This is a film I saw years a go in Finlands TV, and I have been searching information of it ever since. Now I found it. This a great film (although I voted 8). A young man from India comes to US, and wants to be US citizen. He meets a girl, and so on. I don't want to spoil the film by telling all about it. I want to see it again, don't know how.
3 Reviews
A sweet little film
gbill-7487729 March 2024
The story of an Indian man who comes to San Francisco on a one month tourist visa, but has dreams of going to UC-Berkeley to studying engineering, and staying longer. As the people he was planning to stay with aren't in town because of an emergency, he finds himself staying in a sleazy hotel in the Tenderloin, one run by an Indian American lady, who was a great character. His money situation isn't good, he's rejected by Berkeley, and soon the immigration authorities are asking him to leave the country. Despite the dire sound of all that, it's a light-hearted depiction of the struggles of people who want to come to America, one free of stereotypes or a predictable outcome.
I have to say, the fact that he overstays his Visa, breaks into a house with the intent to rob it, and desperately tries to arrange a fake marriage is the kind of fodder conservatives might look at and say aha, yes, beware, this is how it is. But the other side of that coin is how that shows just how much people like this young man want to better their lives, taking menial jobs along the way, and bringing the benefits of cultural diversity to the country along with them. He isn't a bogeyman to be feared, and that's what comes across here.
This is a small film with little organic moments, with some wonderful shots in San Francisco serving as the background. One scene that stands out is when he plays a cassette tape of Hindi music from Bollywood films at a party, and soon everyone is dancing to it. Another is when he breaks into a Bollywood performance of his own at the end. There is an upbeat, positive feeling to the film, one that makes you almost forget how little of the real-world complexities are resolved at the end. Somehow it seems these characters are going to make it though.
I have to say, the fact that he overstays his Visa, breaks into a house with the intent to rob it, and desperately tries to arrange a fake marriage is the kind of fodder conservatives might look at and say aha, yes, beware, this is how it is. But the other side of that coin is how that shows just how much people like this young man want to better their lives, taking menial jobs along the way, and bringing the benefits of cultural diversity to the country along with them. He isn't a bogeyman to be feared, and that's what comes across here.
This is a small film with little organic moments, with some wonderful shots in San Francisco serving as the background. One scene that stands out is when he plays a cassette tape of Hindi music from Bollywood films at a party, and soon everyone is dancing to it. Another is when he breaks into a Bollywood performance of his own at the end. There is an upbeat, positive feeling to the film, one that makes you almost forget how little of the real-world complexities are resolved at the end. Somehow it seems these characters are going to make it though.
forgive the shoestring budget shortcomings
mjneu5914 January 2011
An ingratiating student arrives in San Francisco from Bombay, only to find his ambitions blocked at every turn: his sponsors are out of town; the University of California won't admit him; the Department of Immigration is on his heels; and the only accommodations he can afford are in a Tenderloin flop-house run by a tough, no-nonsense Indian matron out to match her new tenant with an unmarried niece. Appealing characters and an uncomplicated story make it an agreeable (if not exactly memorable) film, but there isn't much shock to video-maker David Rathod's culture shock comedy. The young hero adjusts far too quickly to his difficult circumstances, and his offbeat romance with a local garage band groupie is more convenient than convincing. An enthusiastic effort by the cast and crew can't help the film from being too modest for its own good, with Rathod's Anglo-Indian perspective showing more credibility than his urban American setting.
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