Sunday, July 20, 2003		In The Spotlight

American Chai, a heady brew

WINNER of the Audience Award for Best Feature Film at the Slamdance and GenArt Film Festivals, American Chai, deals with a crossover theme. The film, named after the milky tea, chai, an Indian brew, spotlights Sureel—-a first generation Indian—American collegian who can’t assert his professional and personal choices on his tradition-clinging parents.

Starring Aalok Mehta (a versatile musician), Paresh Rawal, Sheetal Sheth (of Indian Cowboy fame), Aasif Mandvi, (of The Mystic Masseur fame), the film has been written and directed by Anurag Mehta and produced by Taylor MacCrae. New Jersey-based Mehta describes his directorial debut as ‘a funny, heartfelt, coming-of-age story.’

The film focuses on Sureel (Aalok Mehta), a college student born in an Indian family bred in America. He is unable to reveal to his conservative parents (played by actors Paresh Rawal and Bharati Desai) that his professional interests lie in music and not in medicine.
His rigid upbringing lists dating, late nights and pop music as a big ‘no-no.’ Consequently, Sureel fabricates a double life, a contemporary one with peers where he pursues music and dates white women, and a hypocritical, traditional one at home.

Things start getting uneasy when Sureel and his band fall out and his girlfriend dumps him to follow the band. Soon he finds himself falling for a beautiful Indian dancer, Maya (Sheetal Sheth). They inspire each other and Sureel gets in touch with his roots. Now, Sureel’s roommate Toby (Josh Ackerman) wishes to start a new band with him.
Love-smitten and optimistic, Sureel wishes to spill the beans to his parents. Will he face the music and discover his identity? This is the crux of American Chai.

On his multiple award-winning film, Anurag Mehta says, ‘It is a love story. It is a story about following your dreams ... about the relationship between the newer and the older generations, and ultimately it is the story of a father and son.’ On selecting his real-life musician-brother for the protagonist’s role, Mehta says, ‘Aalok has been a musician, a performer at heart, so he seemed apt for the role.’

Incidentally, Aalok has also written and enacted the songs in the film and contributed to the score along with Jack Bowden Faulkner

About Paresh Rawal, who plays the authoritative parent, Mehta says, ‘He adds weight to so many of the scenes. He is a brilliant actor, and his energy permeates and rubs off on the rest of the team.’

The high points of the movie are the cultural differences. Mehta makes satirical jabs at Bollywood musicals to put across his point good-humouredly.

A critic has summed up the film in the following words, ‘Humorous and heartfelt, this winning debut feature not only extols the old fashioned American dream, but celebrates the virtues of the great American melting pot as well.’
And Mehta adds, ‘Yes, the main characters are Indian, but that’s more of a character-defining element in this movie. The story is not about being Indian. It’s about being American.’ LMN