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Thursday, June 27, 2019
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com MICHIGAN IN COLOR
To Shimla, through Guava Island, with love
The artists that find a way to
reinvent themselves with every
project they put out are some
of the most exciting to watch.
After a while, it’s quite easy to get
bored listening to the same song
repeatedly or to music that you
can’t relate to at all. This is what
I enjoy about Donald Glover as an
artist. He always manages to cre-
ate new art while being relatable
and sticking to a common under-
lying theme. It’s like his signa-
ture as an artist which makes it
authentically his.
I would not have expected for a
funk and jazz album like Awaken,
My Love! to follow projects like
Because The Internet or STN MTN
/ Kauai, which fit more under the
rap and pop genre. I also would
not have expected the actor that
played the lovable and animated
Troy Barnes on “Community” to
play a more serious and painfully
realistic Earn Marks on “Atlanta”.
Glover’s latest project is his short
film, “Guava Island”, in which he
co-stars with Rihanna and Letitia
Wright.
Most of the reviews that I read
for this project have been positive
but there are a handful of them
that have described it as a great
Childish Gambino music video
but a bad movie. While Glover
does use this film to provide visu-
als for his most recent songs, I
believe that this short film wasn’t
made to be a traditional award
winning film; instead, it was
made to prove a point and to send
a message.
The film circulates around the
Glover’s character Deni Maroon
and his love for his home Guava
Island through its art, music and
culture. Deni stands for artis-
tic freedom while Guava Island
is ran by an oppressive body of
power lead by the main antago-
nist, Red. A thought-provoking
and critical scene that resonated
with me was when Deni walks
into his shift late and overhears
his co-worker talking about mov-
ing to America and opening his
own business.
Essentially, he talks about liv-
ing the American Dream. Deni
scoffs at his co-workers dream
and points out that America is a
“concept” and that Guava is no
different. “We live in paradise
but we don’t have the means to
live here”. To be honest, Deni has
a very valid point here.
For ages, the concept of the
“American
Dream”
has
been
sought after and idealized by
many immigrants. People immi-
grated to America based on the
thought of opportunity and free-
dom. The opportunity to start a
family and get a well paying job
and more importantly to be in a
position to give their kids more
opportunities
than
they
had
growing up. And the freedom
to live as you want to and more
importantly in a place that toler-
ates different schools of thought.
However, recently the “Ameri-
can Dream” seems to be a bit
overrated and honestly under-
delivers on many promises. We
live in a country where mass
shootings of schools and places
of worship have become a com-
mon occurrence. We live in a
country where undocumented
migrant families are placed cages
and forced to live in unsanitary
conditions while our president
has some sort of fascination
with building a wall (and scarily
enough has a sizable proportion
of the American population who
agree with him).
I really could write a couple of
paragraphs more about the scary
reality that is America, but that
would just turn this into a rant.
And to be honest, I can’t defame
the American Dream that much
because I’m kind of living it right
now. If my parents didn’t believe
in it, I probably wouldn’t have
the majority of the opportunities
I have today. I also acknowledge
that these are my opinions and
that everyone is entitled to their
own. But I think that a promi-
nent thing that we should take
away from art such as Glover’s is
that we should all be a little more
aware of the world that we live in
and more importantly is that we
should ask more questions and
have more discussions about it.
Throughout the film, Deni
takes every opportunity he’s
DEVAK NANUA
Summer MiC Managing Editor
given to convince the audience
that life on Guava still has the
potential to be paradise.Deni
demonstrates Guava’s potential
by performing many Childish
Gambino songs in a more simplis-
tic and stripped down way. For
example, “Feels like Summer” is
performed with a simple three
chord loop on the acoustic gui-
tar and “This is America” seems
to have its background track as
noises from a working factory. At
the same time all of these songs
are given background visuals that
show off the islands natural beau-
ty and vibrant colors.
***
I originally started writing this
because while watching this film,
Deni reminded me a lot of my
brother, Abhi. He’s actually my
first cousin, but to compensate
for being an only child and for
living in a different country from
the rest of the family, my mother
and my aunt raised me, Abhi and
my cousin/sister, Kushu, as sib-
lings.
We
built
our
relationship
through my frequent trips to
India over summer break. As a
kid, Abhi’s head was dispropor-
tionately big for his body. He was
quick to flash a smile, as he was
always up to something. I was
often an accomplice to his mis-
chief, much to the dismay of the
rest of the family. Abhi is from
a small town called Palampur
in Northern India. It’s close to
Dharamsala, the city where the
Dalai Lama lives. It’s also men-
tioned in “Oxford Comma” for all
of you Vampire Weekend fans out
there.
Palampur is sort of in a valley
and is surrounded by a lot of hills.
It’s a great vacation spot but it’s
sort of detached from the busy
metropolises that sprawl across
India. For some reason, as an
elementary schooler, I couldn’t
imagine living in such a small
town. But to my comfort, at the
end of each vacation Abhi would
always reassure me that one day
he’d move to the United States.
He would always crack a
goofy smile as we waved good-
bye to each other. The last time
I saw Abhi was last summer, as I
returned to India after six years.
The once short and smiley kid
that I once knew was completely
unrecognizable. He’s around 6’ 1’’
now and more of an introverted
brooder. If Drake’s music was a
person, that pretty much sums up
my brother.
There were moments during
my trip when my brother became
a little more recognizable, but
this was mainly through the lack
of coordination he possesses with
his tall frame. He’s going through
his first year of college in a town
called Shimla, which is away from
home. Therefore, my aunt can’t
really keep up with him as fre-
quently as she did. Considering
that I hear about his whereabouts
from my mother, who hears it
from my aunt, my reactions are
pretty delayed
But with every piece of infor-
mation I get, it’s like I’m meet-
ing a new person. Recently, he
won a personality contest which
is exactly what it sounds like, I
think? He also won a traditional
dance competition with his dance
team. Another thing that I picked
up was that he’s kind of turning
away from the notion of immi-
grating to America and instead
would rather settle down in his
hometown. Many of my fam-
ily members sort of scoff at my
brother like he’s going through
a phase or that his hobbies take
away from his time for school
work.
To be honest, I also thought
that my brother had sort of lost it.
But it’s only recently that I real-
ized two things. The first is that
I should be proud of my brother
trying to give back to his home-
town. He sees something in those
people that no one else could pos-
sibly see and as long as he’s pas-
sionate about his work and happy
where he is, there really is no rea-
son for him to chase the Ameri-
can Dream. The second is that the
artist that finds a way to reinvent
him or herself with every project
that they put out are some of the
most exciting to watch.
My brother is in the process of
reinventing himself and I can’t
wait to see what he becomes.
I should also mention that he
turned 19 last week. This is sort of
a belated birthday gift (sorry). So
as your older brother, by a whole
year I offer these words. Good
luck on your journey to become
the sort of man that you want to
be. But always remember that to
me you’ll always be that kid who
always seemed to find a way to
make the ordinary extraordinary
at our grandparent’s house in
Delhi. And not to forget the kid
who mistakenly drank insecticide
thinking it was sprite.