Awww. Love between a boy and girl can be so wonderful! Getting a Green Card is just the icing on the cake. Courtesy of greencardfever.com

What's the Cure for Green Card Fever? Suing Your lawyer!

By Nayla Huq

Corrupt immigration "experts," pimping parents, and the hot pursuit of a green card make up Bala Rajasekharuni's directorial debut, "Green Card Fever," a romantic comedy/drama. Vikram Dasu stars as the naïve Murali Ravilapind, a runaway student from a cultural exchange program who overstays his visa, and so desperately seeks legality in the US. He can't just return home. His father sees him as a failure, and he's a dancer. Trapped between poverty and illegal status in the US and more poverty and failure back home, what can Murali do to solve all his problems? Why, sue his lawyer for his green card of course! Everyone knows that the only way to get anything done in the U.S. is to sue someone.

Murali's white-washed lawyer, Omjeet Singh, finds that there's truth to the saying: what goes around comes around. Courtesy of greencardfever.com

Sure it makes no sense to sue Murali's white-washed Indian-American lawyer Omjeet Singh (Deep Katdare), but it's not Murali's idea. Even though the yuppie chews the FOB (Fresh Off the Boat) out for trying to relate to him ethnically, Murali is too honest to cook up such a plot.

Instead, he foolishly trusts the slimy Indian-American "Godfather" of Immigration, played by Kaaizad Kotwal. In partnership with the unscrupulous lawyer Chan (Robert Lin), the "Godfather" manipulates Murali's trustfulness in order to have him give false testimony against Omjeet Singh, the lawyer whose free council Murali first seeks. The "Godfather" and Chan make empty promises to their illegal immigrant clients about getting them green cards, while making money off of their physical labor. Singh, the rude but ethical lawyer, stands in their way of extorting money from trusting immigrants like Murali.

Before entrusting his legalization proceedings to the "Godfather", Murali searches for work at the Telugu Conference, where he meets the Americanized Bharati (Purva Bedi). She mistakes his flirtation as a courtship for a green card and ridicules him for his "Indianness". But how can you really blame her? Her pimping parents deck her out in a bright red, midriff-bearing, two-piece as a trophy bride for any helpmeet-hunting Desi software geek that suits them. (She already has a long-time boyfriend, but he's white so he doesn't count. Her parents may not even now about him.) But since she has American values, she curbs neither her repulsion at this practice, nor any of her disgust at her other slithery "true-love" potentials.

Murali thinks to himself: Must overcome "Desi shyness." Must muster up courage to kiss her! Courtesy of greencardfever.com

Bharati's anti-Indian insults are thrown back at her however by her prejudiced white boyfriend. She then turns to Murali, and so is paved a bumpy road to romance. Their relationship strengthens his need to live in the US.

Even though "Green Card Fever" has its laughs, tenderness and sympathy arousing moments, it is heavily plagued with overly dramatic emotional scenes, exaggerated racism, a good deal of bad acting, and an awkwardly resolved "Indianizing" subplot for Singh. It has lots of potential to be a great satirical comedy, but it just didn't come together right.

Rajasekharuni's low budget debut would probably disappoint American audiences (though they seem to be targeted) but will probably work its magic on Bollywood fans, even without the typical Bollywood song and dance sequences.

"Green Card Fever" opened in selected theaters Friday, August 22nd, and is currently only playing at the Naz 8 Cinemas Theater in Lakewood, CA

Check out naz8.com, or greencardfever.com for more information.

August 29, 2003