Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World

Albert Brooks is sent by the US government to India on a mission to find out what makes muslims laugh. Why India? Yes there's a lot of muslims there but most of the people Brooks meet seems to be Hindus. No matter what they are they don't think he's funny. And he isn't. Not in this movie.

Initially, most of the jokes are based on how badly planned his trip was. He gets to fly business class instead of first class. Nobody comes to pick him up at the airport so he has to take a cab. His office is small and has no computer, etc. Funny? After that, there is a slightly amusing scene where he has a conversation with his secretary, Maya, and they don't know when the other is joking or not. "Was that a joke?". According to his plans, he was supposed to go to Pakistan, but he doesn't get a visa, so he has to cross the border illegally in order to spend a couple of hours there with some would be comedians. This makes Indian and Pakistani intelligence agents suspicious, and there's almost a political conflict. Brooks realises he has failed and goes is sent back to the US. The End. His wife, unaware of his failure, thinks he's a big hero. The political subplot about the conflict Brooks almost caused, is tied up by means of on-screen text before the closing credits. The main plot also goes nowhere. I'm not sure what Brooks tried to do with this movie. It's not laugh-out-loud funny, and it doesn't work as a dark comedy nor as a satire. Unfortunately, with this movie, real-life Brooks ends up like on-screen Brooks: trying, but failing, to be funny. "Is that the joke?". I'll never know.

So what we have here is a movie with no real laughs and a premise that could be funny, but goes nowhere. Too bad, really, because I expected this movie to be much better. Not recommended to waste money on.

If you have ever been to India or intimately know peoples of the Indian subcontinent you should enjoy this movie. Mr Brooks has an interesting idea in this film which is not quite as developed as it could be. However, recently having visited Delhi and Agra and flying to Delhi on a plane that was like "a Greyhound bus to India". I and an Indian friend throughly enjoyed this film. There are great scenes of Delhi...street scenes showing the chaos and confusion,like vehicles on the roads, including that green and yellow 3 wheeled motorized rickshaw which we ventured on, cows and an occasional elephant in the street...and various historic Muslim and Hindu monuments. We laughed and laughed. It was silly, fun and nostalgic for us and great entertainment for a rainy Saturday evening.

I liked the movie quite a lot. Being from India, and living in a US for a little while, I deal with cultural differences very often in my own life. While differences in food, garments, language and architecture are easy to feel, they are the tip of a cultural iceberg. And that is what this movie conveys very well. We cannot hope to understand other cultures unless we recognize their deeper aspects and humour is one such. In the movie, Brooks steals into Pakistan to meet the aspiring comedians. But the funny question is, did they laugh with him, or his Pakistani translator?

A couple of things could have been better treated. An Iranian boyfriend for an Indian girl is not as normal as shown. Nor, is the country devoid of comedy shows. Indian TV and films have a special place of honour for comedians. Some of the best on-the-face humour is in Pakistani plays on TV. But I grant that as a literary license to Brooks. After all, the story is not about India or Pakistan, or even its comedians. The story is about American and how much (little) its people understand other cultures. And, its is a very understand story, do not mistake it to be funny or a laugh riot.

Albert Brooks comes full circle as a star/writer/director with this movie. From playing a fictionalized caricture of himself in Real Life to playing a fictionalized caricature of himself in Looking For Comedy in the Muslim World. This even has Penny Marshall in the beginning like his '76 short film about a comedian school. Its been 17 years since this was released and Brooks is now in his mid 70s so I doubt he will labor to handle all three tasks again.

Brooks doesn't play as much of a caricature of himself in this movie compared to Real Life and thats for the best. He is playing someone who is a fish out of water instead of someone who is comically tone deaf while being in over his head.

Brooks' comedy is driven by dry humor and subtle scenes that catch you off guard with the humor. Its almost like they aren't intended to make you laugh, you just do anyway. Subtle humor is less appreciated now with attention spans about as long as short hairs but if you give yourself time to pay attention instead of waiting to react, then you will like this movie.

The plot is about Brooks being tasked by the state department to find out what makes Muslims (and Hindis too as it turns out) laugh and it centers around the performing of a standup act. It is a product of its time ("Wars on Terror") which dates it but I found it enjoyable enough. Deserved kudos for not being particularly offensive too. There is a subtle line there that does not get crossed. Some looking for reasons to be angry might try to find something they consider wrong in this picture but that's more on them and not the movie.

As I said, this is somewhat dated and it surprisingly coincides with the actual increased tensions between India and Pakistan that occurred in the 2000s. I cant remember the exact year their strained relations made international news but i know it was before 2008. This film is also daring for American audiences considering 9/11 happened only a few years earlier and Bush's wars were raging upon its release. I can imagine war hawks hating this movie for one reason and anti war zealots hating it for other reasons and the rest who dont like it never were fans of subtle humor to begin with. I personally just think of comedy when watching a comedy and find this to be pure Brooks. It is even the theatrical debut of some of his vintage standup material. It isn't his best work but alot better than the reception it got and rating it has. People treat it like it's as lousy as the love guru.

Tonight I watched the worldwide premiere of this movie at the Second Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF) with Mr. Brooks attending. It was naturally a full house but I suspect this film will fade in obscurity quite fast. To start with, it was not funny. And it had nothing really to do with the Muslim World; after all the movie concentrates on India where Muslims are a minority. Finally the plot itself is flimsy and I kept wondering how could Mr. Brooks stretch it to a full length feature. And I find using such a controversial title a cheap way to draw inquisitive crowds. The movie has really very little to do with the DIFF motto of bridging cultures.