"The Big Sick" Critique

What did you do this early release day? Great, cool; well me, I spent those extra two hours of freedom watching this movie:

Essentially, this loosely biographical movie is about a Pakistani-American man child (Kumail Nanjani) who falls in love with a terminally ill white girl (Emily), much to the distaste of his traditional parents. I'll admit this film is (to an extent) groundbreaking, with a Muslim protagonist who's used to "being ever the suspect" due to his appearance (Staples 545). A specific scene parallels Staples being stereotyped as a thug with Nanjani being stereotyped as a terrorist sympathizer, and having to explain "his stance" on 9/11. Although this representation is important, the portrayal of my specific demographic is a tired and over-played depiction.

Throughout the film, Nanjani is bombarded with countless rishtas (marriage proposals) of Pakistani women coordinated by his mother. The first instance shows a wide eyed girl who comes prepared knowing all sorts of trivia about Nanjani's favorite show, "The X-Files". This scene is clearly used for comedic effect, and ends with a disturbed Nanjani now even further unconvinced about arranged marriage. The film is continually sprinkled with different rishtas visiting, handing him their picture to put in his peculiar box of lost prospects, and being rejected. The last one ends with Nanjani finally confessing his love to Emily to a Pakistani woman who's genuinely interested in him. This whole plot line had me like:

Let's get a couple things clear here. In this film, Nanjani is a full time Uber driver, part time struggling comedian. Not to belittle his occupation, but why is he shown as a catch and the Pakistani women as struggling to find matches? This narrative is reminiscent of Aziz Ansari in Master of None (if anyone even watches that), and is SO tiring. He literally has a one man play about the history and significance of Pakistan, and at the same time is too good for any girl with an accent. The best part is that to prove his love to Emily, he presents her with the metaphorical ashes of Pakistani women.

ARE Y'ALL HEARING THIS??

Not only does he make these women sound unwanted, but expendable and useless. The biggest irony lies in the fact that in reality, no one would want him as a potential suitor in the first place. We've been giving the free hand to entitled brown boys to morph the narrative for a while, and it's high time South Asian women tell our stories, from our perspective.