Never Have I Ever a dramedy created by Mindy Kaling and Lang Fisher and is now streaming on Netflix. It is basically a coming of age story about a teenager in America and how she deals with it. The twist? She is Indian-American (that's dots, not feathers). The show doesnt stereotype Indians much. Devi and her family are from India, well Tamil Nadu to be precise. The show, even though it is a dramedy, can be seen as a case study on how an Indian teenager (although born in America) deals with all the normal habits of teenage, including relationships, mood swings and wanting to have a feeling of privacy.
The show also shows how no matter where we are, the Indian mindset doesn't change. The aunties they meet at the Ganesh Puja are as nosy as in India. They meddle in others' business, gossip all the time and socially exclude a woman who has been divorced. The show defines them perfectly. "Aunties are older Indian women who have no blood relationship to you, but are allowed to have opinions about your life and all your shortcomings, and you have to be nice to them, because you're Indian".
Devi sees many of her friends being independent and being allowed to go out and have fun and enter into relationships, while she is under the control of her typical Indian mother who has a say in each and every aspect of her life, and this troubles her. She feels like she has no sense of privacy, compared to her other friends who are allowed to throw parties, while she isn't allowed to even attend one.
Netflix in this scenario also takes advantage and uses a lot of self branding. For instance, the boy wearing a Stranger Things tshirt and Kamala and Devi watching Riverdale together, or the pun used by the chemistry teacher (breaking good, a pun on Breaking Bad which is streaming on Netflix) and Ben Gross being a fan of Rick and Morty (another show on Netflix).
There are a few stereotypes in this show, but nothing to be taken as an offence. Almost every actor who has potrayed someone with Indian lineage in an American sitcom has been called for a part in this.
Let me tell a bit about the characters. There is Devi Vishwakumar, an Indian-American teenager, her mother Nalini, her father Mohan, who is now dead, her cousin Kamala who has a boyfriend named Steve but is instead forced to get into an arranged marriage with a man named Prashanth, who turns out to be nicer than expect and not, in their words, an "uggo". Devi has two friends Eleanor, who is very much into theatre and pursues acting because her mom, who left her at a young age, was an actor, and Fabiola, an Afrian-American, who (surprise surprise!) finds out that she is a lesbian. Almost every show does this! Have the writers run out of ideas for the supporting characters? Devi has, in her words, a "nemesis" named Ben Gross who is a rich white kid, and is the only one who is at par, and sometimes better, with the intellectual abilities of Devi. And finally, Devi's crush Paxton Hall-Yoshida, who is a swimmer and is Japanese-American.
Later in the show, an uncle arrives (or as they call him, Periyappa because they are Tamilians) who also seems to have a say in the family's decisions. His name is Aravind. He tells one of my favourite lines in the show "You cant run at night in Los Angeles! This is the city of Charles Manson and Harvey Weinstein".
The show consists of ten episodes, out of which nine episodes are narrated by famous tennis personality John McEnroe, and one episode is narrated by Andy Samberg, or as he introduces himself, "an American actor, producer, writer, and fake rapper".
Now let me talk about the finale. The last ten minutes of the finale can be divided into two parts. Part one, Devi's situation with her family, and part two, Devi's situation with her love life.
Devi's situation with her family becomes better. After she ran out of the house and said to her mom "I wish you were the one who had died that night", she goes and stays in Ben's house. But now, after much thinking, she goes to Malibu to meet up with her mom and cousin to scatter her dad's ashes in the beach, and Ben drives her to Malibu. The ending of this part is a very Bollywood-y ending with everyone crying and hugging while Beautiful Day by U2 plays in the background (which was her dad's favourite song). But then again, I guess that was theme of the show. Devi, after all the crying, agrees to return home and live with her family again.
Devi's situation with her love life takes unexpected turns after she and Paxton have a fight (after Devi's mom tells Paxton that he isn't intelligent). While agreeing with her family that she will return home, she glances at Ben who is still waiting for her in the car (although he dozed off). She tells her family to wait a minute and gets inside Ben's car and kisses him, while Paxton, who is waiting outside her house, tries reaching her. A very Sex Education type ending, I would say.
All in all, Never Have I Ever is an excellent show with a wonderful cast who can actually pronounce half the words without using a fake accent, and amazing writing. In the end, all I wanted to say was, "This is such a Mylapore behaviour da dei".
-Tejaswi S J Rao
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