Dev Patel: Indian Token

(Screenshot of Dev Patel playing S. Ramanujan from The Man Who Knew Infinity) — Screenshot Dev Patel playing S. Ramanujan from *The Man Who Knew Infinity*

Whenever Hollywood wants to go "exotic", they trot out their resident Indian token.

You know it's because he's not threatening, right? There's no power in his presence. He has no charisma. Therefore they can uplift this Indian guy knowing he's not going to outshine anyone else but they still get to tick the "diverse" box with a particular bonus point for "exotic".

I can't even imagine Dev Patel in a dhoti, he's so white on the inside. And I'm saying that even though I’ve seen him in a dhoti. His dhoti vibe is so weak it didn't even make an impression on ME, the ultimate fan of dhotis. I had to go look it up just now to confirm that he did in fact wear a dhoti.

Of all the 1.3 billion Indians in the world, Hollywood had to make this guy their Indian token? They found the one Indian man who can't look good in a dhoti?

Just in case you think I'm being harsh to poor ol' Dev Patel, here's a pic of him in a dhoti.

(Screenshot) Dev Patel playing Srinivasa Ramanujan — Screenshot Dev Patel playing Srinivasa Ramanujan

What the hell even is this? And why is his tilak so faint in this movie, almost non-existent? And why does he have a perpetual lost look on his face even though he's playing real life mathematical genius, Srinivasa Ramanujan? Real life Ramanujan practically burned up the camera lens, he was so focused and intense. Our ancestor, in a word, was hot. And yet, of over a billion Indians worldwide, Hollywood cast Dev Patel to play him. Dev Patel, who can’t even look good in a dhoti, the sexiest garment on the planet. It's almost like they were trying to downplay the fact that the mathematical genius whose work led to many of the advances in mathematics and science and technology that we enjoy today...was a smoking hot Hindu man. But that's impossible, right? The whole point of the film was to tell the story of this great man Ramanujan...right?

Meanwhile, this is what Srinivasa Ramanujan actually looked like. Does this genius look lost to you?

(Screenshot) Srinivasa Ramanujan — Screenshot Srinivasa Ramanujan

Ramanujan stated clearly that his mathematical insight was given to him directly by his Hindu family goddess Namagiri Thaya, a form of Lakshmi. She gave him the formulas, he said. It all came from the Divine Mother. That's right. This Hindu ancestor placed all the credit for his genius at the feet of the Divine Feminine.

Today, years after he passed away, local Indian students go to his old house to seek his blessing before they go for their mathematics exam. Because our Hindu ancestors matter and we honor them every day.

But what does Hollywood give us instead? Dev Patel with a weak tilak and a scraggly “dhoti" who has so little charm I didn't even realize he was wearing the sexiest garment on the planet.

Meanwhile, just as an example of what someone in dhoti is supposed to look like, here’s Suneil Shetty. He's doing nothing, just sitting there, and he exudes more charisma and attraction and power than anything Dev Patel can muster while supposedly calculating "infinity". And I don’t even like Suneil Shetty or Bollywood but I’m down with him wearing as many dhotis as he wants.

(Screenshot) Hindi film star Suneil Shetty — Screenshot Hindi film star Suneil Shetty

Tokens are tokens for a reason. Hollywood uses Dev Patel to downplay Hindu and Indian genius, even while pretending like they’re uplifting our ancestor.

This is why we will never be represented by the empire’s media. They don’t want to represent you. They only want to extract money out of you.

Never trust a token. And, by the way, all tokens know they are tokens.