hugely entertaining. However, they’ve also managed to successfully veer of the traditional stereotypes associated with brown asian folks!
Kumail Nanjiani and Aziz Ansari
The first South Asian expat based movie I saw was Bend it like Beckham (2002), about an aspiring football player from London’s famous South Hall trying to make it big while dealing with rascism and her own family’s orthodox Indian values. Stuck between two contrasting worlds the lead character always remains confused about who she actually is and is therefore always pissed.
Bend It Like Beckham (2002)
Even movies such as East is East (1999) and The Namesake (2007) had similar storylines for the Indian / Pakistani immigrant parent’s child. They were always misfits not sure about what they ever wanted.
East is East (1999)
This particular representation seemed to work wonders initially, however things have changed now, the South East Asian diasapora of the west has moved on to better things and a fresh perspective in cue with the recent times was really needed.
While the above stories were stereotypes written by South Asian themselves, the outsiders, usually American or British directors stuck to a complete different set of ridiculous stereotypes for ages! These were mostly naan bread eating, bollywood music dancing or sing a song like talking.
Simpsons is infamous for using a yodling accent for Apu.
Even new characters such as Priya Seghal in Russel Peter’s The Indian Detective (easily Netflix’s worst release of the year, more on this later) have retained this perspective.
Priya Sehgal in The Indian Detective
Creators usually attribute this to the familiarity syndrome, wherein its easier to showcase a stereotypical perspective since the audience have programmed their minds to see certain races in a specific form. So, the creators claim that breaking this would actually distance the audience from the brown character. (Yes, its weird, but market economics is a piece of shit sometimes!)
Moving away from this and trying a different approach is tough, no one wants to be the one testing new waters.
Enter Kumail and Aziz!
2017 saw the release of Kumail’s The Big Sick which along with Aziz Ansari’s Master of None (2015 — ) remains the best representation of South Asian characters in Hollywood ever.
The Big Sick corrects many mistakes that past works made, for starters Kumail as the lead character knows very well what he wants from life, he is a stand up comedian who wants to make it big. He does not care too much that his parents hate it.
The Big Sick (2017)
Even though he is a muslim by birth and is asked to pray five times a day by his family, he just does not do it simply because he does not want to, since he is actually an atheist. Even Aziz Ansari’s character in Master of None when faced with a similar faith related (Muslims eating Pork) quandary, eventually does what he wants to, not caring about what his family might think.
But how is this perspective different?
Simply because they are not confused about where they stand in the society. They don’t deal with the problem of being an American or being a good Indian / Pakistani by choosing a side, rather, they would rather subscribe to both parts. For example, Kumail in his movie does not believe in the concept of arranged marriage but he still loves his mutton biryani!
Master Of None (2015-)
The parents of both characters are also uniquely different in the way that they have been portrayed, for once you do not cringe at their behavior. While they try to impress upon their cultural values upon there children, it isn’t done to the point of being ridiculous or stupid, they have been potrayed as decently practical individuals and not bigots.
Consider the episode in Master of None where Dev introduces his parents to his girl friend, even though they are not a 100 percent in agreement with his choice they atleast have the maturity to figure out that it his life and therfore make a genuine attempt to try to figure out more about Rachel.
Props to the writing department of both shows on the support cast, while Aziz has friends across different races, Kumail mostly interacts with his girl friend’s parents in the movie, they are normal people with their own issues and problems unlike previously where they would be shown as the overly caring god like white person who helps the character through.
Amazing Support Cast: Holly Hunter and Ray Romano in The Big Sick
Finally thank you guys for not including a bollywood dance number, I was so happy that both these works did not have a bevy of dancers waltzing to “Jayy hoe” (Jai ho!)
Thanks for not having burrraa ballley balley!
Fin.
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