Clad in traditional Indian garbs, Spartan Sur, MSU’s premier South Asian fusion a cappella group, performed at Kellogg Center with a laughter-filled performance which mocked Indian-American stereotypes through song, dance and skits.
Performing in front of a rambunctious crowd, Spartan Sur combined contemporary Bollywood music with popular English songs such as R. Kelly’s “Ignition Remix.”
Members of Spartan Sur consider themselves to be South Asian fusion because of their combinations of English songs with songs in Hindi, the official language of India.
Singing in these two languages is what sets Spartan Sur apart from other a cappella groups on campus, said human biology junior Anchit Menawat.
“That’s our dynamic ... that we sing in multiple languages and try to bring them together, try to fuse the cultures together because a lot of us are Indian-American and we grew up in America,” Menawat said. “We grew up with the mix of both cultures, and we just try to bring that mix to the stage.”
World politics senior and Spartan Sur Vice President Charumati Ganesh said the group sings in both languages because Hindi is the language spoken in Bollywood movies.
Menawat added Bollywood movies are typically predictable love stories.
“There’s like a cliche among our generation where Bollywood movies have a very fixed type of story line,” Menawat said.
Despite the title of the concert, “Not Another Bollywood Movie,” Spartan Sur satirically paid homage to Bollywood movies by playing out the stereotypes on stage.
“In our case, it was her dad wanted her to marry someone else,” Menawat said. “Then, you know there’s lots of drama and tension, and then in the end they end up together. So really it was another Bollywood movie, but we just did a play on words.”
Neuroscience senior Joseph Aquino agreed.
“The name of the concert is sort of like a parody off of a Bollywood movie, and also like playing off of the “Not Another Teen Movie,” things like that,” Aquino said. “It’s really exactly like it, but just poking fun the whole time.”
Spartan Sur portrayed many stereotypes of being an Indian-American during their performance.
These stereotypes ranged from strict parents with thick Indian accents trying to push traditional methods onto their children, to Indian parents urging their first-generation children to study for the Medical College Admission Test.
There are other stereotypes specific to Bollywood movies that Spartan Sur depicted.
"(Our show) has a lot of parodies like very overbearing parents, (or a) classic love story between a guy and a girl that want to get together but can’t,” Aquino said.
Spartan Sur is also in the midst of producing an EP. To read more about their efforts, go to statenews.com
