The movie portrays the Pakistani American stand-up comedian’s courtship of his wife.
Pakistani American stand-up-comedian-turned-writer Kumail Nanjiani is all geared up for the US release of his debut movie The Big Sick, which will reach theaters on June 23.
The movie, which is inspired from the semi auto-biographical novel written by Nanjiani and his wife, Emily V. Gordon, had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on January 20.
The Big Sick authentically portrays the courtship of Nanjiani and his wife. According to The New York Times, what makes the film remarkable is its matter-of-fact treatment of race and religion.
“Everyone knows what a secular Jew looks like,” Nanjiani told The New Yorker. “Everyone knows what a lapsed Catholic looks like. That’s all over pop culture. But there are very few Muslim characters who aren’t terrorists, who aren’t even going to a mosque, who are just people with complicated backstories who do normal things. Obviously, terrorism is an important subject to tackle. But we also need Muslim characters who, like, go to Six Flags and eat ice cream”
In the movie Nanjiani, 39, plays a gently tweaked version of himself whereas Emily (Zoe Kazan) is a therapist-to-be. The movie progresses when the two characters get involved in a beautiful love relationship.
Even though Nanjiani’s family expects him to marry a decent Pakistani woman, he avoids mentioning this to his new girlfriend. Consequently the chaos sets in as the movie reaches the second half.
When Emily becomes ill and is placed in a medically induced coma — again, from real life — things come to an unexpectedly funny head.
“I never decided I wanted to be an actor,” he said. “I just started doing standup because I love standup. Everything else has sort of been these tiny steps leading to this.”
It would definitely be a great delight to see a stand-up comedian in the leading role of a romantic comedy.
Nanjiani represents a growing acceptance of South Asian actors in the American entertainment industry and his The Big Sick will for sure win hearts of the audience throughout the world.
During the 2016 presidential election, Nanjiani unintentionally got involved in controversies that would latter put him under the spotlight for his political views.
His confrontation with Trump supporters over harsh criticism of Trump’ abortive Muslim ban made national headlines.
The film has been produced by Judd Apatow, under his Apatow Productions banner and financed by FilmNation Entertainment. Its co-producer is Barry Mendel.
The film has Nanjiani as Kumail, Zoe Kazan as Emily, Holly Hunter as Beth, Ray Romano as Terry, Adeel Akhtar as Naveed, Anupam Kher as Azmat, Bo Burnham as CJ, Aidy Bryant as Mary, Matty Cardarople as Stu, Rebecca Naomi Jones as Jessie, Kurt Braunohler as Chris.
“When we started it, it was an important part of the movie, this experience of an immigrant in America,” said Apatow, the producer. “What it’s turned into is an important representation that there are a billion people out there who are much closer to what we’re like than we are led to believe.”
The movie is scheduled to be released across theaters in the US on June 23, 2017, by Amazon Studios and Lionsgate.
Trailer of ‘The Big Sick’