‘The Big Sick’ Has A Big Heart And Keeps It Real

Love is hard. To drop your defences, after having built them up all your life, and connect with someone else – a separate living, breathing entity with hopes, fears and dreams – can be daunting as vulnerability can be as much a source of hurt and heartache as it can be of joy and pleasure. But sprinkle significant cultural differences into the mix and expand the plane of operation from two individuals to several, all of them family, and you have a potpourri of emotions both funny and tragic and perfectly suited for the big screen.

This is precisely what Pakistani-American stand-up comedian and actor Kumail Nanjiani sets out to do with his wife, American writer Emily V Gordon, in the heartwarming film The Big Sick. The writers, who have had a Bollywood-esque storyline in real life, put the trials and tribulations of their love life, from start to restart, on film under the stewardship of director Michael Showalter (Hello, My Name is Doris), and they succeed remarkably.

Nanjiani, who plays himself, is an Uber driver by day and stand-up comedian by night. Emily, played by the incredible Zoe Kazan (Ruby Sparks), is a graduate student and aspiring therapist who meets Nanjiani after she happens to be in the audience at one of his shows, and their paths cross. They start dating, until one day they don’t – Nanjiani’s parents want to arrange a marriage for him and Emily finds out, not from her boyfriend. Emily then falls ill inexplicably – “the big sick” – and Nanjiani can’t help but stick around. That stay, however, extends as Emily’s parents come to the hospital to be with their daughter and find him there. Nanjiani’s eventual struggles with them, his parents – who want him to be a traditional Muslim boy who prays regularly and gets married to the girl of their choice – and the matters of heart then take centre stage as he is compelled to make a choice that would decide the course of his future.

Nanjiani succeeds in the lead role not because of his acting chops but because he manages to dig deep and bring an authenticity to the role that, perhaps, only he could as the real author of his life’s story. Being brown in America and having Pakistani parents, played by Anupam Kher (Saaransh, Silver Linings Playbook) and Zenobia Shroff (Ek Main Aur Ekk Tu), sets up a subplot where cultural differences – and the attempts to reconcile them – are explored. Familiar subjects in this regard, like “9/11”, come up occasionally and culminate in hilarious punch-lines.

Having to choose between your roots and the life you’re now living – and whether there is such a choice in the first place – is a dilemma that many grapple with after they move to a new, unfamiliar place. This aspect of immigrant life is explored in the film, but instead of using the subject to make a political or philosophical argument – a trap, the film continues in its vein of breezy lightheartedness and uses the experience as a springboard for greater laughs and tears.

Nanjiani’s journey of getting to know Emily’s parents, the Gardners, played by Holly Hunter (The Piano, The Incredibles) and Ray Romano (Everybody Loves Raymond), is pleasing. What’s satisfying is that their equation never goes over the top, neither when they first meet nor when they become more familiar with each other. That balance is an important one to maintain in a story like this, and they do it well.

Kazan is easily the brightest star in the film as she laughs heartily, cries with abandon, and just feels like a real person. It’s easy to see where she is coming from. Kher and Shroff themselves are impressive as parents from the subcontinent – a slightly unsure yet assertive dad, a mom who would win hands down in a contest for Most Dramatic Person in the Room and a bit of an oddball brother and his quiet wife. They may want to cut off ties with their son because he doesn’t fall in line as per their wishes, but they will continue to love him all the same, if not more. Both Kher and Shroff capture that essence of subcontinent parenting, which may be more universal than it appears to be.

Overall, The Big Sick just works. Both the themes of the film and actors’ performances fall in place as sweetly as tiles do in a game of Tetris. It’s also a fresh breath of air in the romantic comedy genre – although, the film does defy categorisation to an extent, as Christy Lemire points out. Perhaps, if there is any notable weakness, it is the run-time. At two hours and four minutes, it stretches on longer than it needs to. But the effect is similar to having overeaten a delicious pot of Hyderabadi chicken biryani – yes, you ate more than you had to, but it was more than worth it.