{"id":729,"date":"2021-05-29T11:43:41","date_gmt":"2021-05-29T15:43:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/totallyfilmi.toutes-directions.com\/totallyfilmi-wp\/?p=729"},"modified":"2021-05-29T11:43:42","modified_gmt":"2021-05-29T15:43:42","slug":"doubles-with-slight-pepper-dir-ian-harnarine-2011","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/totallyfilmi.toutes-directions.com\/totallyfilmi-wp\/2021\/05\/29\/doubles-with-slight-pepper-dir-ian-harnarine-2011\/","title":{"rendered":"Doubles With Slight Pepper (dir. Ian Harnarine, 2011)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This post first appeared on Totally Filmi on September 1, 2011.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"DWSP1\"<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI come from a long line of poor and stupid coolies,\u201d says Dhani, not without some bitterness.  It\u2019s a bitterness that\u2019s justified:  Dhani\u2019s father left Trinidad for Canada, promising to bring Dhani and his mother later, leaving them with little more than the family doubles business (doubles — two flat breads filled with channa —  being the tasty street food of Trinidad and Tobago).  Dhani\u2019s bike doubles as his stand, and one day just before Christmas, he gets a request for doubles with slight pepper, and looks up to discover the man making the order is his father. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/a> “My dad immigrated to Canada and all I got was this lousy t-shirt” is probably not the best way to rebuild a relationship.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dhani is angry, guarded \u2013 and suspicious, figuring his father must want something.  And he\u2019s right.  His father has a request, and it\u2019s a request that will not only re-open old wounds, but that will, ultimately, lead to a kind of grudging forgiveness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Director Ian Harnarine packs a lot into this short film.  Dhani\u2019s father is not the only one with an ulterior motive here \u2013 Dhani and his mother agree to let him stay for a few days, because they need to figure out how to get him to sign over the house to them, a house, as Dhani\u2019s father proudly says,  built on doubles money.  Dhani confesses that the doubles business isn\u2019t doing well.  \u201cIf doubles not selling, then something wrong,\u201d says Dhani\u2019s father.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Turns out, Dhani doesn\u2019t know the secret ingredient for the channa filling.  \u201cYou always made the channa,\u201d says Dhani\u2019s mother.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I first read the film\u2019s title, Doubles With Slight Pepper<\/strong>, I was curious.  Firstly, I wasn\u2019t familiar with what doubles were, despite the fact that Mr. Totally Filmi\u2019s family hails from Trinidad (he did, however, try to explain \u201cShark and Bake\u201d to me, but I\u2019m not sold).  But I was curious  — and as I confessed to Ian Harnarine, I have a kind of obsession with chickpeas, so I had to go find out more.  Turns out there\u2019s a small shop here in the University town I live in \u2013 a shop that “sells roti and doubles to white folks”, much like the one Dhani\u2019s father dreamed about running with his family.  And you know what?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Doubles are tasty.  They are filling, they are the kind of perfect quick snack you can pick up on the run, or, as in my town, on a late night after the bars close just to sustain you \u2018til you get home.  Doubles, I\u2019ve discovered, are kind of the ultimate comfort food, tasty and filling and just a bit spicy — if you order them with slight pepper, that is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"DWSP6\"<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

So it\u2019s no surprise then, that the doubles form the core of Harnarine\u2019s film.  Doubles that build a house, doubles that sustain a son and his mother, doubles that a worried mother gives her son to eat, doubles that bring a father and son back together, even if a little grudgingly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ian Harnarine\u2019s Doubles With Slight Pepper<\/strong> is a gem of a short film,.  It\u2019s spare, with a story and dialogues that pack emotional weight.  \u201cAll I want to do is look you in the eye,\u201d says Dhani to his father, \u201cand make sure I don\u2019t see myself.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The performances, too:  Sanjiv Bhoodu as Dhani strikes the right notes, from bitterness to anger to hope to resignation, all with a great deal of subtlety. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"DWSP5\"<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Errol Sitahal is lovely as Dhani\u2019s father, dropping back into his family\u2019s life almost as if he\u2019d never left, yet showing subtle moments of regret and realization of the distance that actually separates them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"DWSP3\"<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Dhani\u2019s mother (Susan Abraham Hannays) nicely serves as a bridge between father and son, practical and tender by turns. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"DWSP4\"<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Absolutely.  And I highly suggest you watch the doubles, too. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

***<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ian Harnarine’s Doubles With Slight Pepper <\/strong>will have its World Premier at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, screening on Monday, September 12th at 6 p.m. at TIFF Bell Lightbox 3, and on Tuesday, September 13th at 3:30 p.m., also at TIFF Bell Lightbox 3. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This post first appeared on Totally Filmi on September 1, 2011. \u201cI come from a long line of poor and stupid coolies,\u201d says Dhani, not without some bitterness.  It\u2019s a bitterness that\u2019s justified:  Dhani\u2019s father left Trinidad for Canada, promising to bring Dhani and his mother later, leaving them with…<\/p>\n

Continue ReadingDoubles With Slight Pepper (dir. Ian Harnarine, 2011)<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":730,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[401,539],"tags":[710,707,712,709,711,708,713],"class_list":["post-729","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-south-asian-diaspora","category-toronto-international-film-festival","tag-doubles-with-slight-pepper","tag-errol-sitahal","tag-ian-harnarine","tag-sanjiv-bhoodu","tag-susan-abraham-hannays","tag-tiff-2011","tag-toronto-international-film","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/totallyfilmi.toutes-directions.com\/totallyfilmi-wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/729","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/totallyfilmi.toutes-directions.com\/totallyfilmi-wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/totallyfilmi.toutes-directions.com\/totallyfilmi-wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totallyfilmi.toutes-directions.com\/totallyfilmi-wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totallyfilmi.toutes-directions.com\/totallyfilmi-wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=729"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/totallyfilmi.toutes-directions.com\/totallyfilmi-wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/729\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":732,"href":"https:\/\/totallyfilmi.toutes-directions.com\/totallyfilmi-wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/729\/revisions\/732"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totallyfilmi.toutes-directions.com\/totallyfilmi-wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/730"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/totallyfilmi.toutes-directions.com\/totallyfilmi-wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totallyfilmi.toutes-directions.com\/totallyfilmi-wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totallyfilmi.toutes-directions.com\/totallyfilmi-wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}