Written by Tasnia Habib
[Image above: Still from the film Definition, Please.]The first time I watched Bend It Like Beckham at a birthday party in middle school felt like a revelation. The film follows Jess Bhamra, a British-Indian teenager following her dreams of playing soccer against the wishes of her traditional Indian family. Although I grew up in a large Bangladeshi-American community in suburban Maryland, I was still one of the few South Asian girls among my classmates. I reveled in sharing humorous stories about my Bangladeshi family. I did not feel like an outcast in the same way as other first-generation kids do in a majority white town, but seeing my family reflected in a coming-of-age movie felt life changing. Jess’s family dynamics, the issues she faced, and the people that populated her life felt so instantly familiar to me. I felt giddy with excitement at jokes about changing into shorts after leaving your house and the chaos of a South Asian wedding. Actor and Director Sujata Day had a similar experience watching the film. “I was like, ‘Who is this person telling this story!’ She is me and I am her.” Day and I connected on how the film made us feel more visible in America. She shared how the film inspired her. “It really gave me a little bit of courage and inspiration to be like, ‘Oh maybe I can make it in Hollywood. Maybe my story is important.’”
Day has now written, starred and produced Definition Please, her own story of growing up in a South Asian-American family and navigating life. Definition Please follows former Scripps National Spelling Bee champion Monica Chowdry, played by Day, who is living with her mother and working as a tutor in her hometown of Greensburg, Pennsylvania. Monica lives a comfortable but unassuming life and is hesitant to make any big life moves. When Monica’s estranged brother Sonny returns home, she has to figure out how to move on with her own life and deal with past traumas and family issues.
Day developed the script for Definition Please from a skit idea she had at an Upright Citizen Brigade sketch writing class about former Spelling Bee champions who have not lived up to their potential. Day was fascinated by the number of South Asian kids who had been Spelling Bee Champions and had gone on to become successful. “The button of my sketch was okay, what if one of these girls who was a former spelling bee winner has amounted to nothing? She’s a loser and she hasn’t lived up to her potential?” In her script, Day wanted to answer why Monica did not follow the same path of success as other spelling bee champions. “I decided to answer those questions [through] her relationship with her family, relationship with mom and very fraught relationship with her brother. [And then] underlying that with her relationship with her deceased father as well,” said Day.
Day has been acting in Hollywood for over ten years and was accustomed to auditioning for stereotypical roles for South Asians. With Definition Please, Day wanted to humanize South Asian American characters. “I really wanted to take back the narrative and show our stories from a more authentic grounded place,” said Day. “That was really the foundation for me writing the script. I wanted to write very real characters that almost anyone could relate to.”
In addition to writing grounded South Asian characters, Day tackled real life issues in the South Asian American community such as the “Model Minority” myth. I am not a former Spelling Bee champion, but I see myself in Monica, as a South Asian American who didn’t follow a traditional path.
“Not all of us are doctors and engineers and lawyers and investment bankers,” said Day.
She also saw how mental illness was stigmatized and not discussed in her community and wanted to tackle the subject, hoping to spark conversation among South Asian audiences. “I wanted to touch upon the kind of stress and pressure that a lot of us first generation kids deal with as we’re growing up.”
Along with Bend It Like Bekham director Gurinder Chadha, Day cited other South Asian creators as inspirations such as Mindy Kaling, Kumail Nanjiani and Hasan Minhaj. She recognized that their work has created opportunities for other South Asian artists such as herself. “I am grateful to them for opening the doors for us and our ability to get into those doors because they’ve already opened them for us,” said Day.
Day recognized a change in Hollywood where executives are starting to greenlight more diverse South Asian American stories. “What’s exciting is that I can exist in the world that Aneesh Chaganty, who makes thrillers, can exist and a horror filmmaker can exist, or someone who makes rom-com or soap operas can exist,” said Day. “Audiences are recognizing that there is more than one South Asian American story to be told.”
Day advises other creators of color to invest in their own projects. Day was able to create Definition Please by investing her own money into the film. While Day was starring in Awkward Black Girl, the web series that inspired HBO’s Insecure, Day saw Issa Rae using her own credit cards to finance her projects. “Watching her do that gave me the confidence to invest in myself as well,” said Day. “I think you’re going to be the one to trust in yourself the most, you might as well put your own money into your own project. And I’ve always either learned something from it or something has been educational about the experience or I ended up getting investment back.”
Definition Please is currently playing in film festivals across the nation. It will be playing at the Bentonville Film Festivals Movie Mondays in May.