Spicing Up the Screen
By Imran Suleman

Source: Newsline (September 2004) (Full-text article)

In recent years, South Asians have crept up to Hollywood. Although Hollywood is a term loosely used to describe the movies coming out of the studio-based environ of America, there is an entire universe of cinema inhabited by film-makers who work outside these mega-budgeted big studio productions. Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs (1992) and his sophomore production Pulp Fiction (1994) were the first independent features to bring about a revolution in mainstream film production. Robert Redford's Sundance Film Festival in Utah was instrumental in bringing this independent revolution to the forefront. With each passing year since, enterprising artists have produced works of independent film-making, on tight budgets, to express their creativity in ways that are both critically acclaimed and financially rewarding. Both South Asian film-makers and performers are quick to immerse themselves in this lucrative trend.

There was a time, not too long ago, when there were hardly any South Asian film-makers in the west. Indians or Pakistanis were cast purely along stereotypical, ethnic lines. From the days of Gunga Din (directed by George Stevens in 1939) to The Party (directed by Blake Edwards in 1968) where Peter Sellers launched his infamous Indian accent, South Asians have been 'exoticised,' until very recently.

That exoticised identity is what many South Asians, who are currentyly trying to make a name for themselves, have to face everyday. Actress Sheetal Sheth battles this phenomenon daily, and quite successfully, to a certain extent. She is one of the few actresses of South Asian origin in America who has been able to balance her South Asian films such as American Chai and the forthcoming Wings of Hope and Indian Cowboy, with appearances in major American prime time television dramas, such as ABC's Line of Fire, CBS's The Agency, and Lifetime Network's Strong Medicine. "Getting past the stereotype and the type-casting is one of my biggest challenges," says Sheetal, from her apartment in West Hollywood. "Many times, it may be better to turn down specific work that is degrading and non-progressive."

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Whereas Puri and Shah are established actors in their native country, Aasif Mandvi and Sheetal Sheth represent the new brand of passionate actors who working on projects in the US exclusively. Both, like many of their contemporaries, took up acting as a discipline early on in their lives. Sheetal Sheth was an acting major at the Tisch School of New York University, and spent a semester in Amsterdam concentrating on the arduous "method" form of acting, practiced by the greats such as Dustin Hoffman, Robert DeNiro, and the late Marlon Brando. Mandvi was a theatre student at the University of Florida before he appeared in such films as ABCD (directed by Krutin Patel in 1999) and The Mystic Masseur (directed by Ismail Merchant in 2001). He also had a special appearance in Hollywood hits Analyze This (directed by Harold Ramis in 1999), Spider Man 2 (directed by Sam Raimi in 2004) and a host of TV shows such as CBS's CSI, NBC's Law & Order, HBO's Oz and Sex and the City. His real claim to fame was back in 1998 when he appeared in a one-man show, Sakina's Restaurant, on the New York stage. Mandvi's drive to perform was evident earlier on.

"I can't explain why I wanted to act," he says. "I think being an artist is not a profession you choose, it chooses you." Currently, Mandvi has wrapped up a film with director Robert Altman, co-starring Cynthia Nixon and Michael Murphy. This month, Mandvi will also appear in a raw piece of political theatre titled Guantanamo, to be performed on the New York stage.

Films like American Desi (directed by Piyush Dinker Pandya in 2001), American Chai (director by Anurag Mehta in 2001), and ABCD have quietly captured the imagination of audiences, so much so that now these films are available at Blockbuster and Hollywood Video, two of the largest American video store chains, as well as click-and-mortar establishments like amazon.com and netflix.com. For such non-studio ethnic fare to make it to the mainstream "hot hit" shelves across the United States was almost unthinkable just a few years ago.

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Perhaps audiences are not yet quite mature or open to fully accept the South Asian ingredient in modern western cinema. South Asian film-makers and artists are doing their best to improve the relationship between the Asian actor and the western audience. Also, most of them are undaunted by the political tension between India and Pakistan and are quite open to Pakistani projects as well.

Says Anurag about the opportunity to work for a Pakistani project: "You know, I find it so funny that if you drive down a street in New York, you'll see so many Indo-Pak restaurants or Indo-Pak grocery stores side by side, yet the two countries always seem to be feuding. In the end, all people are part of the great human race and despite our differences, we're all ultimately governed by the same laws of nature."

Krutin Patel is quite interested in this idea and mentions that Mohsin Hamid's novel Moth Smoke could be translated really well onto the big screen, if handled intelligently. Sheetal Sheth has always looked toward compelling projects no matter which country they originate from. Aasif Mandvi will act anywhere, India or Pakistan, he says, as long as he is paid in US dollars!

Over the past few years, South Asians have been consistently delivering quality projects in what is arguably one of the most competitive fields in the world. Though they have not been able to break into the studio system completely, they have taken the task of luring western audiences to their creative products via the independent route, and that is not always an easy task. "Stop looking at us and other 'ethnic types' as merely ethnic," says Sheth. "We should get to a point where our ethnicity should not matter. That's what America stands for and we need to start living it."

Despite the competitive nature of the business, audiences the world over can should expect to see a lot more South Asians appearing in theatre, film and television in upcoming months. With time and the consistent delivery of even better projects, both roles and storylines will become more palatable to the western diaspora.