May 06, 2005
Over my headFilm
This post is about part-desi actresses who pass for white or Arab in mediocre movies which you’ve actually seen, whose ethnicity you learn later, then feel a really big d’oh! coming on, like Homer Simpson missing the email about an overturned tanker-trailer full of jelly donuts.
Exhibit A: Zuleikha Robinson, the Bedouin love interest in Hidalgo and daughter of Shylock in The Merchant of Venice.
My father is English and my mother is mostly Indian and a little bit of Burmese and a little bit of Arabic… I was born in England and then I moved to San Francisco, then we moved to Malaysia, and Thailand, and Singapore. By this time I was thirteen and I left to go to boarding school in England.
I hope she means Arab. Robinson is currently filming the part of Moushmi, the love interest in The Namesake.
Exhibit B: Rhona Mitra, the New York friend in Sweet Home Alabama (and Lara Croft).
… my dad is from Calcutta. But I’m also part Irish. It’s a confusing heritage. I never know if I want to be running across the fields with no clothes on or sitting in the pub drinking Guinness… we used to nick holy wine from the church and drink it in the potato patch at the back of the school.
Hmm, yes, that’s definitely convent school behavior. Whether Indian or Irish, I can’t say. Here’s a fun quote out of context (thanks, Chandni):
Q: But you have had your breasts enlarged.A: Yes, but my dad had nothing to do with it… apparently a load of people phoned up the hospital where he works, the next day asking for tits like Rhona Mitra.
manish on May 6, 2005 08:25 AM in Film · T·r·a·c·k·b·a·c·k address · Direct link · Email post
¤ Ultrabrown said: ‘The Namesake’ trailer
Isnt rhona mitra in Boston Legal (The Practice spin-off). Wow i would never have pegged her for being part desi!
Yup, she's in 'Boston Legal.'
Tatyana Ali, who played Ashley Banks on the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, has an Indian dad, by way of Trinidad. Her mom is a black Panamanian woman.
the last name "mitra" is a give-away (i believe the normal persian spelling anglicized is "mithra," though i once knew a hot half-iranian chick with the first name "mitra"), no? robinson's ethnicity has been garbled many times in the press, nice that the she clarified it.
Rhona Mitra in FHM.
the last name "mitra" is a give-away (i believe the normal persian spelling anglicized is "mithra," though i once knew a hot half-iranian chick with the first name "mitra"), no? robinson's ethnicity has been garbled many times in the press, nice that the she clarified it.
Mitra is an Aryan god, and as such is found in both Hinduism and Zoroastrianism...so you'll find the name among Persians and desis too.
More Tatyana Ali on AskMen.
Half desis aren't that special in the looks department...these chicks aren't hot. Half (east) Asians are way better.
Vi, I am appauled. Half desis are damn fine...Rhona, Indira Varma, Tulip Joshi, Lisa Ray, Padma Lakshmi, *cough*me*cough*....
If I can dig up my copy of the Big Book of Racism, I can probably find more undercover desis.
my mother is mostly Indian and a little bit of Burmese and a little bit of Arabic
Its Arab not Arabic.
Ok, I see Manish had already corrected that. My bad.
Padma Lakshmi is not HALF desi. She is a FULL desi born to both India parents.
I hope Indians dont fall in the trap of
White + Anything = Anything.
That suggests that White is the purest form. Its a tacit acknowledgement of superiority of 'White' (or European)
Again, whoever is using my call sign "Blank", please stop doing so. The above poster is not me.
Indira Varma? I didn't know she was half desi... in any case, I'm still traumatized after watching her in Kama Sutra. (Not work safe)
Mitra is an Aryan god, and as such is found in both Hinduism and Zoroastrianism...so you'll find the name among Persians and desis too.
yeah, i know that. ergo, i said 'normal persian spelling anglicized is "mithra,".' if you want to be pedantic: mithra: "He is also known as Mitra in the Indian Veda." so a woman with the surname "mitra" should be south asian if etymologies are any clue...
yeah, i know that. ergo, i said 'normal persian spelling anglicized is "mithra,".' if you want to be pedantic: mithra: "He is also known as Mitra in the Indian Veda." so a woman with the surname "mitra" should be south asian if etymologies are any clue...
Geez...talk about defensive, I was just adding background info. Anyway, the word mitra also has connotations of friendliness but you seem to be missing that aspect of the word. A lot of good your pedantry did you.
All my half white/half desi cousins are very good looking. And whoever above said that those two ladies weren't... well, honey, get your eyes checked.
The white+brown combine does not always work. I knew such a combo-kid back in college - his face looked like he got beat up on his way thru the birth canal. Smart as hell though.
KXB - who knows, maybe my lot just have a glimmering gene pool...
Rhona Mitra also had a small but memorable cameo in Paul Verhoeven's Hollow Man, the worst summer film of 2000.
you all seem really obsessed with this half and half thing- are u not happy being desi?
Sir Cyril Burt
More than happy.
half desi girls are hot dude. you're full of it! and not only are we hot, we're smart to boot :)
i dont know why race should be so prominently topic of ddiscussion I have been dating a white girl..surely i appreciate the differences n similarity we have but I think only based on some such criteria seeking something meaningful is impossible..may be we wont ever marry but I must say whats important is surely having known what you atleast wanted to know..i was curious about white girls..now I am not i just like her..
My mother is an extremely dark skinned Punjabi. A Rajput from the north. My father Irish and English, raised in the US and UK.
I look mainly Desi, with very bright green eyes. I have never encountered any racism, but my I have seen my mother endure quite a bit of it from other Indians because she is so dark-skinned. She's darker than most African women. My friends, relatives and peers were never phased by her dark skin but were often overwhelmed by her beauty.
Indians are hurrendously racist. Intellectual honesty at work.
