![]() ![]() ![]() The 2002 sports comedy-drama flick by Gurinder Chadha remains the holy grail of movies depicting the Indian diaspora experience. However, what starts out as “fake dating” to throw their parents off scent soon turns into something real. The duo then broker a deal: Suneeta will take the profile down if Asha attends a string of weddings with Ravi (Suraj Sharma). But like most desi moms, Suneeta (Veena Sood) is relentless and sets up a profile for Asha on a matrimonial site. Wedding SeasonĪsha (Pallavi Sharda) is a workaholic girl-boss living in New Jersey and has no time (or patience) for her mother’s matchmaking efforts. But things don’t always go according to plan. This some-part hilarious, some-part cringe Netflix series follows her attempts to secure the perfect matches for her privileged clientele both within India and overseas. Over the course of two seasons, matchmaker Sima Taparia from Mumbai has been growing steadily frustrated with the “expectations” of the “kids nowadays”. 10 shows and movies like Never Have I Ever that throw light on the Indian diaspora 1. However, many have attempted to do just so-and the end result has (in most cases) been favourable. While the latest season doesn’t shy away from these tropes necessarily, it does allow the characters room to grow and evolve and in some cases, break the narrative.ĭepicting the daily lives of the Indian diaspora without falling prey to clichés is challenging. In some ways, the show has been called out for stereotyping the Indian diaspora: overprotective mothers, pressures of getting into Ivy Leagues, forced arranged marriages and of course, the gossipy aunties at the temple. The popular Netflix series created by Mindy Kaling follows the coming-of-age story of feisty teenager Devi Vishwakumar (Maitreyi Ramakrishnan), a first-gen Indian-American growing up in California’s San Fernando Valley. The show gave Americans visual language about South Asian culture that many never would have had a window into otherwise, Sur said, their inexplicable love for Ferrero Rocher chocolates and Trader Joe’s, for example.Season 3 of Never Have I Ever may just be its best, yet. “People - including Asian Americans and even South Asians - are getting used to hearing that kind of very particular part of South Asia that they might not have been exposed to before, but it’s done in a light way, in the sense that it’s both a light touch and it’s done with humor.” What’s next for South Asian American stories? “The show showed how you can do something that is inclusive without being preachy,” Ramakrishnan said. Questions of identity and inclusivity are on the table, but Devi and her friends aren’t politically perfect in fact, they’re still figuring out right from wrong. “Never Have I Ever” brings these big concepts up without being heavy-handed, he said. “But also, the Paxton character and how he navigates his identity.” “It’s not only about seeing characters like Devi or characters like Nalini (Jagannathan) that might remind us of certain aspects of our personalities as parents,” he said. ![]() They too are Tamils living in the suburbs of Southern California, with a similar religious and language background. Karthick Ramakrishnan, founder and co-director of AAPI Data and the father of two boys, found uncanny similarities between the Vishwakumars and his own family. Joseph said when her family watched the first episode together three years ago, seeing her culture - not just as a Tamilian, but as a mom to a first-generation family - drew her in. … India is not just butter chicken and naan.” Every time you see Indian representation, it’s very stereotypical. “It really resonated because it was the first time that we were seeing representation of Tamilians on a TV show in the United States. “Being a girl from Chennai myself, I’m always interested when I see Tamilians on the screen,” she said. She started watching the show with her kids when her daughter was a freshman in high school. Sherene Joseph, 45, is a Tamil American mom of two who lives in the suburbs of Dallas. It made it easy for Tamil American families to sit together and watch it, taking in its similarities to their lives with its multigenerational cast of women. ![]()
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