Imagine a kirana shop being inspiration for a kitschy, NRI-flavoured rollercoaster. Precisely how Manisha Lakhe created The Betelnut Killers, a screenplay and novel that showcases the absurdity of the Indian Diaspora, drama and humour intact
Imagine a kirana shop being inspiration for a kitschy, NRI-flavoured rollercoaster. Precisely how Manisha Lakhe created The Betelnut Killers, a screenplay and novel that showcases the absurdity of the Indian Diaspora, drama and humour intact
Attending Film School changed perspective for Manisha Lakhe. She went from student to astute observer of the Non Resident Indian. "As an NRI in the US, I developed a hatred for grocery shopping. We were forced to shop at this solitary store. No matter how hard we tried, we had to go back to this store -- after all, you cant live on pasta, forever. We were forced to change our food habits," recollects the debutant author, ex-journalist and Caferati founder, talking about the trigger point for The Betelnut Killers. "I schemed of ways to kill him," she adds, matter-of-factly. The grocery grouse even tempted her to open a grocery store.
SCREENPLAY BEFORE BOOK
The writing bug took precedence. Egged on by good friend and director Shashanka Ghosh (Quick Gun Murugan) and husband Mahesh Murthy, she decided to put this Indian potboiler to cook. "Trust played a huge factor. Shashanka felt I was too attached to the story and someone else worked upon the screenplay. On my husband's suggestion, we raised a bit of funding too, through an Escrow account (a trust account held in the borrower's name to pay obligations such as property taxes and insurance). However, the project didn't click.
"That's when a publisher chanced upon the screenplay and suggested we offer it to Shashanka, to make into a film," chuckles Manisha, speaking about the coincidence. "Random House eventually picked it and there I was, writing my first novel."
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AAPRO SOPRANOManisha tossed this black comedy with the right blend of chutzpah, centred on Portland-based grocery owner and penny pincher, Chimanbhai Shah along with his NRI bearings. His world is turned upside down when the sexy Supriya opens a rival store. That's when he hires Osmanbhai, a Mumbai supari killer and green card fan, to bump off his competition. The phoren craze, Indian ethics, American biases, find their way in this entertaining potpourri a la The Sopranos meets Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron. There's a potent mix of comedy, sensation and crime to engage the reader.
The language is endearing and the characters are straight out of your daily soap or Bollywood masala flick.
WE ARE LIKE THIS ONLYManisha's take on the US and the NRI is amusing, if not downright frank. "US Laws are tight; getting an H1B visa is strict, yet Indians find ways to outsmart it. Immigration laws are funny too; you're allowed entry unless the employer proves that nobody else can do your job. She also believes that Indians need to move from sounding exotic like "...when we say stuffed rice dumplings instead of idlis! That's ridiculous. Why do we avoid taking risks with our language?" she wonders.
So will film buffs get to watch Osmanbhai's antics and Supriya's sexy overtures on screen? "Yes, Shashanka is in talks with production houses who are too superstitious to reveal plans." Until then enjoy the stains of this supari whodunnit.
The Betelnut Killers hits shelves on April 15. Rs 250, Random House India
MANISHA'S JALDI FIVE
Wish list to play Osmanbhai, Chimanbhai and Supriya...u00a0
Sanjay Dutt (Osmanbhai), Dilip Prabhavalkar, Satish Shah or Darshan Jariwala (Chimanbhai) and Sushmita Sen (Supriya)
The archetypal NRI is...
A software engineer clad in jogging tracks and chappals.
Indians are like...
Italians. Both nationalities are really nice folk, but tend to get clannish. We take our smells wherever we go -- from achars to papads and farsan.
Indians are crazy about...
acquiring a green card
We Indians are...
not as seedha as we make ourselves out to be.u00a0
