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A
reel life tale
It
is a product of the growing genre of US-centric films about Indians. Yet,
The Inscrutable Americans, inspired by Anurag Mathur's novel, is
strikingly distinct. For one, it is a sensitive portrayal of the
tribulations of a first-timer from India in an American university and how
he tries to retain his identity and self-esteem.
Secondly, unlike earlier films on cross-cultural ties and angst, this film
is shot in the US, mainly on the campus of Hartford University,
Connecticut, and Mt Holyoke College in Massachusetts. To ensure that
authentic Indian flavour, the crew went to Hyderabad, hometown of debutant
director Chandra Siddartha and his cinematographer brother Rajendraprasad
Chittabathini, for a two-day shoot.
The main cast is American and stars Rajiv Punja, a New Yorker brought up
in Bangalore, and Jai Menon, a familiar face for MTV and channel v
viewers. Even the producers, Malemapati Srihari, a general surgeon, and
his wife, Indira, a gynaecologist are American.
The plot of the film is simple: the protagonist Gopal (Punja), is a
resident of Jajau in Madhya Pradesh. He leaves for the US to pursue a
crash course in chemical engineering. He gets influenced by his new white
American friend Randy (theatre actor Eron Otcasek), and begins among other
things, his quest for a woman. This marks the beginning of his journey in
understanding the American mind.
The film tries to bring out all the subtle nuances of the book.
"Capturing the humour in the spoken word from the incidents in the
book proved to be a major challenge to depict," says Siddartha, 31,
who made his first trip to the US less than nine months ago. Initially,
the cast was worried that the film's humorous digs at American society
might offend the average US citizen. But Siddhartha realised that their
fears were unfounded.
For the Sriharis, producing a film is all in a day's work. In 1986 they
funded the popular Telugu film Padamati Sandhya Ragam. Also set in the US
it starred popular actress Vijayashanti. The Inscrutable Americans is
expected to cost $ 400,000 (approx Rs 1.76 crore), an incredibly low
amount by American standards. "We want to learn from this experience
and eventually produce more serious movies with a message," says
Srihari who plans to release the film in India later this year.
-Amarnath
K. Menon
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