January 25, 2006
Sari-nityFilm
Last year’s sci-fi flick Serenity turned out to be a WB-movie after all. The captain, a ramblin’ wreck from Duct Tape Tech, tosses his Conan locks and whines incessantly about the health of his ship. But the character is also as hilariously amoral as Han Solo and Indiana Jones. The movie is a whole lot more fun than it has any right to be, and when Heath Ledger’s squire gets shafted, it’s a moment of genuine pathos.
One of the conceits of the plot is that in the future, everyone will speak Chinese and import high tech machinery from India. In a couple of spots, the camera zooms in on hovercraft and spaceship parts prominently stenciled in Punjabi. (Presumably Mahindra Tractors is now Mahindra Tractor Beams.) Indophile also recently noticed that the costume designer drew inspiration from desi formalwear:
It’s ironic that a movie called Serenity bypasses desi philosophy for blingwear which evokes anything but. I say we give Brasilian-American actress Morena Baccarin a couple more turns around the fire and make her an honorary sepiate.
manish on January 25, 2006 08:49 PM in Fashion, Film · T·r·a·c·k·b·a·c·k address · Direct link · Email post
From seeing yoni's in mangos, to racy book covers to a brasilian chica in a sari, all within 24 hours, I say the 'Pun'-jabi in Manish has been trumped by the Fun-jabi. Oh we shall miss those glorious moments of pun-ditry. ;)
she be hot.
agreed Razib...she be indeed hotness
we need more sardars. lots of them. please.
The TV series Firefly (on which the movie is based) had Morena look even more desi... I nearly mistook her for one. She be hot but Jewel Staite be yummy too.
Ummm...isn't that Teri Hatcher in the Sari-ish thing?
nope, it's Morena/Inara... i so want to be her, but am much more Kaylee.sigh.
Firefly had its share of desi-inspired costuming. One of the guest characters in the episode where they crash a posh ball is decked out in a sherwani (and looks pretty darn good, even though he's a total jerk in the episode) ... I distinctly remember Inara in lehenga choli in one episode as well. Guess I have to go back and re-watch the whole series - again - to find other examples. But it's mostly in the clothes; the 'ethnic' element, (note that all of the characters, even the Tam siblings, are white except Zoe...and the villains), is definedly Chinese. I wonder if those are REAL Chinese swear words they throw around?
And i missed the Punjabi on the ship parts ! good catch :))
I knew you would comment here Andrea :p ... But you are right about the 'ethnic' element. In the Firefly universe, Mandarin is a second language to English and the desi clothes are mostly worn by the 'companions' (respected geishas in that world). That gives the show an 'international' outlook I guess. Not sure how that makes me feel. I really loved the show because I am a sucker for scifi. Btw I think there was a hint of a Punjabi song in an episode too.
andrea: you wonder, and the firefly faithful put up a website.
"Heath Ledger"? Don't you mean Nathan Fillion? And hey, um, spoiler alert.
"Btw I think there was a hint of a Punjabi song in an episode too."
I heard that song on the series DVD. It was from an old Punjabi folk song O'Ma-da-nee-a or something like that. Shame they don't list the music or songs on the DVDs. It was a cool song would luv to know who sang it.
The movie didn't eschew desi philosophy entirely: don't you remember Mal's 'Lord Buddha, please bring me a pony?' The planet that Inara was on seemed to be South Asian-themed: the aforementioned Buddha looked more like a traditional Indian depiction than an East Asian one, and Inara's clothes were India-inspired throughout the movie.
No, Alan Tudyk played Heath Ledger's squire in A Knight's Tale.
Hmmm, somehow I missed that movie. By the by, there's a movement afoot to get a second season of Firefly made.
//Whedon-fan
Er, I'm not so sure that's legit - there have been questions floating about the web on how sincere that effort really is.