‘Bait’ (Riz Ahmed) classic conflict of soul v success, given wonderful contemporary culture makeover
🎥 Riz Ahmed and Guz Khan asianculturevulture.com interview to come, talks about working together, what they are most proud of and the music in this six part comedy drama which dropped today on Prime…
🎥 London premiere of ‘Bait’ (last night) included screening of three episodes, Q&A – pictures and video to follow…
Lead character Shah Latif, played by Riz Ahmed, is auditioning to be the next James Bond – really?
ZANY and madcap – especially in its latter half – Riz Ahmed’s new six part comedy drama ‘Bait’ is a mostly, a joy.
We say mostly and pause – there are one or two off notes – not really very many over 120 minutes or so of TV fare. We have been waiting for something like this for a long time, it feels.
A proper Asian family comedy mashup, set in London with full of colourful (yes in that way) characters – these are folks you will want to spend time with – Ahmed plays ‘Shah’ Shahjahan (‘Emperor of the World’) Latif, an actor with a lot of unfulfilled promise or so he believes… The Dev Patel mix-up is inspired!
He lives in what looks like a one-bedroom flat in Ladbroke Grove, while the family home is in North London and appears to be where his mother Tahira (Sheeba Chadha), Dad Parvez (Sajid Hasan) and cousin brother Zulfi (Guz Khan) and sister credited as Q, (Aasiya Shah) live.
If you watch the trailer (see previous post), this set up is well delineated and provides an essential grounding point for the rest of the series.
Latif is caught in that rather typical (cliched) bind – sell your soul, lose your family, friends and interestingly, perhaps your faith too.
To some extent, everyone has this issue – how much of ourselves do we compromise to get on, to be successful, solvent and all the rest of it. Is our work a true representation of ourselves?
Worry not – these are deep and existential (not in the philosophical sense, but simply as something that is present but has no physical form) questions – as a viewer you can be aware of them or not. It doesn’t matter.
Just watch Latif and his antics, as he limbers up for the opportunity of a lifetime, while trying to maintain decent relations with his family and stay afloat – he has to sell a prized festival bestowed award watch (from 2016) to make a payment.
On top of all that, he has an ex, Yasmin Khan (Ritu Arya), in the background, who is hovering and just about to leave the country with a tall white dude. Yes, there are quite a few jokes about short people…all in a good taste, I should add. Just waiting for Latif to lose his hair…
The family characterisations are brilliant and enhanced by the rivalry of two Aunties – Latif’s mother (Chadha) and Naila (Soni Razdan) – this is excellent casting – both are Bollywood stalwarts and bring their A game to ‘Bait’. It’s a thing of beauty and so too is the writing around it.
Nalia’s son is Salim (Nabhaan Rizwan), who has a thing for Q (interesting) and is based in Dubai, has a quiff, lots of keys, and probably the ‘luxury lifestyle’ that has only very recently been disrupted.
There is an Eid party which has been transferred from the Latif’s family home to Naila’s – she is in full show off mode. It’s lovely and funny. There is painful incident at the party and something we expect to be explained more in later series (we hope).
The first three episodes are relatively easy on the brain cells – Sir Patrick Stewart as the talking pig’s head (don’t ask) is another inspired move but things start to take a turn in episode 4 and the already surreal nature of Latif’s existence is amped to the full – some won’t like it. But stick with it and I would recommend watching it any order that you want – it enhances the viewing experience! Haha. Okay, maybe start with one but then pick whichever episode takes your fancy. (We watched in preview without being able to identify episode numbers, and it actually helped!)
Not all the jokes work as you might expect – there are some wonderful one liners – in the context of this very modern contemporary sitcom.
The slight off notes seemed unnecessary and easily rectifiable – the Bamiyan Buddha restoration is obviously satire but could have been simply fictionalised and leaving the pig’s head outside a mosque, yes, it is edgy but did it add anything – no. You already have a decapitated pig’s head.
This is rich and powerful drama with lots of fun at the heart of the show – feels real and genuine and for all that, it should be massively applauded.
Landmark TV – in a British context, absolutely!
It should travel well…more please, not just ‘Bait 2’ but other dramas with Britain as it is, not as it was in 1950.
ACV rating: **** ½ (four and a half out of five)
‘Bait’ is out on Prime now (from March 25)
