CAST: Maitreyi Ramanathan, Poorna Jaganathan, John McEnroe, Adam Shapiro, Jaren Lewison, Richa Moorjani
DIRECTED BY: Mindy Kaling; Lang Fisher
Never has an Indian American teenager’s growing up story been Number 1 on Netflix within a couple of days of its release. But then this story has never been told as well. If we ignore the little references of stereotypes of Indian American characters on other sitcoms or web series; we have come a long way in their portrayal and more work will need to be done.
Co Producer Mindy Kailing (Lang Fischer is also co producer) nails this show in the authenticity of the portrayal of a troubled teenager, dealing with the grief of having lost a parent; yet still having to deal with teenager issues of being the quintessential competitive Indian nerd, the popularity game and the first sexual experiences.
For many American Indian kids today, a lot in the characterization of Devi, may have been derived from Mindy’s own growing up years because the general feedback seems to be that Indian American parents have moved on from being this controlling of their kids, but then Asian parents come in different shades of dictatorship.
The find of the show is definitely Maitri Ramanathan. She is spunky, natural and effortlessly perfect for the role she portrays. Maitri personifies Devi in the most flawless portrayal and this is the strength of the show.
The John McEnroe angle is so appropriately fitted in a corollary to Devi’s own rebellions as he narrates the story of Devi’s life. Just like Devi, McEnroe, a tennis legend has a reputation of having a bit of a temper when it comes to things not going his way. He once threw his racquet and even got suspended for 3 weeks for an argument with the umpire.
Living with a mother, portrayed by Poorna Jaganathan ( another good actress) who is trying to be a strong influence, to compensate for paucity of another parent, a cousin who is FOB ( fresh off the boat, so convincingly casted in Richa Moorjani, Devi battles the perils of growing up sandwiched between two cultures and the expectations from each one of them.
California and its abundance of diversity, multi-racial families, community dependencies are portrayed appropriately. After all, we all have aunties who endlessly post pictures of parties, holidays and children’s activities, in our lives. Indian communities remain highly intrusive and judgemental, like they are portrayed in the series and children from the community continue to redefine the relationships that we have with the rest of the country. The effortless amalgamation of culture, emotion and comedy makes the show stand apart
The “woke” class teacher played by Adam Shapiro, is so California. And Ben, Devi’s nemesis in class, played by Jaren Lewison, academically is so the guy you know in class.
On the whole, quite a convincing series, which we are very sure will get another season soon. One of the better shows on Netflix and very close to upping the other popular Hulu show, Pen15, in its own genre but also in the broad appeal category of Top shows on Netflix, because it is very well written, directed and has casted convincing actors.
