Finally, it's graduation time for ABCD cinema

MUMBAI: Cross-dressed as a lost boy, she made her acting debut in a primary school drama Peter Pan —an insignificant thing in manic Manhattan. She had no lines and a few songs.
In the years to follow, Purva Bedi has found her voice and language as an actor. So has the cinema of the Indian diaspora.
Bedi is now one of its most recognised faces, capturing ABCD (American Born Confused Desi) angst in one sequence, picking up a fluttering lehenga with homebred grace in another.
But after lead roles in films like American Desi, Wings of Hope and the forthcoming Green Card Fever , she says onreel culture confusion is becoming bit of a drag.
“I am tired of acting in NRI films on identity issues. It is time for me to explore other roles too,'''' she says on her current visit to Mumbai. "NRI cinema is on the threshold of maturity. Identity crisis was a valid artistic concern for Indian film-makers and actors in the West until a couple of years ago. The openness of the West would perpetually clash with traditional Indian values, socially and professionally Indians fought for their place under the sun, and all this was reflected in the cinema. But the diaspora film movement is growing out of this ABCD stuff and getting to the next level."
As the younger generations of NRIs get more at peace with themselves and cultural dualities, films like Green Card Fever and Cosmopolitan are trying to be less self-conscious about identity. Akhil Sharma''s Cosmopolitan , for instance, is about a man who falls in love with his neighbour after being deserted by his wife and daughter. The film, which stars Purva, is unusually free from identity mish-mash.
But even while it grew within the hard shell of stereotype, ‘NRI cinema''was becoming its own thing—distinct from Bollywood or Hollywood. "Our cinema does not have the melodramatic flair of Indian commercial cinema. The style of acting is closer to the naturalism of Hollywood. But the presence of strong Indianisms make it unique," says Bedi, whose grandmother Laj Bedi, was an actor and had worked in over 70 Bollywood films.
She says that it was difficult for Indian actors to even think of acting in films as they were looked down upon by the American movie industry. Films like Mississippi Masala have changed that, she says, adding that at the recently concluded film festival in Toronto there were as many as seven NRI films reflecting how the niche is broadening.
"Indians actors are becoming part of the mainstream in both Western stage and cinema. After Indian directors abroad started making films, aspiring youngsters felt there were enough roles for them out there to pursue an acting career," she says.
Bedi is a founding member and director of Disha Theatre, the first South-Asian theatre company in New York. It fosters and produces work by writers, actors, directors and other artists of the South-Asian diaspora and develops artistic talent through seminars and workshops.
While in Mumbai, Bedi has been approached with a number of acting offers, some from Bollywood film-makers. "I would love to work in a Bollywood movie, just for the fun of it. But I have to completely change my style of acting for that, I suppose," she says.
If the Bolly magic happens, she will have a lot of songs, like her primary school play.Only this time the intelligent man''s woman may have a few masala lines to parrot.