ACTOR Dev Patel turns a year older on April 23 and celebrates his 32nd birthday. Despite being relatively young, the internationally acclaimed star has got himself an impressive list of projects in diverse genres that have resulted in him gifting audiences many great memories. To mark the British star turning a year older, Eastern Eye decided to select his top 10 magical moments.
Dynamic debut: The actor had no experience when he auditioned for teen-comedy series Skins and landed a memorable character in 2006, which was based on his high-energy personality. He starred in two series of the BAFTA nominated show and was so good that it got him noticed for a star-making lead role in Oscar winning film Slumdog Millionaire (2008).
Big screen success: Director Danny Boyle had auditioned hundreds for a lead role in his film Slumdog Millionaire and was alerted to Dev after his daughter had spotted him on Skins. After a number of auditions, he landed the role of Jamal Malik and got spring boarded to international stardom. The global success won many coveted accolades that included eight Academy Awards, including Best Film. The huge success commenced superb cinematic journey for the British actor.
Return to India: The talented star made a winning return to an India set film with The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2011), which saw him star opposite a whole host of legendary British acting stars. His role of the loveable hotel owner Sonny Kapoor connected with audiences around the world and gave him another huge movie success. The film became such a big hit that it spawned successful sequel The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2015).
Terrific US debut: Being heavily in demand for films didn’t stop the actor from taking the inspired decision of playing a key supporting role in acclaimed writer Aaron Sorkin’s series The Newsroom in 2012. His performance was widely praised and showed once again that he had the acting ability to back up his impressive star presence.
Delightful dub: One magic Dev Patel moment that perhaps doesn’t get the credit it deserves is him providing the voice for the English dubbed 25th anniversary re-release of acclaimed 1991 Japanese animated film Only Yesterday. The actor was appreciated for his work and showed a whole different side to his acting repertoire.
Awards roar: The actor received a Best Supporting actor nomination for his stunning performance in acclaimed film Lion (2016) at the Oscars and a BAFTA award in the same category. He was nominated for the performance of Saroo Brierley at a whole host of other award ceremonies and put real emotion into a role that was based on a real-life person living in Australia, who located his birth mother in India using Google Earth.
Amazing anthology appearance: Dev joined a star-studded cast for anthology web series Modern Love and made a big impact with his role of Joshua. The actor received a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Performer in a Comedy Series for his terrific turn in the romantic drama.
Pathbreaking role: He may have starred in more commercially successful films, but The Personal History of David Copperfield is one of the most important turns he has delivered as an actor. The colour-blind casting saw him become the first non-white actor to play a title role in such a film. The Golden Globe nominated performance shattered a huge glass ceiling.
More history making: Patel made more history by becoming the first actor of colour to portray a knight in front line film with his stunning turn in The Green Knight (2021). The film received rave reviews and gave him another memorable role to add to an already impressive list of characters he has played.
Big leap: The internationally acclaimed British actor has gifted audiences so many marvellous memories, but perhaps his most magical moment so far will come with his next major movie release Monkey Man. The multi-talented star has written, directed, produced, and played the lead role in the big budget superhero film based on Indian mythology. Apart from taking full control, he looks like kickstarting a whole new international film genre with his eye-catching project.
The actor’s evolving style from youth to maturity getty images
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From rugged to refined Aamir Khan’s versatile appearancesgetty images
Memorable film moments showcasing Aamir Khan’s unique stylegetty images
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Cinematic milestones reflected in Aamir Khan’s on-screen imagegetty images
A seated Jain enlightened teacherAshmolean Museum, University of Oxford
Ganesha from JavaAshmolean Museum, University of Oxford
A Chinese silk painting depicting the BuddhaAshmolean Museum, University of Oxford
ArdhanarishvaraAshmolean Museum, University of Oxford
Head of a grimacing yakshaAshmolean Museum, University of Oxford
NagaAshmolean Museum, University of Oxford
The Bimaran casketAshmolean Museum, University of Oxford
Hunia Chawla
A still from rehearsal
Them performing liveNajmuddin Saifuddin Qawwal Group
The cast of Marriage Material in key moments from the play, including Avita Jay, Kiran Landa, Omar Malik, Irfan Shamji and Anoushka Deshmukh
Sathnam Sanghera’s 'Marriage Material' adapted into bold new play on conformity
The play Marriage Material at the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre is Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti’s adaptation of Sathnam Sanghera’s novel of the same name, which first came out in 2013.
She is lucky to have Iqbal Khan direct Marriage Material. The play, a co-production with the Birmingham Rep, is set in the late 1960s. Mr and Mrs Bains (played by Jaz Singh Deol and Avita Jay) run a corner shop in Wolverhampton. Their younger daughter, Surinder (Anoushka Deshmukh), is 16, her sister Kamaljit (Kiran Landa) is just a bit older.
They have a neighbour, Patwant Dhanda (Irfan Shamji), who, as we shall soon see, is not a very pleasant man. In fact, he comes across just as racist as Enoch Powell, who represented Wolverhampton South West for the Tories from 1950 to 1974.
It will be recalled this was a time when Sikhs working on the buses were told they couldn’t wear a turban. That was a hard-fought battle that had to be won.
The Bains, meanwhile, simply want to get their girls married off.
Nothing new here, I thought.
What makes the tale different is that the plot twists and turns down the generations. Mr Dhanda, who has the makings of a paedophile, makes a pitch for one of the girls when Mr Bains dies early in the play. “A life with no man in the house is no life,” he informs the newly widowed Mrs Bains.
Mr Dhanda has a wife but she has returned to India so he considers himself to be a free man.
Surinder’s English teacher from school, Miss Flanagan (Celeste Dodwell), who is also head of the fifth form, tells Mrs Bains about her daughter: “I don’t want to embarrass you, but she is bright. Ridiculously bright.”
She adds: “Mrs Bains, I think it would be a pity if Surinder didn’t stay on at school.” The initial response from Mrs Bains is not encouraging: “Too much education makes people’s brains get mixed up, they don’t sleep at night…”
But she is finally persuaded that Surinder should be allowed to stay on for a while longer before being married off.
Mr Bains was very old school. When Surinder confides she would one day like to be “a somebody”, he is amused that “my daughter wants to be a somebody”.
“Like you,” she tells her father.
Mr Bains consoles his daughter: “We will find a somebody for you to marry.”
At the point of a possible marriage, however, Surinder is sweet-talked by chocolate salesman Jim Wilson (Tommy Belshaw) into running away with him. They share a love of literature, and he calls her “Sue Bains”. But the relationship does not end well.
Once she has left, Surinder is written off as “dead” by her family. The story that is circulated is that she was only 16 when she was killed in a car crash. That’s better than to let on that she ran off with a white man.
By the time she is reconciled with her sister towards the end of the play, a great deal has changed. Kamaljit married Tanvir Banga (Omar Malik), a young man who helped out in the Bains’ corner shop. When the two sisters meet again, Tanvir has also died. But he and Kamaljit had a son, Arjan Banga (Jaz Singh Deol doubles up for this role after the death of Mr Bains). He has come home after his father’s death to help his mother who is still running the family corner shop.
Meanwhile, Mr Dhanda’s business has prospered. He now has a son, Ranjit Dhanda (the role is taken by Omar Malik after Tanvir’s death), and he is nearly as unpleasant as his father.
Arjan has an English fiancée, Claire (Celeste Dodwell). In London, Arjan worked as a creative director. But after deciding to stay in Wolverhampton to help his mother, he decides he cannot marry Claire because she is white. In other words, Asians are not free of racism, either. Happily, at the end, the couple are reconciled.
As for Surinder, she parted company with Jim Wilson after realising he was all talk, depended on her for money and had failed to earn a penny from his literary pretensions. She had prospered, though, as a hotel owner and had been transformed in time into a well-groomed businesswoman. After being tracked down by Arjan, she decides to return to her roots in Wolverhampton and help Kamaljit run the family corner shop. Perhaps 50 years had passed during the passage of the play.
Being subjected to racism turned some Asians into racists themselves. The word goreh (white person) is repeatedly spat out with venom. Maybe it is worth remembering the play’s audience isn’t exclusively Asian – white folk are watching as well. And maybe some of the toilet humour ridiculing white people, which always makes me cringe, could be cut out.
In Sanghera’s novel, there is a quote from Enoch Powell’s speech in November 1968: “The West Indian or Asian does not, by being born in England, become an Englishman. In law he becomes a United Kingdom citizen by birth; in fact, he is a west Indian or an Asian still... he will by the very nature of things have lost one country without gaining another, lost one nationality without acquiring a new one. Time is running out against us and them. With the lapse of a generation or so we shall at last have succeeded – to the benefit of nobody – in reproducing ‘in England’s green and pleasant land’ the haunting tragedy of the US.”
In Marriage Material, where the acting is marvellous (apart from Mr Dhanda’s Indian mannerisms and accent being overdone) we do travel across a couple of generations.
There is a scene when Tanvir rejects Mr Dhanda’s vision of creating a little Punjab in Wolverhampton.
Mr Dhanda wants to take over the Bains’ corner shop and is putting pressure on Tanvir to sign the papers. He says: “In this country, money is the path to freedom.”
“Sign, please,” he instructs Tanvir. “We must make sure our children learn to behave nicely, according to our rules.”
He insists: “We maintain our identity so we can be ourselves.”
Tanvir disagrees: “We can be us here. With the goreh.”
Dhanda warns him: “Then we will be inviting chaos.”
Tanvir’s comment is telling: “You sound like Enoch.”
Kamaljit, who is expecting a baby with her husband Tanvir, says: “I would like my child to grow up knowing the history of the Gurus and to read the Granth Sahib. And to love their culture.”
Tanvir tells his wife: “I would like my child to go to the finest schools, to cheer for England in the World Cup and eat Yorkshire pudding on a Sunday.”
Kamaljit sets out a dream that has perhaps come to pass with many third and fourth generation British Asians: “Maybe our child can do both.” Much, much later, in a throwback to the past, we learn of Surinder’s O-level results: “Biology A, Chemistry A, English Language A, English Literature A, French A, History B, Latin A, Mathematics A, Physics A…”
Kamaljit tells her younger sister: “Never mind about the B.”
And that is quintessentially Asian. Their acting is outstanding.
Marriage Material is at the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre until June 21, and at the Birmingham Rep from June 25-July 5