Maitreyi Ramakrishnan wants to make this clear: She had to audition for Best of the Best, the coming-of-age comedy playing out against the world of collegiate Bollywood dance competitions.
asserted
She → want → competitions
“Please include that Maitreyi Ramakrishan was not just offered this role,” she says, her almighty finger pointing hard at my notebook.
asserted
finger → include → notebook
“Maitreyi Ramakrishnan worked!”
asserted
Ramakrishnan → work → ?
She’s responding, in her beguilingly animated way, to my suggestion that her character, Maya, feels as though she were written for Ramakrishnan, the Never Have I Ever star who was introduced to us in 2020 as the fabulously temperamental teen Devi in Mindy Kaling and Lang Fisher’s Netflix dramedy.
asserted
who → respond → dramedy
Maya was actually conceived around the same time, when Patriot Act host Hasan Minhaj and his writing and producing partner Prashanth Venkataramanujam spent their time in lockdown cooking up Best of the Best, their answer to the Step Up franchise, which is finally hitting Netflix on Sept. 18.
asserted
which → conceive → Sept.
For some fans, who were eager to see Devi go to college, Best of the Best might serve as a suitable replacement for a continuation of the show, which ended in 2023 after four seasons.
uncertain
which → see → seasons
The movie reunites Ramakrishnan with one of her Never Have I Ever directors, Lena Khan, and co-choreographer Joya Kazi, who appeared in its first season, performing a Bollywood-style routine to the song “Nagada Sang Dhol.”
asserted
who → reunite → song
In that scene, Kazi fluidly blended India's traditional Kathak dance with the swirling and romantic poses choreographed specifically for the big screen in Mumbai.
asserted
Kazi → blend → Mumbai
Devi, who harbored complicated insecurities about her cultural identity, scoffed at the performance.
asserted
who → harbor → performance
Ramakrishnan’s Maya, on the other hand, would scoff at anyone challenging her Bollywood-style supremacy.
asserted
Maya → scoff → supremacy
“Maya is that bitch,” says Ramakrishnan.
asserted
Ramakrishnan → say → ?
We’re at dinner, discussing Ramakrishnan’s leap from leading a TV show to carrying a movie, a conversation we will pick up again a week later on a Zoom call with Minhaj.
asserted
we → ’re → Minhaj
I meet up with Ramakrishnan at East Tea Can, a restaurant in her Mississauga neighbourhood, west of Toronto.
asserted
I → meet → Toronto
She orders the cardamom black tea for us to share but insists she could finish off the entire pot by herself, and introduces me to mana’eesh, a stone-baked Middle Eastern pizza served with minced beef and lamb.
uncertain
she → order → beef
I’ve interviewed Ramakrishnan on several occasions, witnessing how young fans would swarm her in the wild.
asserted
fans → interview → wild
This time, she avoids all that by strategically choosing a table in the back and facing away from the diners, though our server recognizes her instantaneously, even behind her large burgundy frames.
asserted
server → avoid → frames
That’s one of the many reasons Minhaj felt she was just right to play Maya, the UCLA freshman thrust into competition with her childhood best friend Anjali.
asserted
she → ’ → friend
The latter is played by Priyanka Kedia, a fresh-faced Indian-American actor originally from the Bay area, who joined Best of the Best after graduating from NYU and catching a breakthrough part in Steven Spielberg’s Disclosure Day.
asserted
who → play → Day
Her Anjali is the more poised social butterfly to the headstrong and rebellious Maya, their lifelong relationship tested when they both make the school’s esteemed Bollywood dance team and must jockey for parts while adjusting to campus life, rigorous academics, and new relationships.
asserted
they → test → life
Their story draws from Minhaj and co-writer Venkataramanujam’s own college experiences.
asserted
story → draw → experiences
“I'll be honest with you,” says Minhaj later, on that Zoom call.
asserted
Minhaj → say → call
“I for real felt, we would be so lucky to have Maitreyi.
asserted
we → feel → Maitreyi
She was the person that I felt had the two things that I think Maya needed.
asserted
Maya → feel → that
Everybody knows that Maitreyi naturally is comedically brilliant.
asserted
Maitreyi → know → ?
She has that ‘It’ factor that you can't teach.
asserted
you → have → that
But her comedic talents would also need to be balanced with something deeper.
asserted
talents → need → something
“If you look at Maitreyi’s work, especially in Seasons 3 and 4 of Never Have I Ever, there is an emotional depth, that pathos that she has.
asserted
she → look → that
I was like, there's no other number one for this film than her.”
asserted
I → be → her
Despite, Minhaj’s confidence in her, Ramakrishnan auditioned to reassure the whole team she was ready to transition from the snappy sitcom pacing of Never Have I Ever to the more considered emotional stakes of a feature film.
asserted
I → audition → film
Even Kazi, who went to college with Minhaj, had to jump through similar hoops.
asserted
who → go → hoops
“She was a dance Superstar at UC Davis,” says Minhaj.
asserted
Minhaj → say → Davis
“Even when we were interviewing, I had to recuse myself.
asserted
I → interview → myself
I needed her LinkedIn profile to speak for itself.
asserted
profile → need → itself
It goes back to the second Bush Administration.”
asserted
It → go → Administration
Minhaj is at his parent’s home in Sacramento, dressed in a blue and white baseball jersey.
asserted
Minhaj → dress → jersey
He’s immediately heartened to see my daughter’s bedroom, where I set up shop, in the background, pointing out the kids’ toys scattered on the floor around him.
asserted
I → ’ → him
He pulls out framed photos of baby Hasan, clearly taken at some department store photo studio.
asserted
He → pull → studio
The space feels familiar, if only because you could immediately imagine it filled with the characters he’s intimately described in his semi-autobiographical standup specials like Homecoming King and The King’s Jester.
uncertain
he → feel → King
Small talk with Minhaj includes some history on the Punjabi community in Northern California, the early 19th century immigrant farmers who would later hide their identity after the Chinese Exclusion Act.
asserted
who → include → Act
“This becomes the milieu of South Asian identity, specifically in Northern California,” says Minhaj, who just unpacked the context behind where his family resides as if he were freestyling a Patriot Act segment for an audience of two.
asserted
he → become → two
…and 90 more, not listed.
The Aporia
