Nan Srinivasan

Mindy’s new show - the ten-part show on Netflix, is an easy-breezy watch with all the stereotypical elements of portraying an Indian family but with bountiful imagination drawn from her own childhood growing up in suburban America. Being a Tamilian, I loved the few Tamil words that play peek-a-boo throughout the show – I’ve never heard this language on American TV. The story is about a young lady, Devi, from a South Indian Tamil family who is unapologetically full of it and is also a complete mess. Devi, like most 16 years old’s thinks she knows it all, and yes, she is the only one who thinks that way. She is told being Indian is cool, and hating the culture just reveals that the person is insecure. The show is narrated by John McEnroe. Who would’ve thought that he would be the obvious choice to narrate the story about a South Indian teenage girl - a bizarre element to the show that somehow added an unexpected sweet touch. After you peel out the layers of clichés and melodrama, there is a poignant story about love, grief, family, friendship, and acceptance. In my opinion, it is a love story between a mother and daughter that anchors everything in the show. It portrays how grief over a loss of a loved one is such a personal experience and essays an empathetic exploration of the loss…the trauma of losing a loved one is often swept under the rug, especially or women. Some need therapy, and some don’t, yet no one is too strong to not grieve. I cannot wait the next season to watch where Devi’s big mouth takes her and how she faces the consequences.