Cosmopolitan (film)
Encyclopedia
Cosmopolitan is a 2003 American
independent film
starring Roshan Seth
and Carol Kane
, and directed by Nisha Ganatra
. The film, based on an acclaimed short story by Akhil Sharma
and written by screenwriter Sabrina Dhawan
(Monsoon Wedding
), is a cross-cultural romance between a confused and lonely middle-aged East India
n, who has lived in America for 20 years, and his exasperating, free-spirited blonde neighbor.
n immigrant Gopal, a telephone-company engineer who has taken early retirement, is celebrating Diwali
in November with his wife and grown daughter. His daughter suddenly tells him that she is leaving indefinitely to teach English in Mongolia
with her German boyfriend. As Gopal recovers from this shock and tries to talk her out of it, largely on the grounds that she will be living in sin in his eyes, his wife Madhu announces that she is leaving him as well, and is taking up the spiritual life in an ashram
in India
.
Confused, mortified, bored, and directionless, newly single Gopal lies to his few Indian-American acquaintances about the situation, and refuses to answer his daughter's phone calls from Mongolia. He tries to cope with his emptiness by redecorating slightly, searching through the various corners of his small house, reading newspapers, and watching videos of Bollywood
romance extravaganza films. Desperately lonely, he latches upon a copy of Cosmopolitan
magazine that had belonged to his daughter, and takes a quiz gauging a man's suitability for a relationship — which reveals that he is a "Ditchable Dude."
In the midst of his distress and his Bollywood fantasies, Gopal's eccentric neighbor, the oddly attractive divorcée Mrs. Shaw — whom he had previously thought of as loose-moraled (because of her one-night stands) and slovenly — appears at his door asking to borrow one of his rakes. This sets off a whole new set of fantasies on his part. A few nights later Gopal sees her on her porch nursing a drink, and after a tentative conversation, asks her to have Thanksgiving dinner with him at home the next day. While cleaning and straightening for the date, Gopal finds several more of his daughter's Cosmopolitans, and reads several articles on "What women want" from a man — evidently it is for them to "listen, listen, listen."
With the help of the advice gleaned from the pages of Cosmopolitan, and to some extent in spite of it, Gopal and Mrs. Shaw (Helen) hit it off, and develop a warm, tender, intimate relationship. Mrs. Shaw is a high school counselor, and therefore a good and empathetic listener herself, and Gopal confides in her about his childhood dreams and sorrows.
But the relationship does not go exactly as Gopal had planned. On Christmas Day, when Helen gently rebuffs his insistence on his long-term vision for the relationship, Gopal is very upset and shouts at her to leave. He then holes up sullen and frustrated in his house, refusing all attempts at communication from her, and is visibly angry when he sees she has a male visitor nearly a week later.
On New Year's Eve, Gopal discovers Helen has left a Christmas gift for him, and it is something very meaningful to him. He breaks down, and something in him shifts — regarding the relationship, his family, and himself.
, a 20-year veteran of major American and British films, including lead roles in Gandhi
, Mississippi Masala
, Not Without My Daughter
, My Beautiful Laundrette
, and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
, was chosen for the starring role of Gopal, the suddenly single Indian patriarch. Seth had also played the groom's father in screenwriter Sabrina Dhawan
's 2001 film, Monsoon Wedding
.
Oscar-nominee Carol Kane
, familiar to many as Latka's wife Simka on the sitcom Taxi
, and noted also for her roles in Hester Street, Annie Hall
, The Princess Bride
, and Scrooged
, was chosen to play Gopal's unconventional American neighbor, divorcée Mrs. Shaw. "There was no other (casting) choice" for Mrs. Shaw, said co-producer Jen Small, who had previously worked with Kane on the 1998 PBS film The First Seven Years. Director Nisha Ganatra
agreed: "We wanted to take advantage of Carol's incredible comic timing, and that way she has of making you laugh and breaking your heart at the same time."
To round out the major cast, Ganatra chose Merchant-Ivory actress Madhur Jaffrey
, who had been in her 1999 film Chutney Popcorn
, to play Gopal's disgruntled wife. Up-and-comer 18-year-old Indian-American actress Purva Bedi
(American Desi
) was cast as Gopal's daughter Geetu.
According to Ganatra, it was interesting watching Roshan Seth's and Carol Kane's conflicting acting styles. "Seth comes from the British school of theater acting and believes that his job is to deliver a consistent performance. Kane comes from the American school, where improvisation rules and a certain performance may not be duplicated. Seth wanted lots of rehearsals; Kane thought too much practice would make her performance stale." Nevertheless, the two actors very much enjoyed working together.
's original short story "Cosmopolitan" initially appeared in The Atlantic Monthly
, in January 1997. It was then anthologized and republished in the book The Best American Short Stories 1998, a selection of 20 short stories chosen by Garrison Keillor
.
Producers Jen Small, Jason Orans, and Brian Devine found "Cosmopolitan," which they considered "a little gem," in the 1998 anthology. They signed award-winning screenwriter Sabrina Dhawan
(Monsoon Wedding
) to adapt it for their newly formed New York-based independent production company, Gigantic Pictures. "The rights to short stories are more accessible financially for small companies; and you can add, where a novel demands cutting," says Small.
Of the differences between adapting short stories versus novels, co-producer Jason Orans said, "Short stories are usually structured differently than movies. While a movie should have a three-act structure, a short story is often an exploration of character via a single defining event. The challenge is to create new material which both serves the story and supports a three-act structure. With Cosmopolitan, this meant [Sabrina Dhawan] adding a completely new first act to the story."
Director Nisha Ganatra
, whose previous credits included the multiple-award-winning Chutney Popcorn
, was also intrigued by Akhil Sharma's short story. In her words, "I thought, this is a story we haven't seen. Indian American filmmakers are making these stories that are very ‘me, me, me' and the thing that I loved about 'Cosmopolitan' is that it's about our parents and loneliness, and that I found was very universal and exciting."
Screenwriter Sabrina Dhawan adapted, expanded, and fleshed out Sharma's short story. The original short story was very focused on Gopal's loneliness, and his initial inability to make physical or emotional contact with anyone. Dhawan kept and expanded the story's poignancy, while changing the focus to Gopal's relationship with Mrs. Shaw, giving the story specificity and universal relevance, and infusing it with wit.
, with whom director Nisha Ganatra, a fellow Canadian, had worked once before, on the 2003 film Fast Food High. The instrumental score includes string quartet, piano (performed by Lockington), clarinet, bansuri flute
, and tabla drum
s.
The three Bollywood-parody songs, "Meri Desi Rani," "Come to Me," and "Destiny," were written, composed, and produced by eclectic New York Indo-pop pioneer Chris Rael
. The songs were performed by Rael along with eight members of his Indo-pop band Church of Betty, and Rael also sang the male leads of the songs.
Two of Rael's three Bollywood-parody songs in the film have dance numbers. One Bollywood-parody dance number features Kane, and the main dance number features Kane and Seth. Of his dancing in the main Bollywood number, Roshan Seth confessed, "I'm really quite spastic when it comes to all that, and uncoordinated, but Carol was very funny and we somehow got through it."
’s Diversity Initiative, and from the National Asian American Telecommunications Association. Funding was also obtained from the National Endowment for the Arts
.
in January 2003. The film’s Bollywood street dance number was shot in New York City
’s Jackson Heights
, where colorful Indian-American signage helped make a ready-made outdoor set. Ganatra observes humorously that the outdoor dance number "kept getting pushed on the schedule because of weather, and we finally did it on the coldest day of the year with the poor actors in saris."
A few shooting locations had to be changed, and often the replacement locations turned out to be more interesting than those originally planned. A scene meant to take place in a large major bookstore could not be achieved, so it was shot in a little sweets shop attached to a restaurant the filmmakers were already shooting in. Co-producer Jason Orans says, "This became one of my favorite shots in the film, very colorful, evocative, and (naturally) sweet."
Cosmopolitan was filmed in 24P
HD
. For airing on PBS, the length of the film was trimmed by nearly three minutes; the television broadcast version and the DVD release run 53 minutes.
. It was televised nationally beginning in June 2004 on the PBS
series Independent Lens
.
The film has also had screenings around the country at various film festivals. The DVD of the film is made available by Gigantic Pictures on the film's official website.
The film has received very favorable print reviews, and was variously described as "charming," "wry," "touching," and "hilarious" by Variety
, Newsday
, Time Out New York, and The Southeast Asian. The Boston Phoenix noted the film's "superb performances." New Beats remarked that screenwriter Dhawan and director Ganatra "capture the sense of suburban desolation in Gopal's world and the vivaciousness of Bollywood in the fantasy sequences. ... [D]epicting love so realistically with a sense of whimsy ... makes [the film] engaging."
The Associated Press
called Cosmopolitan a "witty and tender depiction of mature romance." And the Austin Chronicle
wrote, "Director Nisha Ganatra has crafted a frothy yet poignant valentine to first-generation immigrants longing for their home country while forging a new life in their adopted one, and a celebration of the romantic lurking within even the most resigned-to-loneliness heart."
Ronnie Sheib in Variety
noted the "friendly cross-cultural fireworks" between Roshan Seth and Carol Kane, and stated that "[c]hemistry between leads spikes in quirky arcs, with fantasy Bollywood musical sequences livening up tender moments." Calling the film "charming," he opined that the film "suffers slightly from tasteful restraint and numbers are often more pleasing in concept than execution," but also felt that the film "successfully sidesteps [a] rarified, over-literary small-screen look." Carol Kane as Mrs. Shaw is praised for her nuanced performance: "Such is the power of Kane's oddball sweetness that she is able to invest these scenes with amazing emotional resonance. Overweight and without makeup, Kane has a vulnerability that reads as a rare form of courage." And director Nisha Ganatra is noted for "ground[ing] Kane's feyness in workaday experience and middle-aged acceptance, making her the perfect vehicle for Seth's long-delayed voyage of self-discovery."
Interviews
Media
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
independent film
Independent film
An independent film, or indie film, is a professional film production resulting in a feature film that is produced mostly or completely outside of the major film studio system. In addition to being produced and distributed by independent entertainment companies, independent films are also produced...
starring Roshan Seth
Roshan Seth
Roshan Seth is an Indian-born British actor, who appears mainly in British and American films. He is known for his critically acclaimed performances in the films Gandhi, Mississippi Masala, Not Without My Daughter, My Beautiful Laundrette, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, and Such a Long...
and Carol Kane
Carol Kane
Carolyn Laurie "Carol" Kane is an American actress. Kane has worked on the stage, on the screen and in television. She appeared on the television series Taxi in the early 1980s, as the wife of the character played by Andy Kaufman. She received two Emmy Awards for her work...
, and directed by Nisha Ganatra
Nisha Ganatra
Nisha Ganatra is a Canadian film director, film producer, writer and actor of Indian ancestry. She is most well known for her acclaimed films Chutney Popcorn and Cosmopolitan.-Biography:...
. The film, based on an acclaimed short story by Akhil Sharma
Akhil Sharma
Akhil Sharma is an Indian-American author.Born in Delhi, India, he immigrated to the United States when he was eight, and grew up in Edison, New Jersey. Sharma studied at Princeton University, where he earned his B.A. in public policy at the Woodrow Wilson School...
and written by screenwriter Sabrina Dhawan
Sabrina Dhawan
Sabrina Dhawan is an England-born Indian screenwriter. She was born in England and was raised in New Delhi, India.Dhawan is most well known for Monsoon Wedding, a 2001 film directed by Mira Nair; and for Cosmopolitan, a 2003 American cross-cultural romance film directed by Nisha Ganatra and...
(Monsoon Wedding
Monsoon Wedding
* Originally featured in the Hindi film Loafer * Originally featured in the Hindi film Biwi No.1 -Awards:The movie won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival...
), is a cross-cultural romance between a confused and lonely middle-aged East India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
n, who has lived in America for 20 years, and his exasperating, free-spirited blonde neighbor.
Plot
In an American suburb in Northern New Jersey, conservative, middle-aged IndiaIndia
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
n immigrant Gopal, a telephone-company engineer who has taken early retirement, is celebrating Diwali
Diwali
Diwali or DeepavaliThe name of the festival in various regional languages include:, , , , , , , , , , , , , popularly known as the "festival of lights," is a festival celebrated between mid-October and mid-December for different reasons...
in November with his wife and grown daughter. His daughter suddenly tells him that she is leaving indefinitely to teach English in Mongolia
Mongolia
Mongolia is a landlocked country in East and Central Asia. It is bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south, east and west. Although Mongolia does not share a border with Kazakhstan, its western-most point is only from Kazakhstan's eastern tip. Ulan Bator, the capital and largest...
with her German boyfriend. As Gopal recovers from this shock and tries to talk her out of it, largely on the grounds that she will be living in sin in his eyes, his wife Madhu announces that she is leaving him as well, and is taking up the spiritual life in an ashram
Ashram
Traditionally, an ashram is a spiritual hermitage. Additionally, today the term ashram often denotes a locus of Indian cultural activity such as yoga, music study or religious instruction, the moral equivalent of a studio or dojo....
in India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
.
Confused, mortified, bored, and directionless, newly single Gopal lies to his few Indian-American acquaintances about the situation, and refuses to answer his daughter's phone calls from Mongolia. He tries to cope with his emptiness by redecorating slightly, searching through the various corners of his small house, reading newspapers, and watching videos of Bollywood
Bollywood
Bollywood is the informal term popularly used for the Hindi-language film industry based in Mumbai , Maharashtra, India. The term is often incorrectly used to refer to the whole of Indian cinema; it is only a part of the total Indian film industry, which includes other production centers producing...
romance extravaganza films. Desperately lonely, he latches upon a copy of Cosmopolitan
Cosmopolitan (magazine)
Cosmopolitan is an international magazine for women. It was first published in 1886 in the United States as a family magazine, was later transformed into a literary magazine and eventually became a women's magazine in the late 1960s...
magazine that had belonged to his daughter, and takes a quiz gauging a man's suitability for a relationship — which reveals that he is a "Ditchable Dude."
In the midst of his distress and his Bollywood fantasies, Gopal's eccentric neighbor, the oddly attractive divorcée Mrs. Shaw — whom he had previously thought of as loose-moraled (because of her one-night stands) and slovenly — appears at his door asking to borrow one of his rakes. This sets off a whole new set of fantasies on his part. A few nights later Gopal sees her on her porch nursing a drink, and after a tentative conversation, asks her to have Thanksgiving dinner with him at home the next day. While cleaning and straightening for the date, Gopal finds several more of his daughter's Cosmopolitans, and reads several articles on "What women want" from a man — evidently it is for them to "listen, listen, listen."
With the help of the advice gleaned from the pages of Cosmopolitan, and to some extent in spite of it, Gopal and Mrs. Shaw (Helen) hit it off, and develop a warm, tender, intimate relationship. Mrs. Shaw is a high school counselor, and therefore a good and empathetic listener herself, and Gopal confides in her about his childhood dreams and sorrows.
But the relationship does not go exactly as Gopal had planned. On Christmas Day, when Helen gently rebuffs his insistence on his long-term vision for the relationship, Gopal is very upset and shouts at her to leave. He then holes up sullen and frustrated in his house, refusing all attempts at communication from her, and is visibly angry when he sees she has a male visitor nearly a week later.
On New Year's Eve, Gopal discovers Helen has left a Christmas gift for him, and it is something very meaningful to him. He breaks down, and something in him shifts — regarding the relationship, his family, and himself.
Cast and characters
- Roshan SethRoshan SethRoshan Seth is an Indian-born British actor, who appears mainly in British and American films. He is known for his critically acclaimed performances in the films Gandhi, Mississippi Masala, Not Without My Daughter, My Beautiful Laundrette, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, and Such a Long...
– Gopal, a retired middle-aged Indian immigrant, who has been in America 20 years, and who has been complacently wed since childhood in an arranged marriage to Madhu
- Carol KaneCarol KaneCarolyn Laurie "Carol" Kane is an American actress. Kane has worked on the stage, on the screen and in television. She appeared on the television series Taxi in the early 1980s, as the wife of the character played by Andy Kaufman. She received two Emmy Awards for her work...
– Mrs. Shaw (Helen), Gopal's exasperating divorcée neighbor, who has conspicuous one-night stands and whose house and car are conspicuously unkempt in Gopal's eyes
- Madhur JaffreyMadhur JaffreyMadhur Jaffrey is an Indian actress and food writer who introduced the Western world to the many cuisines of India.- Personal life :...
– Madhu, Gopal's wife
- Purva BediPurva BediPurva Bedi is an Indian American actress. Although she was born in Chandigarh, she was brought up in Belgium and the United States....
– Geetu, Gopal and Madhu's daughter, who has grown up in America and who is newly unemployed
- Yolande BavanYolande BavanYolande Bavan is a singer and actress. Born in Ceylon , she toured Australia and Asia as a performer with Graeme Bell's band early in her career. She is best known for replacing Annie Ross in the legendary vocal group Lambert, Hendricks & Ross after Ross was forced to leave the group due to poor...
– Preema, Madhu's Indian-American friend, who is enthused about an MLMMulti-level marketingMulti-level marketing is a marketing strategy in which the sales force is compensated not only for sales they personally generate, but also for the sales of others they recruit, creating a downline of distributors and a hierarchy of multiple levels of compensation...
(multi-level marketing scheme)
- Taj Crown – Harish, Preema's husband, who is also an MLM convert
- Neerja Sharma – Vandana, Preema and Harish's daughter
- Kal PennKal PennKalpen Suresh Modi , best known by his stage name Kal Penn, is an American film and television actor, producer, and civil servant....
– Vandana's fiancé, a pre-med student
- Niket Subhedar – Young Gopal, whose life in India revolves around cricketCricketCricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...
- Stephen Barker TurnerStephen Barker TurnerStephen Barker Turner is an American actor.Barker is a Juilliard Drama School graduate from St. Louis, Missouri. After starring in numerous stage productions, he made his film debut in Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2. He has a small but important nonspeaking role in Cosmopolitan...
– Hans, Geetu's German boyfriend, who takes her off to Mongolia to teach English and live in a yurtYurtA yurt is a portable, bent wood-framed dwelling structure traditionally used by Turkic nomads in the steppes of Central Asia. The structure comprises a crown or compression wheel usually steam bent, supported by roof ribs which are bent down at the end where they meet the lattice wall...
Cast information
Distinguished Indian actor Roshan SethRoshan Seth
Roshan Seth is an Indian-born British actor, who appears mainly in British and American films. He is known for his critically acclaimed performances in the films Gandhi, Mississippi Masala, Not Without My Daughter, My Beautiful Laundrette, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, and Such a Long...
, a 20-year veteran of major American and British films, including lead roles in Gandhi
Gandhi (film)
Gandhi is a 1982 biographical film based on the life of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, who led the nonviolent resistance movement against British colonial rule in India during the first half of the 20th century. The film was directed by Richard Attenborough and stars Ben Kingsley as Gandhi. They both...
, Mississippi Masala
Mississippi Masala
Mississippi Masala is a romantic drama film directed by Mira Nair, based upon a screenplay by Sooni Taraporevala, starring Denzel Washington, Sarita Choudhury, and Roshan Seth. Set primarily in rural Mississippi, the film explores interracial romance between African Americans and Indian Americans...
, Not Without My Daughter
Not Without My Daughter
Not Without My Daughter is a film released in 1991 depicting the escape of American citizen Betty Mahmoody and her daughter from her husband in Iran. The film was shot in the United States and Israel, and the main characters are played by Sally Field and Alfred Molina...
, My Beautiful Laundrette
My Beautiful Laundrette
My Beautiful Laundrette is a 1985 British comedy-drama film directed by Stephen Frears from a screenplay by Hanif Kureishi. The story is set in London during the period when Margaret Thatcher was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, as shown through the complex—and often comical—relationships...
, and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom is a 1984 American adventure film directed by Steven Spielberg. It is the second film in the Indiana Jones franchise and prequel to Raiders of the Lost Ark . After arriving in India, Indiana Jones is asked by a desperate village to find a mystical stone...
, was chosen for the starring role of Gopal, the suddenly single Indian patriarch. Seth had also played the groom's father in screenwriter Sabrina Dhawan
Sabrina Dhawan
Sabrina Dhawan is an England-born Indian screenwriter. She was born in England and was raised in New Delhi, India.Dhawan is most well known for Monsoon Wedding, a 2001 film directed by Mira Nair; and for Cosmopolitan, a 2003 American cross-cultural romance film directed by Nisha Ganatra and...
's 2001 film, Monsoon Wedding
Monsoon Wedding
* Originally featured in the Hindi film Loafer * Originally featured in the Hindi film Biwi No.1 -Awards:The movie won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival...
.
Oscar-nominee Carol Kane
Carol Kane
Carolyn Laurie "Carol" Kane is an American actress. Kane has worked on the stage, on the screen and in television. She appeared on the television series Taxi in the early 1980s, as the wife of the character played by Andy Kaufman. She received two Emmy Awards for her work...
, familiar to many as Latka's wife Simka on the sitcom Taxi
Taxi (TV series)
Taxi was an American sitcom that originally aired from 1978 to 1982 on ABC and from 1982 to 1983 on NBC. The series, which won 18 Emmy Awards, including three for "Outstanding Comedy Series", focuses on the everyday lives of a handful of New York City taxi drivers and their abusive dispatcher...
, and noted also for her roles in Hester Street, Annie Hall
Annie Hall
Annie Hall is a 1977 American romantic comedy directed by Woody Allen from a screenplay co-written with Marshall Brickman and co-starring Diane Keaton. One of Allen's most popular and most honored films, it won four Academy Awards including Best Picture...
, The Princess Bride
The Princess Bride (film)
The Princess Bride is a 1987 American film based on the 1973 novel of the same name by William Goldman, combining comedy, adventure, romance, and fantasy. The film was directed by Rob Reiner from a screenplay by Goldman...
, and Scrooged
Scrooged
Scrooged is a 1988 American comedy film, a modernization of Charles Dickens' novella, A Christmas Carol. The film was produced and directed by Richard Donner, and the cinematography was by Michael Chapman. The screenplay was written by Mitch Glazer and Michael O'Donoghue...
, was chosen to play Gopal's unconventional American neighbor, divorcée Mrs. Shaw. "There was no other (casting) choice" for Mrs. Shaw, said co-producer Jen Small, who had previously worked with Kane on the 1998 PBS film The First Seven Years. Director Nisha Ganatra
Nisha Ganatra
Nisha Ganatra is a Canadian film director, film producer, writer and actor of Indian ancestry. She is most well known for her acclaimed films Chutney Popcorn and Cosmopolitan.-Biography:...
agreed: "We wanted to take advantage of Carol's incredible comic timing, and that way she has of making you laugh and breaking your heart at the same time."
To round out the major cast, Ganatra chose Merchant-Ivory actress Madhur Jaffrey
Madhur Jaffrey
Madhur Jaffrey is an Indian actress and food writer who introduced the Western world to the many cuisines of India.- Personal life :...
, who had been in her 1999 film Chutney Popcorn
Chutney Popcorn
Chutney Popcorn is a 1999 comedy-drama film starring, directed and co-written by Nisha Ganatra. Ganatra plays a young lesbian Indian American woman called Reena. Jill Hennessy plays her girlfriend Lisa and Reena's mother and sister are played by real life mother and daughter Madhur Jaffrey and...
, to play Gopal's disgruntled wife. Up-and-comer 18-year-old Indian-American actress Purva Bedi
Purva Bedi
Purva Bedi is an Indian American actress. Although she was born in Chandigarh, she was brought up in Belgium and the United States....
(American Desi
American Desi
American Desi is a 2001 American film with Indian influence, notable for featuring many prominent South Asian American actors. Also featured is an a cappella version of the Hindi classic "Aap Jaisa Koi", sung by Penn Masala and originally from the movie Qurbani...
) was cast as Gopal's daughter Geetu.
According to Ganatra, it was interesting watching Roshan Seth's and Carol Kane's conflicting acting styles. "Seth comes from the British school of theater acting and believes that his job is to deliver a consistent performance. Kane comes from the American school, where improvisation rules and a certain performance may not be duplicated. Seth wanted lots of rehearsals; Kane thought too much practice would make her performance stale." Nevertheless, the two actors very much enjoyed working together.
Script
Akhil SharmaAkhil Sharma
Akhil Sharma is an Indian-American author.Born in Delhi, India, he immigrated to the United States when he was eight, and grew up in Edison, New Jersey. Sharma studied at Princeton University, where he earned his B.A. in public policy at the Woodrow Wilson School...
's original short story "Cosmopolitan" initially appeared in The Atlantic Monthly
The Atlantic Monthly
The Atlantic is an American magazine founded in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1857. It was created as a literary and cultural commentary magazine. It quickly achieved a national reputation, which it held for more than a century. It was important for recognizing and publishing new writers and poets,...
, in January 1997. It was then anthologized and republished in the book The Best American Short Stories 1998, a selection of 20 short stories chosen by Garrison Keillor
Garrison Keillor
Gary Edward "Garrison" Keillor is an American author, storyteller, humorist, and radio personality. He is known as host of the Minnesota Public Radio show A Prairie Home Companion Gary Edward "Garrison" Keillor (born August 7, 1942) is an American author, storyteller, humorist, and radio...
.
Producers Jen Small, Jason Orans, and Brian Devine found "Cosmopolitan," which they considered "a little gem," in the 1998 anthology. They signed award-winning screenwriter Sabrina Dhawan
Sabrina Dhawan
Sabrina Dhawan is an England-born Indian screenwriter. She was born in England and was raised in New Delhi, India.Dhawan is most well known for Monsoon Wedding, a 2001 film directed by Mira Nair; and for Cosmopolitan, a 2003 American cross-cultural romance film directed by Nisha Ganatra and...
(Monsoon Wedding
Monsoon Wedding
* Originally featured in the Hindi film Loafer * Originally featured in the Hindi film Biwi No.1 -Awards:The movie won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival...
) to adapt it for their newly formed New York-based independent production company, Gigantic Pictures. "The rights to short stories are more accessible financially for small companies; and you can add, where a novel demands cutting," says Small.
Of the differences between adapting short stories versus novels, co-producer Jason Orans said, "Short stories are usually structured differently than movies. While a movie should have a three-act structure, a short story is often an exploration of character via a single defining event. The challenge is to create new material which both serves the story and supports a three-act structure. With Cosmopolitan, this meant [Sabrina Dhawan] adding a completely new first act to the story."
Director Nisha Ganatra
Nisha Ganatra
Nisha Ganatra is a Canadian film director, film producer, writer and actor of Indian ancestry. She is most well known for her acclaimed films Chutney Popcorn and Cosmopolitan.-Biography:...
, whose previous credits included the multiple-award-winning Chutney Popcorn
Chutney Popcorn
Chutney Popcorn is a 1999 comedy-drama film starring, directed and co-written by Nisha Ganatra. Ganatra plays a young lesbian Indian American woman called Reena. Jill Hennessy plays her girlfriend Lisa and Reena's mother and sister are played by real life mother and daughter Madhur Jaffrey and...
, was also intrigued by Akhil Sharma's short story. In her words, "I thought, this is a story we haven't seen. Indian American filmmakers are making these stories that are very ‘me, me, me' and the thing that I loved about 'Cosmopolitan' is that it's about our parents and loneliness, and that I found was very universal and exciting."
Screenwriter Sabrina Dhawan adapted, expanded, and fleshed out Sharma's short story. The original short story was very focused on Gopal's loneliness, and his initial inability to make physical or emotional contact with anyone. Dhawan kept and expanded the story's poignancy, while changing the focus to Gopal's relationship with Mrs. Shaw, giving the story specificity and universal relevance, and infusing it with wit.
Score and soundtrack
The score for the film was composed by Canadian-born composer Andrew LockingtonAndrew Lockington
Andrew Lockington is a Canadian film score composer, who composes scores for American and Canadian films. He was born July 31, 1974 in Burlington, Ontario....
, with whom director Nisha Ganatra, a fellow Canadian, had worked once before, on the 2003 film Fast Food High. The instrumental score includes string quartet, piano (performed by Lockington), clarinet, bansuri flute
Bansuri
The bansuri is a transverse alto flute of Bangladesh, India and Nepal made from a single hollow shaft of bamboo with six or seven finger holes. An ancient musical instrument associated with cowherds and the pastoral tradition, it is intimately linked to the love story of Krishna and Radha, and is...
, and tabla drum
Tabla
The tabla is a popular Indian percussion instrument used in Hindustani classical music and in popular and devotional music of the Indian subcontinent. The instrument consists of a pair of hand drums of contrasting sizes and timbres...
s.
The three Bollywood-parody songs, "Meri Desi Rani," "Come to Me," and "Destiny," were written, composed, and produced by eclectic New York Indo-pop pioneer Chris Rael
Chris Rael
Chris Rael is an eclectic American musician, singer, composer, and songwriter.Rael is the founder and leader of Indo-pop band Church of Betty, based in New York City. He has composed, recorded, and produced more than 25 CDs, collaborating with artists from around the world...
. The songs were performed by Rael along with eight members of his Indo-pop band Church of Betty, and Rael also sang the male leads of the songs.
Two of Rael's three Bollywood-parody songs in the film have dance numbers. One Bollywood-parody dance number features Kane, and the main dance number features Kane and Seth. Of his dancing in the main Bollywood number, Roshan Seth confessed, "I'm really quite spastic when it comes to all that, and uncoordinated, but Carol was very funny and we somehow got through it."
Funding
According to co-producer Jason Orans, the production team "fell in love with the story and were determined to make it from the moment we found out the rights were available. However, we were writing grant proposals for over two years before any funding was promised." The team used the immigrant-adrift-in-America theme of the story to garner major funding from the Corporation for Public BroadcastingCorporation for Public Broadcasting
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting is a non-profit corporation created by an act of the United States Congress, funded by the United States’ federal government to promote public broadcasting...
’s Diversity Initiative, and from the National Asian American Telecommunications Association. Funding was also obtained from the National Endowment for the Arts
National Endowment for the Arts
The National Endowment for the Arts is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created by an act of the U.S. Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government. Its current...
.
Filming
Most of the film was shot in New JerseyNew Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
in January 2003. The film’s Bollywood street dance number was shot in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
’s Jackson Heights
Jackson Heights, Queens
Jackson Heights is a neighborhood in the Northwestern portion of the borough of Queens in New York, New York, United States. The neighborhood is part of Queens Community Board 3...
, where colorful Indian-American signage helped make a ready-made outdoor set. Ganatra observes humorously that the outdoor dance number "kept getting pushed on the schedule because of weather, and we finally did it on the coldest day of the year with the poor actors in saris."
A few shooting locations had to be changed, and often the replacement locations turned out to be more interesting than those originally planned. A scene meant to take place in a large major bookstore could not be achieved, so it was shot in a little sweets shop attached to a restaurant the filmmakers were already shooting in. Co-producer Jason Orans says, "This became one of my favorite shots in the film, very colorful, evocative, and (naturally) sweet."
Cosmopolitan was filmed in 24P
24p
In video technology, 24p refers to a video format that operates at 24 frames per second frame rate with progressive scanning . Originally, 24p was used in the non-linear editing of film-originated material...
HD
High-definition video
High-definition video or HD video refers to any video system of higher resolution than standard-definition video, and most commonly involves display resolutions of 1,280×720 pixels or 1,920×1,080 pixels...
. For airing on PBS, the length of the film was trimmed by nearly three minutes; the television broadcast version and the DVD release run 53 minutes.
Release, broadcast, and DVD
Cosmopolitan premiered on opening night of the Indo-American Arts Council Film Festival, November 5, 2003, at Lincoln Center in New York CityNew York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. It was televised nationally beginning in June 2004 on the PBS
Public Broadcasting Service
The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
series Independent Lens
Independent Lens
Airing weekly on PBS through ITVS, the Emmy Award-winning series Independent Lens introduces new drama and documentary films made by independent filmmakers. Past seasons of Independent Lens have been presented by hosts Angela Bassett, Don Cheadle, Susan Sarandon, Edie Falco, Terrence Howard, Maggie...
.
The film has also had screenings around the country at various film festivals. The DVD of the film is made available by Gigantic Pictures on the film's official website.
Major themes
Some of the themes in Cosmopolitan include:- The confusions and broadening opportunities of cross-cultural romance.
- The loneliness of the first-generation immigrant in small-town suburban America. Gopal is cut off from and has lost touch with India, but doesn't fit in in America either.
- Love, and the possibility of love, after divorce in middle age.
- The growth of the protagonist from a narrow-minded, convention-minded Indian partriarch oblivious to the needs of women, to an honest, free, open, loving, accepting, and actualized person.
- The fact that love is not always black and white.
- The foibles and coping mechanisms that are part of the human condition.
- Honesty, communication, tenderness, and empathy in relationships.
- Authenticity and honesty versus ploys, assumptions, or manipulations in relationships.
Critical reception
Cosmopolitan was selected as one of 10 American PBS programs screened at INPUT 2005, an international conference on the best in public television. It was the only narrative film to have that distinction.The film has received very favorable print reviews, and was variously described as "charming," "wry," "touching," and "hilarious" by Variety
Variety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
, Newsday
Newsday
Newsday is a daily American newspaper that primarily serves Nassau and Suffolk counties and the New York City borough of Queens on Long Island, although it is sold throughout the New York metropolitan area...
, Time Out New York, and The Southeast Asian. The Boston Phoenix noted the film's "superb performances." New Beats remarked that screenwriter Dhawan and director Ganatra "capture the sense of suburban desolation in Gopal's world and the vivaciousness of Bollywood in the fantasy sequences. ... [D]epicting love so realistically with a sense of whimsy ... makes [the film] engaging."
The Associated Press
Associated Press
The Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...
called Cosmopolitan a "witty and tender depiction of mature romance." And the Austin Chronicle
Austin Chronicle
The Austin Chronicle is an alternative weekly, tabloid-style newspaper published every Thursday in Austin, Texas, United States. The paper is distributed through free news-stands, often at local eateries or coffee houses frequented by its targeted demographic...
wrote, "Director Nisha Ganatra has crafted a frothy yet poignant valentine to first-generation immigrants longing for their home country while forging a new life in their adopted one, and a celebration of the romantic lurking within even the most resigned-to-loneliness heart."
Ronnie Sheib in Variety
Variety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
noted the "friendly cross-cultural fireworks" between Roshan Seth and Carol Kane, and stated that "[c]hemistry between leads spikes in quirky arcs, with fantasy Bollywood musical sequences livening up tender moments." Calling the film "charming," he opined that the film "suffers slightly from tasteful restraint and numbers are often more pleasing in concept than execution," but also felt that the film "successfully sidesteps [a] rarified, over-literary small-screen look." Carol Kane as Mrs. Shaw is praised for her nuanced performance: "Such is the power of Kane's oddball sweetness that she is able to invest these scenes with amazing emotional resonance. Overweight and without makeup, Kane has a vulnerability that reads as a rare form of courage." And director Nisha Ganatra is noted for "ground[ing] Kane's feyness in workaday experience and middle-aged acceptance, making her the perfect vehicle for Seth's long-delayed voyage of self-discovery."
See also
- List of American films of 2003
- Independent LensIndependent LensAiring weekly on PBS through ITVS, the Emmy Award-winning series Independent Lens introduces new drama and documentary films made by independent filmmakers. Past seasons of Independent Lens have been presented by hosts Angela Bassett, Don Cheadle, Susan Sarandon, Edie Falco, Terrence Howard, Maggie...
- BollywoodBollywoodBollywood is the informal term popularly used for the Hindi-language film industry based in Mumbai , Maharashtra, India. The term is often incorrectly used to refer to the whole of Indian cinema; it is only a part of the total Indian film industry, which includes other production centers producing...
- CosmopolitanCosmopolitan (magazine)Cosmopolitan is an international magazine for women. It was first published in 1886 in the United States as a family magazine, was later transformed into a literary magazine and eventually became a women's magazine in the late 1960s...
- DesiDesiDesi or Deshi refers to the people, cultures, and products of the Indian subcontinent and, increasingly, to the people, cultures, and products of their diaspora. Desi countries include India, Pakistan, Bangladesh...
External links
Official sites- Official website
- Official website – Gigantic Pictures
- Official website – PBSPublic Broadcasting ServiceThe Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
, Independent LensIndependent LensAiring weekly on PBS through ITVS, the Emmy Award-winning series Independent Lens introduces new drama and documentary films made by independent filmmakers. Past seasons of Independent Lens have been presented by hosts Angela Bassett, Don Cheadle, Susan Sarandon, Edie Falco, Terrence Howard, Maggie... - At-a-Glance: Cosmopolitan (ITVSITVSIndependent Television Service is a service in the United States which funds and presents documentaries and dramas on public television, new media projects on the Internet, and the weekly series Independent Lens and Global Voices on PBS....
) - Film Credits (complete)
Interviews
- Interview with Roshan Seth and Carol Kane
- 7-minute audio interview with Roshan Seth on NPRNPRNPR, formerly National Public Radio, is a privately and publicly funded non-profit membership media organization that serves as a national syndicator to a network of 900 public radio stations in the United States. NPR was created in 1970, following congressional passage of the Public Broadcasting...
's All Things ConsideredAll Things ConsideredAll Things Considered is the flagship news program on the American network National Public Radio. It was the first news program on NPR, and is broadcast live worldwide through several outlets...
, June 3, 2004
Media