Kalpen Modi told a story on Conan O’Brien last night about a drunken brown guy who was angry because everyone now calls him Coo-mahr. Penn pointed out that was better than being called Uh-poo. That was his shout-out, and his exculpation.
Like Letterman with Aishwarya, Conan seemed to treat Penn with kid gloves, not knowing […]
There’s lots of tongue-in-cheek race-baiting in the latest Harold and Kumar 2 greenband. Kal Penn asks whether, like Obama, an airport security screener is black enough. Amir Talai pioneers the ‘bottomless’ party. Daily Show alumnus Ed Helms feeds an assist to Rob Corddry. In a surreal, drug-inspired promo site, Neil Patrick Harris turns sadhu with […]
VH1’s Best Week Ever has a list of professions that are one step away from extinction. At number four is the job of “Acting and Being Indian - Kal Penn”
There’ll always be bit parts for Indian actors as doctors and goofy telephone operators, but Kal Penn has blazed a trail for the Indian lead […]
The Harold and Kumar sequel’s teaser is out:
The blue device Kumar’s carrying out of the bathroom on Flight Char Sau Bees is supposed to be a sheesha. Rob Corddry from the Daily Show diaspora plays a sarkari baddie at Gitmo.
He’s credited as both Kal and Kalpen in the schizophrenic Namesake
I wanted to love the Namesake movie. I loved the trailer. It’s the first mainstream movie about the Indian-American experience. This could have been my story. It’s also a trip back to immigration nostalgia. I read Slashdot at Lodhi Gardens and see Pakistani protests on […]
This Mira Nair interview in the S.F. Bay Area’s Metroactive ferreted out some interesting nuggets on the eve of The Namesake’s release:
… Kal Penn [is] rescued from the dumb comedies he has been trapped in… [and] proves himself likely to become the first Indian romantic lead in American movies… “… not many people could do […]
Kal Penn plays the lead in the latest taste-free spinoff of Scary Movie. Epic Movie opens this week with jabs at movies from ‘06, and the photos are fab. Ironically, the desi guy isn’t the Oompa Loompa in this one. This is also probably the first parody of Borat, which seems unnecessary.
The newly-released poster for Van Wilder 2: The Rise of Taj is similar to the covers of bodice rippers and the poster for Sam Raimi’s Army of Darkness, which was itself a spoof of the horror genre.
This highbrow exercise is out in the U.S. December 1. The original was actually good fun, mainly because Kal […]
A friend of mine was assistant producing a 2nd gen arranged marriage comedy in Texas called The Arrangement. The movie starred Lisa Ray, Purva Bedi, Sunil Malhotra and Kal Penn 1.0, the Kalpen we knew before his career so happily blew up. The production deal went all pear-shaped, and I heard nothing more about the […]
Some Kal Penn fan recut Harold and Kumar with the Superman soundtrack. Penn plays Kal-El, and the result is genius.
Goodness Gracious Me was right: Superman is also Indian.
Kal gets fierce with Chez Tam & Superman.
The reviews of The Namesake from the Toronto film fest are rolling out. Kirk Honeycutt from the Hollywood Reporter praises the authenticity of the Bengali accents:
Neither [Tabu nor Irfan Khan] is Bengali, yet both are more than credible with the accent, language and manner of people from that state. [Link]
But Saibal Chatterjee of the HT […]
Kal Penn has signed a recurring role on 24. In the desi trilogy of allowed on-screen professions, is it doctor, terrorist or cabbie?
Fox announced Monday that Kal Penn, who played a stoned pre-med student in search of the perfect post-smoke munchies in Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle, has joined the cast of 24. […]
In an obit for a pioneering Asian American actor, the NYT reminisces back to when East Asians only got stereotypical roles:
In the 1950’s and well beyond, there were few roles for Asian actors on the American stage or screen. Those parts that existed were often demeaning. Typically written in pidgin English, they portrayed stock figures […]
uperman Returns has thrilling action, a romantic caped cheek-to-cheek flight, lingering Kal Penn close-ups and just one hench-desi line, something like ‘What are we gonna do?’ Mira Nair said last year:
“So by the time Namesake comes out next year, everyone will know Kal Penn, which will be great for us!” [Link]
Which with one line is […]
Even in a Hollywood movie directed by a desi, male desis whose names are not Kal Penn will be waiting a long time before they ever play romantic lead. But if you’re female, walk right in.
“Chris Tucker will be playing the main character in [Gangsta MD, a remake of Munnabhai MBBS],” said Nair, adding that […]