Created: Karan Sunil

Cast: Sonal Aggarwal, Sabeen Sadiq, Saurabh Pande, Vikram Pandya, Stephen George

Streams on: YouTube.

BINGABLE

BLUF

Code Switched is a story of a group of  First and Second Generation Indian Americans in Chicago, making sense of their identity while balancing the expectations of their parents’ aspirations and their ambitions.

THE MEAT AND THE POTATOES

American Indians have not had it easy. Ridiculed as American Born Confused Desis in India for decades, they are now coming to their own and how. The surge of young Indian Americans who are proudly owning and reclaiming their rich heritage and creating their own identity, overcoming a generation of confusion around their belongingness, is a phenomenal coming of age for many first and second-generation Indians in America.

No longer is the phrase ABCD synonymous with an insult, nor are we hiding any Indianness in shame. We proudly own our celebrated aunties as well.

Our identity as a bi-cultural society declines to choose between our two rich heritages; instead, we remain committed to reinforce the connection we can establish amongst the two realms.

IN THE ZONE

Karan Sunil, the creator of the series, is committed to contributing to how Americans of South Asian descent depict in mainstream media and classically handling the sensitive matter of identity that has bothered our communities for decades.

The cast ensemble of stand up comedians, improv artists, and fresh actors gives the show a dollop of authenticity that makes the series a breeze to watch. Given the budget and the plot, the show does not have the finesse of big studio production.

However, the content, the intent, and the characters’ authenticity are more than make up for its absence.

FWAR

The story finds its characters as it progresses.  It connects the protagonists’ lives in a three-dimensional way as they relate to each other through dissonance between Indian and American cultures.

Powered by rising South Asian-American comedians, artists, musicians, this series has been a grass-roots of independence and community to fight for the right to tell our own stories.

The series tries to use its protagonists’ tales to claim a sense of identity for the South Asian community so mired in multiple aspects of our culture, yet coming through in establishing the fact that we are indeed so privileged to have the multi-faceted richness to our culture. Maybe we were wrong to choose one over the other. Perhaps, the richness of our South Asian heritage embracing the momentum of our American identity is the answer to the need to code-switch in the first place.

WHAT WE LOVED

Honest, authentic, and excellent content telling a very compelling story.

WHAT WE MISSED

More time to develop the characters, their backstories, and relationships.