A film "COSMOPOLITAN" directed by an Indian American and starring actor
Roshan Seth will be aired on US TV next month.

NYC, May 21, 2004
Arun Sharma

From the maker of "Chutney Popcorn", Nisha Ganatra directs a film about love lost, reinvention and renewal, all detailed in the hilarious exploits of Gopal, a first-generation Indian who uses Cosmopolitan Magazine as a guide to pursue his next-door neighbor.

Indian-born Gopal (Roshan Seth) is shocked when his wife (Madhur Jaffrey) and daughter (Purva Bedi) desert him in the American suburb he's called home for twenty years. Alone for the first time in his life, Gopal turns to women's magazines and the Bollywood films of his youth for advice on navigating a romance with his next door neighbor, Mrs. Shaw (Carol Kane).

In COSMOPOLITAN, award-winning Indian actor Roshan Seth stars as Gopal, a successful married suburbanite whose orderly life suddenly disintegrates when he loses his job, his wife announces that she's leaving him to follow her guru and his only daughter takes off for Mongolia with her unacceptable German boyfriend, Hans.

Alone for the first time in his life, Gopal rattles around his suburban house, forlorn and adrift. He soon turns to a love-life quiz in his daughter's Cosmopolitan magazine (only to discover that he's a "ditchable dude") and the glorious all-singing, all-dancing Bollywood films of his youth for advice on navigating the next stage of his love life. Armed with the lowdown on "what women really want," he embarks on romance with his divorced neighbor, Mrs. Shaw (Carol Kane.) A high school guidance counselor and obvious free spirit (if the occasional overnight guest pulling out of the driveway is any clue), it soon seems that the unconventional Mrs. Shaw may be just what Gopal is looking for. As their relationship deepens, Gopal is forced to confront and reconcile a very painful past with the realities and possibilities of the present.

COSMOPOLITAN is based on the short story by Akhil Sharma, which first appeared in The Atlantic Monthly and was included in The Best American Short Stories 1998. Director Nisha Ganatra (Chutney Popcorn), intrigued by Sharma's piece, recalls, "I thought, this is a story we haven't seen. Indian American filmmakers are making these stories that are very ‘me, me, me' and the thing that I loved about COSMOPOLITAN is that it's about our parents and loneliness, and that I found was very universal and exciting."

Often poignant, COSMOPOLITAN is also a truly unique romantic comedy about a man who turns to pop culture as his guide to love and happiness, only to discover that there's more to life, and love, than even Cosmo knows. .........................more