Popped this in the other night and only made it through the first hour before I couldn't stay awake any longer. What I saw to that point was a fairly harmless romantic comedy that featured a couple of nice performances.

The next night I resumed watching and it was like the movie entered the Twilight Zone. Gone was the warm, quirky beginning and in its place came something that can only be described as a mix between an After School Special and a CAIR-funded work of propaganda. What's the old joke? "Muslims fear backlash from tomorrow's terrorist attack" Acts of retribution on innocents are to be condemned in the strongest terms but this movie falsely depicts an America steeped in bigotry and hate. In fact, Islam has mostly been accorded a special status in America since 9/11. It began that very week with President Bush insisting that Islam is a "religion of peace". The scene with the teacher railing against the violence of Islam? It's far more likely in the post 9/11 world that a school would insist its non-Muslim students learn a sanitized version of Muslim history, perhaps even asking them to wear Islamic dress or try a sample fast for Ramadan. This isn't a political board and I don't want to get off topic because the point is that these film makers seem to have only a passing familiarity with the United States, yet they made the country as a whole one of the characters in their film -- and in doing so chose to depict it in a very poor light.

A grievous example of this was the fictional town in Georgia that appeared to be a Disneyfied version of an 1880's sharecropper village. One that has remained in the same ossified state well into the 21st century. Yes, some towns are poorer than others but can you find me a single example of an American small town where there are only cow paths and not a single paved road? Where every denizen resides in a ramshackle wooden shed? As embarrassing as this was, the post-hurricane scenes are even more ridiculous. A hurricane that lasts a month? A town completely bereft of modern medical facilities or any modern structure? The only ones bothered enough to offer relief are out-of-towners who come on foot? This may or may not happen in some backwater South Asian town during the monsoon but it bears no resemblance to reality in the United States.

And so what was this all building to? The further deification of Barack Obama, it would appear. Was it a love story? A story of justice for young Sameer? A tale of hope and inspiration in the face of adversity? Who knows? After nearly 3 hours, the viewer can't be sure of anything other than it's time for another song.