"This is one of his most human and most amusing and witty novels. The characters are very Indian. I decided that I wanted to do a comedy, so this was just the right one"
About this Quote
Merchant’s praise is doing two jobs at once: selling an adaptation and staking a claim about representation. Calling the novel “most human” isn’t just a compliment, it’s a quiet corrective to the way Indian characters have often been treated in prestige cinema as symbols, victims, or exotic scenery. “Human” here means messy, funny, contradictory - the full range. And by pairing it with “amusing and witty,” Merchant signals a deliberate pivot away from the earnest, export-ready “serious” India that Western audiences were trained to expect.
“The characters are very Indian” sounds simple, but it’s loaded. Merchant isn’t talking about costumes or postcard textures; he’s making authenticity a creative asset. The line implies confidence that specificity can travel. It also hints at an insider’s impatience with generic “brown” characters built for outsider consumption. He’s arguing that Indianness isn’t a barrier to comedy - it’s the engine of it, because social codes, class performance, family negotiations, and everyday hypocrisy are inherently comic material when rendered sharply.
“I decided that I wanted to do a comedy” shifts the quote from literary appreciation to production logic: intent precedes text. Merchant frames the choice as taste, but it’s also strategy. Comedy is a way to smuggle critique past defenses; laughter lowers the guard, then the social observation lands. “Just the right one” reads like a matchmaking line, but it’s also curatorial authority: Merchant positioning himself as the mediator who can translate a culturally specific wit into a film audiences will actually watch.
“The characters are very Indian” sounds simple, but it’s loaded. Merchant isn’t talking about costumes or postcard textures; he’s making authenticity a creative asset. The line implies confidence that specificity can travel. It also hints at an insider’s impatience with generic “brown” characters built for outsider consumption. He’s arguing that Indianness isn’t a barrier to comedy - it’s the engine of it, because social codes, class performance, family negotiations, and everyday hypocrisy are inherently comic material when rendered sharply.
“I decided that I wanted to do a comedy” shifts the quote from literary appreciation to production logic: intent precedes text. Merchant frames the choice as taste, but it’s also strategy. Comedy is a way to smuggle critique past defenses; laughter lowers the guard, then the social observation lands. “Just the right one” reads like a matchmaking line, but it’s also curatorial authority: Merchant positioning himself as the mediator who can translate a culturally specific wit into a film audiences will actually watch.
Quote Details
| Topic | Funny |
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