ABCD, the script of US-settled Indians

“The film is about the cultural crisis Indians are going through in the US. Indians, speciallythe older generation, are at a crossroads, especially as many of the younger Americanised generation are at a marriageable age,” observes Patel, who was accompanied by lead actress Sheetal Sheth and costume designer Naju Patel. “You cannot take the most conservative culture there is, put it into the most free culture in the world and expect it to work.”

The film may seem to have too many slices of life scooped out of Patel’s own personal history like the Mehtas in the film, his family too emigrated to the US when he was just eight, and the film is based in New Jersey, where he lives at the moment. “ABCD is not autobiographical in any sort of way. If my parents were anything like those depicted in the film, I would have been working at Wall Street,” he exclaims. “But if you make a film on your community, there are moments you pick out of your personal experiences,” he concurs.

Patel graduated from New York Film School in 1988 with a dual major in finance and film to keep both familial aspirationsand his dreams alive. After making a short film, he worked as a producer for cable networks in the US. The idea of ABCD may have taken root about six years ago, but rejection slips from American producers who found the film “too ethnic” ensured the film stayed just that. Finally, finances were cobbled together, eighty per cent from Indians. “Wherever you are in the world, it is difficult to raise money for your first film,” notes Patel.

The film’s female lead Sheetal Sheth also hopes to break into Hollywood with her sensitive performance. “Increasingly, there are many Indians who are getting into non-traditional professions like the arts. Indians are generally depicted in stereotypical ways, and the younger lot is trying to change that,” says Sheth. After ABCD, this drama graduate from New York University has picked up two more projects: Pocketful of Dreams directed by Pune-based V Shalibindari with Mohan Agashe and Anju Mahendru, and Washington-based Raj Basu’s Wings of Hope, also starring RoshanSeth.

CD has not been released in the US yet, and is presently doing the rounds of festivals. Patel hopes that though the film seems all about India, it will appeal to Western audiences as well. “We are not just talking about India but about a clash that takes place between cultures all over,” he feels.

The director also doesn’t want to restrict his potential oeuvre to films about Indians alone. Now, with Indians like Manoj Night Shyamalan wooing both Hollywood and the box-office, films like ABCD could well get a commercial release rather than make it as an `Indian diaspora’ entry in a film festival.