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| Showtimes | Sat March 13 6:15 PM / KAB313G |
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USA/India, 1998, 84 mins,
35mm, color, English & Hindi w/e.s.
Director Darshan BHAGAT (in person); Screenplay Vijay BALAKRISHNAN, Darshan BHAGAT; Producers Emory VAN CLEVE, Darshan BHAGAT; Dir. Photography Emory VAN CLEVE; Editors James COZZA, Ana GIL-COSTA; Cast Darshan BHAGAT, Josh PAIS, Balraj UPPAL, Mariusz SZCZECH, Don CREECH
Director and star Darshan Bhagat’s first feature film, KARMA LOCAL, dubbed a "multicultural comic thriller" by its makers, immediately draws us into the world of Bali, a young Indian American man who sells candy, soda and newspapers to hurrying customers at his uncle’s newsstand deep in the bowels of Fulton Street subway station. Encouraged by the odd behavior of a coin he has just donated to an underground musician, he thinks his luck, or karma, is about to change. When he is entrusted with a bag of smelly fish that also contains $7,000, Bali embarks on a wild ride into the world of Fulton Fish Market, Belmont racetrack gamblers, angry racists, and gangsters who quote the Bhagavad-Gita.
Unlike his Uncle Gareeb, who conforms to the strict immigrant ethic of minding one’s business and working hard all day, Bali is a slacker whose idea of "action" is looking for omens that signal a sudden change in fortune. For him, the American dream is a windfall that is handed to him in a paper bag and then just as easily flies out his window, leaving fish scattered all over his apartment. The heavy philosophical implications of Bali’s fate are lightened by charming comic touches, such as his fish-sated cat sprawled on the bed and his own bored antics with a toy megaphone.
KARMA LOCAL is a subway train hurtling through immigrant New York, in the end bursting above ground to soar across the magnificent sunset skyline.
—Frako Loden
Presented with India Currents