Cheerfully hewn in the tradition of the “big party” college farce, this Houston-set ensemble comedy is more than a little bit broad: smelly-immigrant gags, wacky montages, a Bollywood song-and-dance number. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Yaar has enough heart to redeem its cruder moments, and it turns out to be quite a little charmer. Hapless Hari Patel (Malhotra) is what his Americanized family calls an “FOB” – fresh off the boat from India and sportin’ a head full of coconut oil, squeaky-clean sneakers, and a passion for electrical engineering. A dork in any language, Hari is doubly embarrassing to Mohan (Penn), his too-cool-for-school housemate, a party promoter who prefers hip-hop to bhangra. Complications ensue en route to the exclusive “Desi Fever” fete, which is strictly off-limits to Hari. Too bad Hari believes it’s his destiny to breach the velvet rope – and meet the girl of his dreams inside. The movie walks a fine line with its characterization of Hari, a stereotype incarnate who’s kind of like a South Asian version of Urkel. Naturally he’ll go apeshit in a 99-cent store and drink chai from a saucer while floating in the pool. But if the filmmakers (most of whom are first-generation immigrants themselves) do crack jokes at the expense of recent arrivals, they also poke fun at the pimpmobiles, fashion obsessions, and suburban McMansions of second-generation arrivistes. There are some great visual gags (Mohan’s identity-challenged tweenage brother morphs from b-boy to Goth to urban cowboy) and witticisms throughout. (A single shout – “Mr. Patel, your Toyota Camry lights are on!” – disperses dozens of party-minded desi dudes.) The cast and crew are largely rookies, and the film’s independent pedigree shows at times (some choppy edits and sparsely populated crowd scenes), but Mathews makes a remarkably assured debut, and the production design is nicely evocative of the desi milieu. Another standout is Penn, an easygoing, almost deadpan actor with plenty of leading-man appeal. In combining a wacky comic tone with a satirical statement about ethnic identity, Yaar is reminiscent of Robert Townsend’s Hollywood Shuffle. Likewise, it should provide Mathews and co-scripter Sunil Thakkar with a solid start and mark them as talents to watch. (Where’s the Party Yaar? previously played Austin during the SXSW Film Festival.)
This article appears in November 7 • 2003.