A scene from Cosmopolitan
(photo by Carey Kirkella)
 |
Cosmopolitan
Directed by Nisha Ganatra.
Starring Roshan Seth and Carol Kane
Gigantic Pictures
Reviewed by David Chiu
Be warned: Cosmopolitan is not the
name of some TV soap or a film about the New York deb or socialite
scene. Rather it is a cultural comedy that portrays of the trials
and tribulations of rediscovering love. Being that this nearly
one-hour film is from the writer of Monsoon Wedding and
the director of Chutney Popcorn, it is also a story of
the juxtaposition of cultures.
Actor Roshan Seth plays Gopal, a middle-aged
Indian husband and father living in a well-to-do New Jersey community.
He has an ordinary life, until his older Americanized daughter
Geetu (Purva Bedi) goes to Mongolia with her German boyfriend,
and his wife (Madhur Jaffrey) leaves him to return to India.
Alone in his house, Gopal stumbles upon his daughter's copies
of Cosmopolitan magazines (hence the movie's name) and starts
taking the romantic quizzes. He uses the advice from the women's
magazine to reinvent himself as a swinging bachelor. At the same
time, he refuses to talk to his daughter despite her leaving
messages on the answering machine.
Gopal has his eyes set on his American
next door neighbor Mrs. Shaw (Carol Kane), who sympathizes with
him after the breakup of his marriage. Gopal invites her to Thanksgiving
dinner and their romance blossoms. Gopal does everything right
from the magazine such as being a good listener to women and
a Casanova. However, he discovers that love is not always black
and white, and he gradually comes to realize that with Mrs. Shaw
and with his daughter to a degree.
Cosmopolitan
is a comedy that has a message, and is also whimsical. It is
interesting how the director juxtaposes Gopal's reality against
his Bollywood fantasies that in some ways symbolizes the film.
(For those who don't know, Bollywood is sort of like a long Indian
version of a music video with a heavy emphasis on dancing). His
reality is sort of cold and sterile, while the Bollywood sequences
(featuring him and Mrs. Shaw dressed in regal splendor) are full
of bright colors and pulsating music. Through Mrs. Shaw, Gopal
thinks he hits the mother lode in the love jackpot.
The two leads are excellent. Roshan Seth
portrays Gopal with dryness yet decency that makes us identify
with his fumbling attempts at becoming a lover. Carol Kane as
Mrs. Shaw downplays the zany characters she has been renowned
for (i.e. television's Taxi) and gives a very straightforward,
sensitive performance. By the way, she looks like she hasn't
aged a bit and also exudes an engaging charm.
The movie is cleverly written by Sabrina
Dhawan and directed by Nisha Ganatra. They capture the sense
of suburban desolation in Gopal's world and the vivaciousness
of Bollywood in the fantasy sequences (which were filmed in the
predominantly Indian community of Jackson Heights, Queens in
New York). It's both the movie's sense of depicting love so realistically
with a sense of whimsy that makes it engaging. Cosmopolitan
is scheduled to be televised on PBS next year and it is highly
recommended that you do catch it.
|
