Indian American's film is surprise of U.S. festival

Wednesday, 26 November 2003, 20:30 IST   |    1 Comments
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NEW YORK: A film on Indian Americans, described as "one of the funniest immigrant comedies" in recent times, had audiences in splits here. "Full Masti", written and produced by Mel Datta, was shown at The New York International Independent Film and Video Festival (IIFVF) this month. Describing "Full Masti" as the surprise of the event, Renata Lorenc, one of the founders and directors of IIFVF, told IANS: "It is the funniest immigrant comedy I have seen since 'My Big Fat Greek Wedding'. "I work with over 1,000 independent films each year; so over the years I have become quite aware of good and bad independent films. However, as soon as I saw 'Full Masti' I was very impressed." It's an action comedy when a straight-laced family man starts an online dating service for the Indian American community and everything starts to go crazy. "Datta has produced and written an original story that has mass appeal. Who isn't bored with their life sometimes? And we learn in the film that nothing is what it seems." "Full Masti" is about Raj (Farukh Khan), happily married to Sonia (Dana Ramos), a computer programmer who has had enough of the brain numbing boredom of corporate America. He decides to open a dating website for South Asians -- bring them out of their arranged marriage lives. But he does not have the capital to start the business. His friend Iqbal (Gogo) takes him to a Russian mobster, Boris (Al Burgo) who gives them the money but warns of dire consequences if the money is not returned promptly. The website starts, thousands of Indian men come to the site and Raj leaves his job without telling his wife in anticipation of becoming a dotcom billionaire. However, no woman visits the site and although they get 27,000 hits a day, they do not earn a penny. Meanwhile Boris and his sidekicks start asking for the money -- obviously not in a nice gentle manner. Iqbal advises that the dating service be turned into an escort service, tapping into the lucrative market of single Indian males. They get the girls and the phone starts ringing off the hook. But all the Indian men are looking for Indian women -- an unavailable commodity that Raj and Iqbal cannot provide. What happens next is a hilarious mix of the sex industry meeting the mob.
Source: IANS