Here are some tissue-thin desi connections in recent movies:

The Kingdom: A police procedural with Jamie Foxx and Jennifer Garner, the dumb big brother to A Mighty Heart. Briefly shows only one desi laborer working in a ditch, clearing out a car bomb. Doesn’t show any normal Saudi life, like malls. A gripping urban combat action flick nevertheless.

Across the Universe: Julie Taymor’s Beatles musical did not have the promised India scene, only a few Hare Krishnas dancing through the NYC subway. Cameos: Bono singing ‘I Am The Walrus,’ Salma Hayek playing a naughty nurse, Eddie Izzard out of place in a psychedelic sequence. Very synthetic, updates the Beatles to be more poppy, divorces the music from its historical context and essential character. Removes most of the grittiness and texture of the ’60s and ’70s, keeps the out-there fashions away from the love interests, leaves romantic leads blank as usual so a tween audience can project. Boils down all the splendor of the Beatles to a generic music video love story. But stagey and creative, the draft musical sequence is marvelous. Presents an alternate universe, like Rushdie’s The Ground Beneath Her Feet:

Curiously, Across the Universe envisions the Beatles’ era without the Beatles actually present - an alternate universe where songs like “Girl” and “All You Need Is Love” are just hanging on the trees, ready to be plucked. [Link]

The Jane Austen Book Club: You have to take testosterone injections to recover from this charming flick, which genuinely obsesses over lit. It’s also the first I’ve seen to deal sensitively with Slashdot culture. But Hugh Dancy is way better-looking than your average tech support guy. Emily Blunt’s mother’s beachside funeral has Hare Krishnas again.

Good Luck Chuck: Agam Darshi plays a female wedding guest who flirts with Lucky Chuck. Dane Cook, who looks way too old for Jessica Alba, cracks a Gandhi joke. Dan Fogler from Balls of Fury fills in as the fat sidekick from Knocked Up and Superbad. Vile message, justifies stalking, worse than SRK movies from the ’80s. And penguine felching. This movie left me queasy.

Exiled: New Hong Kong gangster flick flick by director of Triad Election is gorgeous, balletic, and set in Macau, a bit of a novelty. A bit slow in the beginning, but never uninteresting. Great visual design. Soundtrack is cowboy Western plus tabla and sarod drone. See trailer.

Fred Claus: Upcoming Christmas black comedy (Vince Vaughn, Paul Giamatti) has a cardboard cutout with an elf who’s clearly Deep Roy in shades. But he’s uncredited on IMDB.