MOVIE REVIEW | ‘WHERE’S THE PARTY YAAR?’
Fresh Off the Boat From India and He’s Yearning to Be Cool
By DAVE KEHR
New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/05/movies/05WHER.html?ex=1063339200&en=19268ff1b6c752ef&ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE
Where’s the Party Yaar?" is a scruffy independent feature that carries on the tradition of the immigrant comedy, a form born early in the last century when waves of Jews, Italians, Irish and Germans arrived on these shores just as the new medium of motion pictures was getting under way.
Back then these movies taught immigrants how to handle life in the strange new country of America. (One brilliant example, though from the more dramatic side, is Reginald Barker’s “Italian” (1915), which was recently named to the National Film Registry.) Now the point of view tends to be an already Americanized one, and the recent arrivals — invariably, if anachronistically, referred to as F.O.B.'s, for “fresh off the boat” — are figures of fun, absurdly tied to the manners and customs of the old country.
Such a figure in “Where’s the Party Yaar?,” which opens today in Manhattan, New Jersey, Los Angeles, Houston, Chicago and San Jose, Calif., is Hari Patel (Sunil Malhotra), a gangly, geeky young Indian who has just arrived in Houston, where he is to study computer science at a local college while living with an old friend of his father’s who immigrated many years before. The old friend, who lives in a garish split-level in a Houston suburb, has a son Hari’s age, Mohan (Kal Penn), who was born in the United States and is as American as apple pie. Mohan is a big man on campus and a popular party organizer, whose challenge is to organize an end-of-the-year blowout for the cool Indian students without letting his country-mouse house guest find out about it.
Hence the title, as Hari gets word of the big blast and asks around to find out where it is being held. (Yaar, apparently, is the Hindi word for dude.) Meanwhile, Mohan has fallen in love with Janvi (Serena Varghese), a happening Indian-American woman who is making a documentary on the Indian experience.
“Where’s the Party Yaar?” delves into a few areas, like differing standards in personal hygiene, that the immigrant comedies of the past couldn’t touch. But for the most part it plays out in the old tradition: Hari learns how to comb his hair and wear pants without suspenders, while Mohan learns that the old country values of family solidarity and respect for one’s elders still have some value.
The direction, by Benny Mathews, is often awkward and amateurish, and the sound recording is occasionally so bad that dialogue is unintelligible. But this film clearly understands its target audience of first-generation Indian-Americans and has its pleasures to provide.
WHERE’S THE PARTY YAAR?
Directed by Benny Mathews; written by Sunil Thakkar, Mr. Mathews and Soham Mehta; director of photography, Anthony Fennell; edited by Shimit Amin; production designer, Randy Cole; produced by Mr. Thakkar; released by Music Masala Films. At the U.A. Union Square 14, 13th Street at Broadway. Running time: 110 minutes. This film is not rated.
WITH: Kal Penn (Mohan Bakshi), Sunil Malhotra (Harishkumar Patel), Prem Shah (Ray), Serena Varghese (Janvi Valia) and Tina Cherian (Priya Varghese).
Favoring ‘Party’
Mixed heritages come together for good times.
By Millicent Mayfield
Of The Examiner Staff
[email protected]
Published on Friday, September 5, 2003
Where’s the Party Yaar
http://www.sfexaminer.com/templates/story.cfm?displaystory=1&storyname=090503a_party
Starring Kal Penn, Sunil Malhotra, Serena Varghese. Directed by Benny Mathews; written by Mathews and Sunil Thakkar. In English. Not rated. Opens today at the UA Galaxy.
Sometimes Hollywood can get so engrossed in its efforts to reflect the traits of Americana that it forgets that other cultures have their own words for “dude.”
Enter the refreshing “Where’s the Party Yaar?,” a movie that addresses the culture clash often felt between Indian immigrants and Americanized Indians by using the persuasive power of humor.
If “Where’s the Party Yaar?” – ‘yaar’ meaning ‘dude’ – were an American film, one could easily sweep it aside as one of those films with a predictable ending that leaves you feeling vaguely empty.
But, thankfully, it’s not. Filled with wacky humor and inside jokes that may leave Indian audiences rolling in their seat and average Americans sporting a quizzical look, “Where’s the Party Yaar?” manages to fill a void in film diversity.
The film chronicles the efforts of Harishkumar “Hari” Patel (Sunil Malhotra), an Indian immigrant who is fresh off the boat and searching for love, an engineering degree and a way to go from FOB to fab in Houston, Texas.
Before leaving his homeland, Patel consults the advice of an astrologer, who tells him that the woman of his dreams will fall on him from the sky during a fever on a moonlit night.
Upon arrival, Patel stays with family friends, which includes a mother who sends her children off to school with American flags in a post-9/11 era and Mohan Bakshi (Kal Penn), an American-born youth who’s the cool yaar on campus.
Bakshi organizes desi (Indian) parties, trades American colloquialisms with his “peeps,” and pursues the beautiful Janvi Valia (Serena Varghese), a documentary filmmaker bent on exposing the rift that keeps Indians – immigrants and American-born – from sharing a common ground.
The nerdy Patel tries desperately to keep up with Bakshi, but his attempts are rebuffed, as Bakshi makes it clear that FOBs – with their greasy hair, white sneakers, and inability to appreciate the joys of deodorant – are not welcome on the party circuit.
But when Patel catches wind of Desi Fever, a party bound for town, nothing can stop him from finding it and fulfilling the astrologer’s prediction – if only he can be sure he’s got the right girl.
Giving the film its unique personality is its ability to poke fun at the Indian culture – the spontaneous dance sequences, degrees in engineering, and penchants for Toyota Camrys – while highlighting the importance of its individuality and diversity. The film’s solid soundtrack also helps to back this up.