sumanbarthakursmailbox
In director Vipul Shah's Namastey London, Katrina Kaif plays an Indian girl born and raised in the UK, who's turned out to be something of an infant terrible who guzzles vodka like it's water, dresses in micro-minis under her salwar-kameez, and frightens away prospective grooms by telling them false stories about her promiscuity. But worse than all of this, and the reason her dad's having sleepless nights actually, is because she's seriously considering a marriage proposal from her white boyfriend, a cad who's already been married thrice in the past.No wonder daddy dearest Rishi Kapoor whisks her off to good ol' Bharat where after several failed attempts to find a suitable groom for his daughter, he finally coaxes her to tie the knot with the son of an old friend, a sort of small-town bumpkin Akshay Kumar, who's already fallen head over heels in love with his peaches-and-cream complexioned wife. Promising to consummate their marriage back in London, Katrina brings Akshay home, but only to reveal to him and to her parents that this shaadi was all a sham, and her heart still beats only for her gora boyfriend. Shaken, but not entirely defeated, Akshay decides he's going to stay on and win her back with love. I can bet my last pay-cheque that the one thought that came to your head while you heard me narrate the film's plot is: 'Hey, haven't I heard this story before?' Well, yes, you have and several times over actually. It's clear, straight off the bat, that Namastey London is a been-there-seen-that story inspired from a variety of films including Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge and Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam to name just two. Look, the one thing that a film must have in order to hold your interest, is unpredictability. It's very unlikely that you're going to enjoy a film if you know exactly how it's going to turn out in the end. But let's face it, unpredictability of plot is something that very few Hindi films can boast of. In which case, when you do know what direction a film is going in, when you do know what's going to happen at the end of the film, the only thing that is likely to keep you entertained, is the manner in which the filmmaker or the writers arrive at that ending.You know the beginning, you know the end - now can they make the middle so interesting and so unique that you're willing to stay with the film even though you know where it's all leading upto? The same is true of Namastey London. It's a Hindi film, you know Akshay Kumar is going to melt Katrina's heart in the end, now we just need to know how he does it.Vipul Shah and his writers use the old-fashioned approach - true love conquers all. Some of you may find that archaic and outdated, but once in a while I think earnestness, sincerity and some old-fashioned simplicity can do the trick. Namastey London certainly has its heart in the right place. But sadly it goes about making its point in the stupidest manner. Why is it essential to portray every white person as a racist bigot in order to convey what a desh-bhakt our hero is? That party scene in which a white man makes Indian jokes only to be put in his place by Akshay is so over-the-top and so blatantly manipulative, it makes you cringe. Ditto for that scene at the mosque where Akshay drives sense into Upen Patel's head by explaining to him why nothing and no one's worth changing one's name and religion for - it's a scene that's screaming out for a pat on the back - "Look at all the good values we're trying to propagate." Now don't get me wrong, I'm not a cynic, I'm just saying this film is so caught up being self-congratulatory that it doesn't even realize where its slipping up. Like the humour for example, which is so juvenile at most times. Or all the stereotypes that the film tends to reinforce.By the time the lights finally come on and the end credits begin to roll, you feel like you've been in that hall for what seems like an eternity. Namastey London is too long for a story that's too familiar to begin with. It's not a bad film, but it's often dull and you can pretty much predict its every next step. Of the actors Upen Patel turns in a surprisingly decent piece as a British-Asian boy confronted with cultural dilemmas. Now if only he'd work on his dialogue delivery and accent, they wouldn't have to dub his voice. And someone please ask him to keep his shirt on, we've seen enough of his shaved torso already. As the patient and hopeful romantic, Akshay Kumar plays his most restrained role yet, and he's not bad at all, it's just that his character seems so ludicrous; you're unable to take him too seriously. For Katrina Kaif, playing the rebellious protagonist of this film, it's a part that fits her like a glove. Her acting's also considerably improved since the last time she was on screen.But for me, the only actor really worth mentioning in this film is Rishi Kapoor. Both in his comic scenes and his dramatic portions, he brings a degree of naturalness that none of the other actors can serve up. He is easily the emotional anchor of this film and his performance; it's only real strength.In many ways it's modeled after those well-meaning 70s films - one part Dev Anand romance, one part Manoj Kumar patriotic saga. It's sweet and it's simple but that's just the question - do we still have an appetite for steamed rice when everyone else is eating biryani?
Afzal Shaikh
Namestey London is a refreshing film in that it gives centre-stage to a British woman of Indian origin, and does not portray her as a one-dimensional, rich-girl vixen, tempting the Bollywood hero away from his constant, truly Indian, girl-next-door. Instead the central character of Namastey London, Jasmeet 'Jazz' Malhotra, played by real British Asian Katrina Kaif, is being pressured into travelling to the Punjab to have an arranged marriage. Moreover, Jasmeet's Muslim friend Imran is in a similar position, a man with a white girlfriend who is deplored by his family.Namesty London is an enjoyable film, with a quirky, engaging plot and characters. The cast is generally good, with comedian Nina Wadia fine as Jasmeet's mother, Javed Sheikh assured as Imran's dictatorial father, and Akshay Kumar suitably playing up to his zany character, but never overdoing it as Arjun, Jasmeet's arranged husband. But Rishi Kapoor deserves a special mention. His performance as Jasmeet's father is not only funny and delightful- he also manages to find real anxiety and confusion.Unfortunately, with the exception of Kapoor, Namestey London as a whole attempts, but fails to achieve the deeper, more profound socio-political shades it seems to be aiming for, and it is with this that I take exception. Despite having a refreshing set-up and more than one-dimensional characters, Namastey London cannot quite shake off traditional, as well as superficial, Bollywood conventions about British people, whether Anglo-Saxon or of Asian extraction.The first is the assumption that ethnic Indians raised in the west are more westernised than native Indians, fully absorbed into the dominant western culture, living the fast, modern, materialistic life- full to the brim with confidence, even arrogance. While some do, this is not a typical experience. Rather, it seems to me, native Indians can be more like this. Such Indians are likely to be wealthy, urbanised Indian residents. Go to a 'Café Coffee Day' in one of Bombay's more fashionable districts, in Bandstand for instance, overlooking the bay, and you may find young Indian women from wealthy backgrounds talking loudly, and self-consciously, about guys, jobs, fashion, and other girls, all in a vulgar way, as they try to imitate their image of westerners.In my experience, no doubt informed by my being a British Asian, the majority of British Asians tend to have grown up in a fragmented cultural environment, divided between the dominant western culture outside the home, which has historically not been welcoming to them at times, and the insular, ossified, traditional culture that their parents stick to at home, trying to recreate an India which, rather ironically, is fading away.I feel that the makers of Namestey London have tried to grasp this cultural fragmentation in Jasmeet 'Jazz' Malhotra's situation, not least in displaying her cultural fragmentation in her two names, the formal Jasmeet and her nickname outside the home, Jazz. She has a stern, backward-looking father and a forward-looking mother wishing for her daughter to become modern and westernised. I have no problem in understanding that people in real life have such backgrounds, except that I find Jasmeet's particular character, as explained by her family's circumstances which have produced her character's psychology, to be too simplistic and therefore unconvincing. 'Jazz' clearly comes across as the product of a preconceived, modern, urbanised Indian imagining of a young British Asian woman, rather than a fully researched and thought through British Asian character, rooted in a more secure sense of reality. True, the actress who played her, the fast-rising Katrina Kaif, is a British Asian, but strangely her performance seems to have been more informed by her years in the United States. Contrast her performance with Rishi Kapoor's, as noted above, and you will see that this doesn't help the film.The second Bollywood convention that the film retains concerns its depiction of Anglo-Saxon British people. There is no doubt that many British people have had something of a colonial hangover in their relations with Indian immigrant communities, which has manifested itself at times in the form of racism. However, the British characters in Namestey London are nothing more than stereotypes of a jaundiced colonialist Indian imagination. It makes for unintentionally uproarious comedy- such as when Charlie Brown introduces Jasmeet and her arranged, but still unofficial husband, to his relative. Charlie's relative is, funnily enough, a descendant of an East India Companyman, who himself seems to have been transported from a cantonment at the height of the Raj. And though it is good to see, in the same scene, Jasmeet telling him of the many successes of modern India, something which needs stressing to many in the west too hung-up on India's continuing failures, this is lazy film making- they should show this through situation and character.Still, though it is weighed down by traditional Bollywood conventions, Namastey London does engage the viewer and attempts to shed light on the South Asian Diaspora in London, just don't take it too seriously.
