‘American Sikh’: A Short Film About Larger-than-life Saga of a Community in India and Beyond
- The animation film, coproduced by celebrity chef and author Vikas Khanna, captures the turning points in the life of the film’s co-director Vishavjit Singh.
“American Sikh” is an animated short film that premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in June besides other locations and is currently being shown in special screenings across the country, as well as on the film’s website for a limited time for free.
The movie is 10 minutes long. Yet that is where the shortness ends. Most of everything else about the film is large and deep. “American Sikh” captures the big turning points in the life of the film’s co-director Vishavjit Singh — a turban-wearing Sikh — as he grapples with the many ways in which he perceives dissonance with his immediate surroundings. The film starts with the victimization of the Sikh in India, in the aftermath of the assassination of Indira Gandhi (India’s then Prime Minister) in 1984. The riots that officially consumed the lives of approximately 2,800 Sikhs across India, most in the capital city of Delhi, scarred the protagonist’s family, who then migrated to the USA.
In America, the young Vishvajit is even more confused as people stare at him in a way that no one has in India. He rebels against the religious norms that were expected of him. He cut his hair and went through many years of his youth wondering why he felt lost. Through a detour into some other spiritual moorings, he finally comes back to Sikhism and begins to wear the turban in August 2001. Little did he know that the Twin Towers would soon fall.
9/11 brought its share of hate crimes against the Sikhs as the turban and the beard of the Sikh began to be identified with that of the 9/11 attacks’ mastermind Osama Bin Laden. As the film’s hero hits a nadir of self-confidence, he haplessly looks all around for what would make him fit such that he never has to explain himself to anyone who questions his Americanness. Without spoiling it for future viewers, we can state that reconciliation occurs when Vishavjit acquires an unimaginable and sweet super-power.
My reflection on the film is incomplete if I don’t put the film in the backdrop of the recent murmurs of Sikh separatist movements by diaspora Sikhs especially in Canada and the United Kingdom.
Vishavjit is now at peace with his Sikh identity as an American. His confidence in himself has magnified into generosity of an inclusive lens. He uses that to create awareness for all faiths and races. The film is an animation movie, with Vishavjit’s voice-over being the main anchor. Writer and co-Director Ryan Westra has succeeded in carefully adding to the film only those parts of Vishavjit’s life story that make for a quick pace, and yet without a sense of rush. It is a crisp film with gripping detailed images, and it manages to cover two unpleasant and violent historical incidents in two different geographies in a way that evokes fear and angst without making it disturbingly hurtful.
Personally, for me, the movie was an entry point into reflecting on my relationship with Sikhs and Sikhism. To start with, growing up in India, in grade-school history texts I learned that India is the birthplace of Sikhism. We had Sikh neighbors and we had unrestricted interactions with them. The 1984 riots were a shameful time for all of us in India then, and I recall my mother being particularly protective of our neighborhood Sikh grocer, with whom she maintained a sisterly relationship. Over the years, ‘Santa-Banta’ jokes were often heard and laughed at, though in hindsight I have realized that the two Sikh characters — Santa and Banta were the equivalent of the ‘Blonde’ jokes. I now know that using a particular category of people to repeatedly make jokes of, is the equivalent of stereotyping that leads to stigmatization.
I have thus stopped being amused by such jokes, and I do alter the cast in narratives as and when required. I am also proud of the fact that India has had a Sikh President (while America has yet to have a female President). A visit to the Golden Temple in Amritsar in Punjab-India continues to be on my bucket list because I have heard from everyone who has visited that temple that the sense of peace and service that permeates the air there is a bliss to be cherished for a lifetime.
With India’s latest Oscar-winning producer Guneet Monga Kapoor (of “Elephant Whisperers” fame) and Michelin-starred chef, bestselling author, and filmmaker Vikas Khanna as executive producers — the film has a good roster to draw expertise from. The film is currently doing the rounds for a possible nomination for the upcoming Oscars.
My reflection on the film is incomplete if I don’t put the film in the backdrop of the recent murmurs of Sikh separatist movements by diaspora Sikhs especially in Canada and the United Kingdom. For the most part, such calls have been identified as those by only fringe elements. And thus, I feel that if there is going to be a sequel to this film, it must have our “American Sikh” flying to India.
We need to show to the world that in India the Sikh is very much a part of the everyday fabric, and that the 1984 riot was truly a bad, dark, horrible blip in modern India’s history, and nothing more. In fact, as the film’s greatest cheerleader Chef Khanna (who is not a Sikh) excitedly asserts in every interview, Sikhism is a hallmark for ‘seva’ or service not just for himself who grew up in Punjab, but for all Indians who feel drawn to doing good in the world.
The “American Sikh” movie is an animation movie, not a cartoon film. Its subject matter is intense and pertinent, and the movie can thus be a great complement to any conversation on diversity for a mature audience.
Dr. Nidhi Thakur is the author of ‘When She Married Dr. Patekar and Other Stories’ —a short-story collection of Global Desi tales on nostalgia and identity. She currently lives in New Jersey where she writes bilingual poetry/commentary/fiction and also teaches Economics (of gender, health and sustainability).