unIndian

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Short takes

Not recommended under 13; parental guidance 13-15 (Sex scene; scenes which may disturb young children)

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This topic contains:

  • overall comments and recommendations
  • details of classification and consumer advice lines for unIndian
  • a review of unIndian completed by the Australian Council on Children and the Media (ACCM) on 20 October 2015.

Overall comments and recommendations

Children under 13 Not recommended due to a sex scene and scenes that may disturb younger children
Children 13 - 15 Parental guidance recommended
Children 15 and over OK for this age group

About the movie

This section contains details about the movie, including its classification by the Australian Government Classification Board and the associated consumer advice lines.

Name of movie: unIndian
Classification: M
Consumer advice lines: Sex scene
Length: 106 minutes

ACCM review

This review of the movie contains the following information:

A synopsis of the story

Meera (Tannishtha Chatterjee) is an Indian immigrant living in Sydney, Australia. She is a single mother, divorced from her husband, living with her ten-year-old daughter Smitha (Maya Sathi) and working in marketing for the Cochlear Company. Meera’s parents (Supriya Pathak and Akash Khurana) move to Australia to be near their daughter. They are very anxious to find a suitable husband for Meera and think they have found the answer in Samir (Anupam Sharma), a doctor from a very respectable Indian family. The problem for Meera is that while respecting her Indian traditions, she doesn’t want to be told who to marry, particularly a man she finds arrogant and vain.

By chance Meera meets Will (Brett Lee), an average Aussie guy who teaches Australian English at the University of New South Wales. Will is captivated by her beauty and with the help of his friends T.K. (Arka Das) and Mitch (Adam Dunn) he sets about trying to win Meera’s heart. This proves quite complex however, as trying to breach the gap between the two cultures is no easy task for Will or Meera.

Themesinfo

Children and adolescents may react adversely at different ages to themes of crime, suicide, drug and alcohol dependence, death, serious illness, family breakdown, death or separation from a parent, animal distress or cruelty to animals, children as victims, natural disasters and racism. Occasionally reviews may also signal themes that some parents may simply wish to know about.

Diversity and multiculturalism; immigration; family relationships and parental rights

Use of violenceinfo

Research shows that children are at risk of learning that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution when violence is glamourised, performed by an attractive hero, successful, has few real life consequences, is set in a comic context and / or is mostly perpetrated by male characters with female victims, or by one race against another.

Repeated exposure to violent content can reinforce the message that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution. Repeated exposure also increases the risks that children will become desensitised to the use of violence in real life or develop an exaggerated view about the prevalence and likelihood of violence in their own world.

There is some violence in this movie including:

  • Some slapping by Meera’s mother, mostly done in jest.
  • Smitha’s father Deepak tries to abduct her and grabs her arms.
  • Deepak is very aggressive towards Will.

Material that may scare or disturb children

Under fiveinfo

Children under five are most likely to be frightened by scary visual images, such as monsters, physical transformations.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children under the age of five, including the following:

  •  Smitha’s father, Deepak, is a scary man. He tries to abduct her, forcing her into his car and taking her to a coastal port. Smitha is crying for her mother but Deepak is quite forceful with her and won’t let her phone her.

Aged five to eightinfo

Children aged five to eight will also be frightened by scary visual images and will also be disturbed by depictions of the death of a parent, a child abandoned or separated from parents, children or animals being hurt or threatened and / or natural disasters.

Children in this age group are also likely to be disturbed by the above scene.

Aged eight to thirteeninfo

Children aged eight to thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic threats and dangers, violence or threat of violence and / or stories in which children are hurt or threatened.

Children in this age group may also be disturbed by the above scene.

Thirteen and overinfo

Children over the age of thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic physical harm or threats, molestation or sexual assault and / or threats from aliens or the occult.

Younger children in this age group may be disturbed by the above-mentioned scene.

Product placement

The following products are displayed or used in this movie:

  • Cochlear
  • University of NSW
  • SBS television
  • Twisties
  • Apple computers

Sexual references

There are some sexual references in this movie, including:

  • Meera reveals to her parents that her first husband Deepak is gay. Meera’s mother says that there are people in India who can cure homosexuality.
  • T.K. tells Will that he must abstain from sex if he wants to date an Indian woman.

Nudity and sexual activity

There is some nudity and sexual activity in this movie, including:

  • Will and Meera kiss passionately and have sex. Meera is seen naked in a back view from the waist up.
  • Will comes out in just a towel and drops it when he sees Meera’s parents (nothing is actually shown).
  • T.K. and Priya (one of Will’s students) kiss.

Use of substances

There is some use of substances in this movie, including:

  • Drinking at a number of venues including homes and a bar

Coarse language

There is some coarse language in this movie, including:

  • crappy; bloody; shit; piss; bloody oath; wanker

In a nutshell

UnIndian is a romantic comedy about a cross-cultural relationship and the hurdles the couple have to overcome. In true Bollywood style, it is bright and colourful and has a good message of tolerance and integration. As it contains a sex scene, for which it is rated M, it is not suitable for younger viewers and young children may be scared by Deepak’s kidnapping of his daughter.

The main messages from this movie are that different cultures can live harmoniously with each other and that people should look for the positives rather than the negatives, in each other and in other cultures.

Parents may wish to discuss Deepak’s motives for wanting to take Smitha back to India. Was it because he loved her or was it just for his own needs?