Starring: Moritz Bleibtreu, Patricia Arquette, Danny Pudi, Catherine Missal.
Vijay And I tells the story of a man who is mistakenly pronounced dead and then recreates a fake identity as a indian man for himself.
Before I actually get into the film I want to point out something. As I'm researching about this film, as I do with all films, I check Tumblr for screengrabs and I check IMDB for other reviews and information and guess what, I found (close to) nothing. From the very few reviews there actually were, they were all German or Indian, there was absolutely no content for this film on Tumblr at all and hardly any commentary on Twitter whatsoever. This made me think a lot; are non-indian (aka mostly white) people that scared of a foreign name or foreign sounding things that they avoid anything to do with it altogether? Vijay And I is a great film and is actually a very white and western driven movie, so I'm actually incredibly angered that it's gotten this response.
Onto the film, I went into this film knowing nothing about it. It was on Sky Movies so I decided to watch and was instantly taken in by seeing Danny Pudi (aka Abed from Community) in it. As I got into the movie and understood the plot, I saw a white man putting on a turban and dressing up as an indian man, so my thoughts go straight to 'is this cultural appropriation?'. I didn't think so. I felt okay knowing that Danny Pudi's (who is half indian) character was allowing this to happen and helping his white friend transform into an indian. I feel like the film actually teaches a bit about the indian culture to the audience, which is always great. Whilst the director for this film didn't come from Indian heritage or background, they clearly did their research and furthermore, myself, an indian, didn't feel offended by this film.
(I would like to point out after research, that there is a scene in which the main character is reading the Sikh holy book on the toilet and this definitely a negative. I personally didn't think much of it as a non-practising or religious sikh but I can completely understand how this is offensive. Also after reading other Sikhs comments on the YouTube trailer, it seems as though they 100% do feel as though this is cultural appropriation and equivalent to blackface. I can also see how this can be perceived as that and I do agree to an extent but I think I stick with my initial response which is that the character shows us that he is learning about the culture and trying to become a true representative so...)
I love the whole concept for this film. I think it's completely original and it's actually humorous. I love the mix of cultures, the plot and the writing. I think it all came together to make an excellent film.
I found the acting in this film to be really enjoyable. Bleibtreu, managed to pull off an indian man wonderfully without being offensive or stereotypical. I loved the blue humour. Pudi always brings this weird kind of comedy which I completely vibe with, it's like almost not there but completely there, he's completely human.
The cinematography stood out to me a lot in this film. The shot types were executed wonderfully whilst the colouring made it completely aesthetically appealing. Even the settings and design helped to make this film more than just a comedy but a real film.
All in all, I really, really did enjoy this film. From start to finish nothing really went wrong for me. I'd definitely would love to see more comedy films being made in this kind of way and tone. A huge recommendation from me to you.
(on further research and discussion in my head, I have no idea how I feel about this film. I do genuinely feel like this is a good film but I don't know if it's right. I don't feel comfortable knowing that a non-indian director, directed this, as if it the director was indian than I would be completely fine with the whole movie. In my mind I'm thinking if this white man were to become a muslim man or a black man and put on black face then it would be completely offensive and wrong so I'm just wondering what the difference is here, if there is any at all. I'd love to hear your thoughts and opinions on this)
