What's behind the review bombing of Best of the Best?

In our time is a world class seminar every week. Why was Jeremy a lonely snail? What were lines doing in York in the third century? I'm Misha Glenny and every week I'm joined by expert guests to explore the ideas that shape our world. It's one of the first times really that you consistently see someone painting teeth. I know that sounds bonkers. If I was going to define mathematics, I would say it's the study of structure. In our time, listen on bbc.com or wherever you get your podcasts. This is a cbc podcast. So my tree, Rama Krishnan, became a household name after her breakthrough role in Never Have I Ever. And now she's back on Netflix with a new movie called Best of the Best. It is currently the number one movie on Netflix globally. But my tree has been receiving a lot of intense backlash and some people have been mobilizing to review bomb her movie. I'm rad time of a play sitting in front. Let me know my mood. This is co-botion. Joy-Tishan Gupta and Nedra Rodriguez are here to get into this with me. Welcome back to the show, y'all. Thanks for having me. Thanks for being here. Look, Joy-Tishan, I want to make this clear. Like, we are not here to review Best of the Best. I mean, that movie is currently on Netflix. It is a comedy set against the world of Bollywood dance competitions in the U.S. Circuit. It's kind of like the South Asian diaspora's like answer to step up and is about as fun as that premise promises. But, you know, we are here to talk about why Mitre Ramakrishnan, a Tamil Canadian actress, has become the target of so much criticism and hate. So, Joy-Tishan, can you describe what you're seeing? Yeah, and it's important to say that this is what I'm seeing. Because, I mean, the internet is so fragmented these days. And, like, I'm probably, like, my algorithm is probably mainly, like, pan-South Asian and a lot of, like, Indian Twitter. So, in terms of the criticism, in terms of what I'm seeing, I'm seeing a lot of colorism and featureism. Unfortunately, like, I'm seeing posts, like, I would just say, they're trolls from India essentially saying that, like, you know, why do they keep casting "ugly" or "dark" actresses? And by they, they mean, like, Hollywood to represent us. And that, to understand, like, if you're looking at my try and thinking "ugly" where, then, yes, you're thinking correctly. But to understand that, you have to kind of get into, like, how deep-seated colorism and featureism is in our community. And if you look at most Bollywood representation or South Asian cinema in general, outside of certain regions, people look very light. And it's not representative of, like, the shade range that, you know, spans our, like, beautiful region. So that's a problem. Another thing is a certain hegemonic view of who gets to claim, you know, access or ownership of culture. And what I mean by that is the character my try plays in the film. She dances in a South Asian classical dance form, called Bharat Nathiam. It's a dance form that thermals and other, you know, people of different backgrounds across the South Asian, you know, region have danced for centuries. However, there are commenters mainly from India saying, "This is Indian dance. Why do you have an Ilam Tamil from Sri Lanka, you know, dancing in this way," or, like, or, like, claiming any sort of, like, proximity to it. This doesn't make sense. She doesn't represent us. And then this gets into another layer of, like, not understanding the South Asian diasporic experience. And that is, I think, the core of all of this is that, first of all, this level of, like, self-hate and colorism absolutely exists amongst members of the diaspora. But perhaps it's not quite as, like, deep-seated and visceral for folks, you know, as it is back home. Like, maybe South Asian brides aren't wearing foundation that's, like, two shades too light on their wedding day anymore. And, like, we've kind of moved past that a bit. But then there's also the fact that, like, being a part of a South Asian dance team is a pan-South Asian experience in North America. It's a very specific thing, like, I had friends in SAA that were, you know, in Queens or Western or whatever. And you had members from Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Bangladesh, all over India. But we kind of come together, right? Because in the North American context, fellow South Asians have a lot more in common with each other than different. And that might be hard to grasp if you're in a more homogenous place. And then a lot of it is just rooted in misogyny as well. Right, right. Which, because it is the internet. And then I understand that there's a very specific review bombing campaign that's happening that I believe that you and Nedra are far more equipped to talk about. Yeah, I mean, I'm again, like, I mean, there are just so many layers to all of this. I mean, as you said, I mean, the colorism and the casteism, the casteism class situation is definitely affecting a lot of what we're seeing online. But then as you just said, like, there is this whole other political situation in Sri Lanka that's adding another layer to the controversy at the moment. So I just want to take a moment, then, to listen to a moment from this movie where my tray's character Maya introduces herself. I'm Harry. It's what part of India are you off from? I'm Tamil. My family's from Sri Lanka. Why don't you? No, don't do that. So Maya says, I'm Tamil. My family is from Sri Lanka. And look, I interviewed my tray for this movie and she talked about how she made it really clear how important that line is, how precise the wording was. She had the script changed to reflect not just Maya's identity, the character's identity, but also my tray's own identity. And this is this is a big deal for people like myself and Nedra as well, because we are Tamil originally from Sri Lanka. And that's what is ignited this other backlash, which is what I want to get into. And everyone bear with me, because this is a lot. I'm going to read some posts that we've seen from a site called the3.com, which describes itself as a Sri Lankan entertainment site. Here's a quote, we have work to do this morning. The best of the best movie starring, my tray, Ramakrishnan, who supports LTE Terrorists. Everyone who can go and rate it one star. And here's another follow up prompt to its followers. And I'm going to quote, right in IMDB review, more than 300 characters about how my tray, Ramakrishnan's overacting and terrible acting make the movie difficult to watch. So that's just a couple of the instructions that were posted on Sri.com. There are several that are instructing people to go to IMDB and Netflix, and and Rotten Tomatoes audiences score to give these one star ratings. And IMDB has actually flagged the unusual activity with best of the best ratings, because there are thousands of one star review, a lot of them using that same language. Nedra, let's talk about who is behind this campaign. And what has my tray, Ramakrishnan, done or said to become this target? So my tray has done nothing more than identify herself as an ordom dhamma. And one of the things some of these bullies claim is that this is not a place. Well, surprise. I'll give you a little history up the word "ulam". "ulam" is an ancient Tamil name for the whole landmass of Sri Lanka. So this name appears in stone carvings and in sangham that is Tamil guild poetry, that sort of dated between 150 BC to 300 AD. So to say that this place doesn't exist is for Sri Lankans to deny a part of their own history. It's like saying, "Selan doesn't exist." "Selan being the British talent name." Like British name for Sri Lanka, right? So today Tamil 'ulam" is a pre-colonial name used to refer to the North and the East. The sites of ancient Tamil kingdoms and places where Tamil's felt connected to the land and their livelihoods and their ancestry. And yes, this was the area that several movements claimed as a separate state. But it's important to think about the mobility of language and symbols. These things I work in language, right? So language changes over time, symbols, names, concepts come to mean different things over time. Right? So claiming Tamil 'ulam' is my train's way of honoring her family's history and their cultural background. But there seems to be this outrage that my train chooses not to identify with Sri Lanka when her family was displaced by the war, by the genocide carried out against Tamil's death, right? So who's doing this? This was this war ended 17 years ago. So why is the fact that she uses the term Tamil 'ulam' being equated with terrorism and support for the LTTE now? Who does it serve? Right? So in the present, mass graves are being unearthed in Chamani, in Sri Lanka, right? It is being described as one of the largest mass graves in the world. At the same time, this current government, which came into power and kind of made people hopeful by committing to reform the prevention of terrorism act, which gave, you know, the governmental kinds of extrajudicial powers, right? They said, "Okay, we're going to to reform that act, but now they come up with a new draft, which human rights watch says, you know, it's risking more abuses. So the definition of terrorism is becoming more diffuse, more amorphous and seems to include any kind of political activism, including activism overseas. So these campaigns, I think, serve as a kind of distraction on the one hand while they create this bogeyman to justify the continued oppression of tummels on the island. So tummels are not seeing any accountability from the state and they aren't allowed to mourn their dead, but apparently some singular supremacists can mobilize to cyber bully a young girl who is a citizen of another country who has the right to, in Canada, to identify herself however she chooses. So that's some of the context I wanted to give you. And so, yeah, I mean, again, all of this because she identified as a lump tummel coming from these groups. And maybe Nedra, I mean, look, we've been through the trenches on this before. You have some personal experience with this. What happened to you? And how does that inform the way you're understanding what's happening now? Okay. So about 12 years ago, I started a tummel study symposium at York University. And, you know, there's a massive tummel population with the biggest tummel diaspora, right? So there's a huge working class tummel student population at York University and I started this symposium and I began receiving threatening emails and faced some online bullying as well. Then someone sent me a link to an online article on Lancarnet or something that claimed our conference was funded by terrorists. This is an academically vetted conference. You understand? We have to justify all kinds of things within the institution, get internal funding. There's you know, tenured academics that are supervising us, all of this. But someone can just go online and make something up. And that led to all kinds of harassment. Mind you, it was a lot more covert back in the day because this was Facebook. So people would send me messages on Messenger on Facebook Messenger. I'd get these messages from men in military uniforms standing next to a jeep or a truck, an army truck or helicopters or whatever, you know, saying things like we know what to do with people like you. I would get emails from people like obviously fake accounts under the name of, you know, single princes from like Sri Lanka's past, saying do you think that tummels are indigenous to Sri Lanka? Just the most random email. Sometimes it was just guys in uniform saying hello on Messenger. So you know, I started referring to them as the Sergeant Papa's Lonely Hearts Club because this was just like constant one after the other. And at first, I can tell you I was terrified because I thought, oh my gosh, am I the students that we're working with going to be endangered by this? Does this mean that we're not going to be able to do this? Do our symposium again. And, you know, it does create a kind of anxiety and these things are difficult enough to put together and carry out without having this other underlying fear, right, about whether you're endangering the people that you're trying to help. So, but this was 12 years ago and it's nothing like the scale of what we're seeing with my three now. Yeah, because now it's a lot more out in the open. People have no fear, but there's no shyness around it. But in terms of how my experience informs how I see it, I see it for what it is. It's groundless, racist, supremacist, misogynistic bullying. And the bully doesn't need facts. They just need other bullies who are willing to join in, right? Listen, I can't have to acknowledge how brave you are for sharing all of that with us. So, thank you so much, Nedra, for that. And, I mean, I enjoyed that. I won't turn to you. I mean, because I want to take a moment to listen now to my tray speaking with Owen Thiel on his podcast in your dreams. The fact that I have a platform where people can look up to me, I don't take that lightly. I don't play with that shit lightly. I am conscious about everything that I'm doing, knowing that I am a human being. And I can only represent like myself and like the life that I live. Totally. But I do take it as like, no, it's a privilege. I'm privileged to be able to have a platform that my post when I was 17 that I would put up on my story speaking up for human rights. Now it gets to be seen by millions of people. That's a privilege. So, Joy, I mean, that's my tray on the Owen Thiel podcast. I mean, I want to know how do you see this? Why do you think my tray is such a polarizing figure? I mean, I think it's because of her bravery. I think it's really impressive that she's able to speak with the level of like confidence and self-esteem. She's a relatively young person and it's very hard in these sort of like media spaces to sort of talk about your own experiences, your family history and not shy away from the complexity of that and not water down your identity, which she doesn't do at all. She's extremely outspoken and I think that's really impressive. But I guess unfortunately, the other side of that is that it can invite, you know, trolls that don't necessarily want to see an outspoken, you know, I'm talking about the atrocities that her people have faced or her own experiences. There is going to be sort of a desire to silence her for it, but I have to applaud her for not doing that and for being entirely herself. Well, I mean, you know, like, I mean, this is being talked about all over. I mean, we have the, the Tamil Canadian Congress released a statement condemning this online harassment and it was actually brought up in Sri Lankan parliament. The, the, the Jaffna MP came up in parliament and said, we've got to stop these, these, these, this online harassment has to stop. We should be celebrating my tray and her accomplishments. Nedra, I mean, I want to take this back to you. I mean, you know my tray's family and you met her when she was much younger. Just briefly, like based on what you know, how do you think she's been handling all of this? Mm-hmm. I want to point out that several groups have condemned this. I think I thought the Jaffna monitor article was great. I thought, you know, Tamil Guardian every young, Tamil person on social media is coming out to support her on this, right? So I will say, I don't hang out with my tray. We don't do dance routines together. I know her parents because of their work in the community. Her mother is a force of nature and her dad is this kind of consistent presence, right? And they're both intelligent activists who work hard. The workers rights, feminist rights and the well-being of the community. So I know my tray has the support she needs and deserves. She is a child of our community. So we all sort of have this vicarious joy in what she does. We all feel proud of her and feel invested in her success. And I think she knows that. And I think she's savvy enough to see this bullying for what it is. I think she'll get through this. But to me, that's besides the point, why should she have to? She's worked hard for what she's got. She's not some nipo baby who had this career handed to her, right? She didn't have all these sort of inside routes to getting this work. So why should she be harassed for honoring her family's history in how she defines herself? Right? Why this additional layer of stress on this young person? Hey, it's Danielle and Cali. You're hosts of IN3, Canada's number one entertainment news podcast. I've spent more time with Taylor Swift than most other people. We're media pros. We hosted the Verity Screening Besties. How we has become the hottest Baxter Boyer. Said no one but you ever, ever. And insiders who have seen it all, IRL Oscars Golden Globes. You name it. We have been there with access to the biggest talent. Welcome to in three Patrick J. Adam. The fun starts in three. You know who's not going to survive this? Dad, talk. Oh, new episodes, Mondays and Thursdays. I'm Rads. I'm a play sitting in for Alameen Abdav Mahmoud. This is Kabochen. I am here with Joy-Tosham Gupta and Nedra Radrigo. We are discussing Besta the best and this backlash against its star, Mitre Ramakrishnan. Joy-Tah, I mean, I think we should know. I mean, this movie, as I said, is number one globally on Netflix and number two in Canada and the US. And look, we can't establish like I look. causal relationship between what is happening and kind of the real world impact of that this backlash can have. But I mean, what do you think that could be? - I mean, I'm of two minds about it. Like I was talking about this earlier in the conversation where like our algorithms are internet, like our versions of the internet are so fragmented. I do wonder if folks outside of the South Asian diaspora and like South, like outside of like the Tamil diaspora and the Sri Lankan diaspora are like seeing some of this stuff. And hopefully it's kind of going under the radar in terms of like the review bombing. But then I do worry about how difficult it is to get, you know, our by South Asians made in, you know, like in America in the first place. So like there is a concern in my mind that this very small group of vocal people will sabotage my Thursday's career and, you know, the opportunity for this kind of like thing to be made just because maybe some of the gatekeepers in the industry would look at this and they wouldn't understand the complexities of it and the layers of what's going on here. I'm hopeful that that's not going to be the case. - Yeah, well, I mean, I should say like there has been the sort of pattern, like this is not new in terms of people being review bomb, specifically women of color. You look at like the Leslie Jones from the Ghostbuster movie. You look at Kelly Marie Tran and Star Wars. You know, there has been this pattern of women of color being targeted and then their career, you know, not get, yeah, exactly. So Nendra, I mean, what are you thinking the impact of this could be? - I hope this doesn't create problems for her with directors or her acting colleagues because sometimes I think people feel reluctant to work with someone because if they feel like this whole narrative around them is going to take over the focus of the project, right? But at the same time, it's a little hard to say because sometimes controversy around a film can also push, you know, push more people to go check it out and I think, you know, the powers that we start to recognize that too. But I think, you know, it's just this unnecessary burden that's being put then on these young people. And I just feel like we should leave them alone. Let them do their work. - Yeah, well, I mean, before we wrap, I mean, I do want to talk about, take a bit of time to talk about one very specific line in this movie from My Trace character, Maya. It's a joke about the last plane out of Kabul, which is a reference to what has happened when the Taliban took over five years ago. - Joy, what is happening and why do you think the writers, what do you think the writers were thinking when it comes to that line? - I mean, this is where I'm not a fan of. Like this is like, this is not good. So what happened is, My Trace character is talking to her best friend and she says, you know, boys throw themselves at you like you're the last plane out of Kabul. What happened with the fall of Kabul and the American military leaving Kabul was horrific. In terms of like the imagery that that line is invoking is desperate Afghan people throwing themselves onto American military aircraft to try and get out. As a war was ending, that the American government said would be liberatory for Afghan people. And instead it led to like 20 something years of destruction and instead, you know, people died doing that. Guys were like hanging on to the fuselage, the wheels of this aircraft and then either getting crushed by the wheels are falling to their deaths. Now I was trying to understand why this joke made it in in the first place. Hassan Minaj is one of the writers and creators of this movie. He's a vocal, Muslim, Indian, American comedian. He also, you know, does a lot of work that interacts with like news and current events. So he knows what he's talking about. In this case, it's a play on the phrase, the last plane out of Saigon or the last flight out of Saigon, which is a pretty old phrase. It's also in the name of a movie about the end of the war in Vietnam. And I think this is an example of someone trying to like update something. And I don't know, like from lack of a better word, like brownify, like a phrase they've probably heard from like comics and members of the media before. - But the last last chopper of Saigon is a line from freaks and geeks. - Oh yeah, well there you go. Yeah, like it's like a thing that gets said. But I really do think you can over assimilate. You can assimilate too close to the sun and you can allow this industry to sometimes dull your sense of like, I don't know, like your humanity, your sensitivity. And it gets to a point where you allow them to change you when you don't change them. And I think that's really where this goes wrong. And also it doesn't make sense for a movie where the target audience is a bunch of Gen Zier. Like young people anyway, like they wouldn't get the like last whatever out of Saigon reference anyway. So it's not funny. And it's also punching down. So. - I mean, I get that is like the reasonable disappointment in that one line in the movie. Listen, that's all the time we have for this really, really complicated dance composition. I want to thank you both for being here. - Thank you. - Thank you for having us. - Joy Tish and Gupta is a producer at CBC News. She's here in the studio with me in Toronto. And Nedra Rodrigo is the founder of the Tamil Studies Symposium at York University. Best of the best is on Netflix right now. And that's it for the show today. I'm Brad time in play sitting in for LMNep.mood. This is CbOcean. I'll see you next time. - For more CBC podcasts, go to cbc.ca/podcasts.