Inside Man

So hubby and I had date night last Friday. There's this Italian restaurant I always see so we decided to try it. It's our new favorite local restaurant! The place is gorgeous, live piano player/singer, great bread, great food, great service. We were very happy campers.

We also went to the new theatre at our local mall - they're completely renovating and the theatre is brand new. It was gorgeous! Tons of food in the theatre, and not only did they have the typical arcade, they had a section with leather chairs and magazines for old fogies like us. They also have two Director's Halls with extra-wide leather seats and food service (for $3 more per ticket). We're definitely going to check that out the next movie we see.

Anyways, we saw Inside Man (the new Spike Lee movie). Hubby really wanted to see it and I heard Waris Ahluwalia was in it so I wanted to see it even more. It's so refreshing to see a sardar in a real American movie. I think the dialogue he got was great and he acted it out perfectly. They got the message across without it sounding like a lecture. When he first came out and the NYPD called him an Arab and knocked off his turban, half the theatre was laughing and I heard "Yeah, get him!" It really made me realize I live in CT now, not California. That's why I was relieved he had a second scene where he actually got to talk. But it was definitely disturbing to hear the audience reaction.

So now what really gets to me is that American movies can find real sardars to play the role of a sardar. Seems simple, right? Yet Indian movies, in a country that has the largest Sikh population, cannot find a real sardar to play a sardar. It disgusts me to see sloppy turbans on guys with their cut hair sticking out - or worse the goofy bandanas over what appears to be an onion atop a guy's head. And I know there's Sikhs out there who want to, and can, act so it's not a matter of finding them. Indian movies just don't give a shit about represeting this minority group properly, even though Americans can find this tiny little group and represent it accurately.