Native Immigrants (Movie Review)

Okay, time for a commissioned movie-review! :)

But before that, first, the movie – NATIVE IMMIGRANTS

Review:

What if you get up one fine morning at your home, dress up and arrive at work, and you’re told to “GO HOME NOW”? Right! As much as is said about roots and identities, this becomes the stark reality for some unfortunate souls that we’d prefer not to much think about from our personal safe cocooned space of shelters we call our home. Unless.

Unless, well, you’re one of them. Unless, it happens to you. Unless… Now, that’s a rather powerful word, won’t you say? Take this liberal statement, for example:

“You belong to wherever you feel you belong… and you are wherever you feel you are!

(…Silence…)

Unless, you’re a Pakistani and you pretend to be anything else!”

The film – Native Immigrant - is important more than perfect, because it dogs out an issue we’d like to forget about, and yet it is so real that it necessitates that we talk about it. That we feel.

The content of the film is intriguing and provocative, and shows the variety of cases across a Chinese and a Kenyan to a Bangalorean, and also across the issues faced which range from pay cuts and pink slips to basic community feeling, or rather the lack of it. It is important in that it brings up a subject we haven’t yet fund a way out of. It is important because we are still playing politics world-wide on the issue of immigration, seeking refuge in popular sentiments of national security while there’s more, much more, to it than that. It is important because, racism is real, even today.

Having said that, when it comes to execution, there is a point or two to talk about regarding how it could have got much better First, the interview style of narration is useful, but the unreality of the rehearsed dialogues offer a rather unimpressive view of the real reality of the state of matters. Secondly, I found the movie to be weak on the front of making a real statement or at least a shaped up takeaway, from an audience point of view. While it attempted to evoke compassion, it mixed it up while dealing with too many issues without stopping to substantiate any of them sufficiently to be able to stay and make mark. And thus, by the end of it you are aware but not quite involved as much as a subject matter as intriguing as this could be capable of. Finally, it fails to show the other side of the debate, or at least some relevant empirics and statistics to be able to, again, make a proper statement which we as audience can retain and react upon.

All in all, let us congratulate the team for a brilliant and courageous topic that they’ve worked on, and wish them the best for their future endeavors.

I rate the film a 3 on a scale of 5.