Feeling Lost in America Play's About Immigrants
By Martin Mbugua

Source: New York Daily News (July 8, 1998). (Available through paid archive)

Farrida was rolling dough to make roti (unleavened disc-shaped bread) in her kitchen while chatting with her husband, Hakim, when she suddenly broke into loud sobs and lamented the day she left her native India for New York.

"I gave up everything for you, for your dream," cried the woman, clad in a traditional sari. "America, land of opportunity. For you, yes. For my baby, yes. For me, no. No opportunity."

The kitchen scene is part of a 90-minute Off-Broadway play, "Sakina's Restaurant," which portrays the challenges facing new immigrants to the U.S.

The one-man cast of Aasif Mandvi, 32, who also wrote the script, evolves into several characters to tell the story of an Indian family that migrates to New York and struggles to assimilate into a new world.

"Sakina's Restaurant" which is showing at the American Place Theatre at 111 W. 46th St. in Manhattan through Aug. 2 features Mandvi as Hakim, a restaurateur, and his wife (Mandvi throws a sash over his shoulder to symbolize the sari when in the role of Farrida) as they strive to raise a teenage daughter, Sakina, and 10-year-old-son, Samir.

Azgi, a new immigrant, finds a job as a waiter in the restaurant and tells the story of getting used to America as well as the inevitable cultural and religious conflicts.

"They are very polite on the face; [saying] 'Have a nice day, have a nice day, welcome to Kmart,' " Hakim warns his daughter about her American peers.

"They will even look at you and say, 'Oh, she's so pretty she looks like Paula Abdul'; but let me tell you something: The minute that you steal one of their good old boys from them you will see how quickly you become an Indian again," the stern-faced Hakim tells Sakina while taking phone reservations at the restaurant.

The depth of the message in the play is created by the real-life experience of Mandvi's own family.

"The issues that I talk about in the show are really things that are familiar to me and my cultural background," Mandvi said. "Azgi's expectations of America are sort of the expectations that I had that it was just gonna be this great place, a little bit like a movie or Disneyland."

Mandvi explained that by showing the "naive" expectations of most immigrants, "Sakina's Restaurant" "speaks to so many people in terms of their own expectations."

Farrida complains that she lost her career, friends and social life for the sake of her husband and children.

Sakina defies her arranged marriage and gets drawn into and embraces popular culture, a choice that goes against Indian tradition and the family's Muslim faith.

Despite his father's disapproval, Samir totally rejects anything Indian and takes issue with his parents' decision to attend his grandmother's funeral in India instead of going to Disneyland.

Hakim is left to carry out the unenviable task of leading the family within the bounds of his faith and traditions while fighting the forces of an overwhelming American culture.

Immigrants often lose their sense of belonging, which does not come back for two or three generations, Mandvi explained.

"When I go to India I am a foreigner, and when I am over here I am an immigrant," Mandvi said. "The fact that I grew up in England and I have been here for 17 years [makes it] a case of not really having your own place."

Mandvi was born in Bombay and reared in northern England, where he began acting at the age of 10. He moved with his parents and younger sister to Tampa, Fla., in 1982.

After high school, he attended the University of South Florida. He worked at Disney MGM Studios before moving to New York City in 1991 to pursue his acting career.

"I feel that the show is not really so much about being Indian or American, it's really about being on the fence," Mandvi said of his performance.

"It's really about being an immigrant, and there is an immigrant culture that is different from the culture of India."