The Indian Detective (Canadian Miniseries, in Hindi and English; 2017)
Netflix (Season 1, E1-E4)
The 1950s were important in world politics. The Second World War was over, but the world, never learning from its past mistakes, was building another. The world was divided into two, those subscribing to capitalism or communism. The Cold War was brewing. The newly independent nations, the Third World, was up for grabs. In that environment, in 1955, a few countries got together in Bandung, to assert that they were not aligned to either side of the fence. The Americans, however, viewed it as the ranting of the newly-independent third world states with a slight socialistic stance as they were not invited but China was.
One of the prescient thing that the then Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai had said was that the Chinese residing in different countries should show their allegiance, not to China, but to the countries they are residing.
That too must be applicable to the Indian diaspora which is spread the world over. Driven to the four corners of the mainly for economic reasons and the colonial masters' labour needs, they had 5easily embraced into the cultures of the newfound motherlands. In some cases, they had even cut their umbilical cord off the country of their forefathers. They may be Indian on the outside or by name. The connection to Mother India ends there.
Generation elapsed. Indianness became diluted. The head-boobing went the same way as the subservient nature of their ancestors. For them, their grandfather's guest country became their motherland. They shared fond memories, their childhood, experienced pain and joy and shed a tear or two when their nation was under attack. So to accuse them of showing more loyalty to India rather than their country of birth is mischief or not inciteful.
This Canadian production is a mediocre one. The story is quite predictable and paints India in the same brush as most Hollywood movies. We are all bored with the stereotyping of a corrupt police force, abuse of power by officials, of arranged marriages and a dirty and polluted India.
The drawing force to this flick must have been Russell Peters and Anupam Kher. Even they could not save the film. The acting is unnatural and forced. The dialogue is cheesy and the storyline implausible. William Shatner guests as a baddie but he remains a pale shadow of Captain Kirk. He does not explore any facial expressions beyond the emotionless and bland facies that he puts up in most scenes. The producers put up a cliffhanger at the end of Episode 4 but, obviously, the miniseries did not garner such a following to demand another season.
Just for the record, the story is about a bumbling constable who is suspended for a month for bungling up with a drug bust (or was he?). He is forced to visit his 'ailing' father (Anupam Kher) in Mumbai. Here he gets entangled with an Indian mob and a social worker cum lawyer. See how this Mumbai gang is intertwined with his Canadian case and how the detective (Russell Peters) comes out smelling of roses.
Netflix (Season 1, E1-E4)
The 1950s were important in world politics. The Second World War was over, but the world, never learning from its past mistakes, was building another. The world was divided into two, those subscribing to capitalism or communism. The Cold War was brewing. The newly independent nations, the Third World, was up for grabs. In that environment, in 1955, a few countries got together in Bandung, to assert that they were not aligned to either side of the fence. The Americans, however, viewed it as the ranting of the newly-independent third world states with a slight socialistic stance as they were not invited but China was.One of the prescient thing that the then Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai had said was that the Chinese residing in different countries should show their allegiance, not to China, but to the countries they are residing.
That too must be applicable to the Indian diaspora which is spread the world over. Driven to the four corners of the mainly for economic reasons and the colonial masters' labour needs, they had 5easily embraced into the cultures of the newfound motherlands. In some cases, they had even cut their umbilical cord off the country of their forefathers. They may be Indian on the outside or by name. The connection to Mother India ends there.
Generation elapsed. Indianness became diluted. The head-boobing went the same way as the subservient nature of their ancestors. For them, their grandfather's guest country became their motherland. They shared fond memories, their childhood, experienced pain and joy and shed a tear or two when their nation was under attack. So to accuse them of showing more loyalty to India rather than their country of birth is mischief or not inciteful.
This Canadian production is a mediocre one. The story is quite predictable and paints India in the same brush as most Hollywood movies. We are all bored with the stereotyping of a corrupt police force, abuse of power by officials, of arranged marriages and a dirty and polluted India.
The drawing force to this flick must have been Russell Peters and Anupam Kher. Even they could not save the film. The acting is unnatural and forced. The dialogue is cheesy and the storyline implausible. William Shatner guests as a baddie but he remains a pale shadow of Captain Kirk. He does not explore any facial expressions beyond the emotionless and bland facies that he puts up in most scenes. The producers put up a cliffhanger at the end of Episode 4 but, obviously, the miniseries did not garner such a following to demand another season.
Just for the record, the story is about a bumbling constable who is suspended for a month for bungling up with a drug bust (or was he?). He is forced to visit his 'ailing' father (Anupam Kher) in Mumbai. Here he gets entangled with an Indian mob and a social worker cum lawyer. See how this Mumbai gang is intertwined with his Canadian case and how the detective (Russell Peters) comes out smelling of roses.
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