Director: Sarab Neelam, Writer: V. Prasad

When new ideas confront us we have a choice to adjust to the new information — and allow the implications to ripple across and alter our perceptions — or reject them, and seek ways to justify our prior assumptions. It’s us or them; our identities versus our honesty.

There’s a restaurant advertising on TV (in Los Angeles, at least) calling itself “Pick Up Stix.” I couldn’t figure out what it was about it that bugged the shit out of me. Was it the obnoxious spelling? the muttering dragon spokes-character? the incredibly generic menu? It was when they introduced the concept of “Asian” chicken wings that the problem dawned on me. Asia, I thought, is a massive fucking continent, comprising a wide variety of cultures with differing ideas on how to prepare chicken wings. And we know that. If you don’t know that, you’re a bad person and should have known it. Then there are the “stix” themselves; just the shallow impression an outsider might have of a culture’s utensils. It’s anachronistic, and rather inexcusable, to regress to identifying an entire region’s cultures with a few bastardized elements of one (or two), and to refer to the lot with what amounts to a euphemism for the disfavored “oriental.”  It’s Chinese food re-imagined as a midwestern caricature; a brand that will literally cater to your prejudices and promise not to scare or annoy you with challenging new ideas.

So, shall we raise our consciousness and become more aware of those around us, or not? That’s the choice we’re faced with at the cusp of prejudice and reality.

I had worked with V. Prasad at VC during the festival season ‘07, and knew he was in the middle of writing a feature project. Having finally seen it, I must say I really liked the film — so I guess I don’t need to avoid him at the festival this year (j/k… maybe).

On to the movie…

During a conversation about his Sikh beliefs, protagonist Amrit introduces his companion, and the audience, to the concept of “Seva” — serving humanity to the point of self-sacrifice; which I think is an appropriate motif to a film in this genre. Many Asian American writers and directors would probably like to simply tell their stories, and not have to spend any time on exposition to try to get general audiences up to speed on the premises on which all the story’s conflicts hinge. But this simply is not possible, and is not a luxury a film about the challenges of maintaining Sikh traditions in America country has. With that in mind, the story could have easily been bogged down in establishing a baseline for the drama through straight exposition and pedantry, but unlike many films about such cultural dilemmas, the filmmakers did a fantastic job introducing new ideas to the audience in a way that feels natural, is well-paced, nicely-presented, and most importantly, entertaining.

Last Modified : June 29th, 2008 Filed under : LAAPFF 2008, Movies Navigate : / Next post