His parents named him Shahjehan, ruler of the world, but he barely has control over the ground on which he is standing. Shahjehan Latif, or Shah, has been auditioning for the roles of no less a pop culture icon than James Bond, but he chokes at the exact same point every time.
It’s a make-or-break opportunity for the British-Pakistani Shah, a chance to prove that Bond can be played by a brown, Muslim and South Asian actor. But things are going to get bad, ugly and then surreal for Shah (Riz Ahmed).
An orchestrated photo-op gets Shah the desired attention. The internet response to the headlines screaming “Is This the Next Bond?” delights his manager Felicia (Weruche Opia), but it also leads to trolling and an act of desecration that reaches Shah’s doorstep. The threat of violence, apart from reminding Shah of the bullying he endured in school, deeply unsettles the actor.
The Prime Video comedy series is set over the course of four days in the life of Shah, from the first audition to the next, and in between increasingly chaotic efforts to balance ambition, family and religious identity. His mother Tahira, (Sheeba Chaddha), whose profanities are always whispered, is his strongest ally. His father Parvez (Sajid Hasan) likes to declaim from the comfort of his couch.
Shah’s cousin Zulfi (Guz Khan), who has set up London’s first Muslim-led car hailing service, is both bodyguard and hindrance. Zulfi’s sister Q (Aasiya Shah) contributes to Shah’s unravelling. Finally, there’s Shah’s ex-girlfriend Yasmin (Ritu Arya), a journalist who wonders whether Shah is selling out by agreeing to play Bond, a symbol of everything that’s wrong with Western popular culture.
Bait is a sharp, hilarious and bold satire that takes a big swing at current debates – the debate over the representation of non-white actors, bias against Pakistanis in British culture, the suffocating nature of the very community that is the source of identity. The six-episode show is created by Riz Ahmed, co-written by him and five other writers, and directed by Bassam Tariq and Tom George.
Shah’s tendency to overthink leads to hilarious situations, and his shallowness is breath-taking in its transparency. While Shah is his own worst enemy, the show dexterously brings out the larger context for his actions.
A couple of the episodes lean full-tilt into bizarreness, pushing the comedy to the edge. Riz Ahmed is unerring in these moments, sparing nobody, including himself.
There are excellent supporting performances from Guz Khan and Sheeba Chaddha. Soni Razdan has a small role as Shah’s snobbish aunt. While some of the humour is specifically British, the show is universal in its exploration of Shah’s predicament.
In trying to be true to his roots while also breaking the glass ceiling in terms of representation, Shah is every non-white player in a game with pre-determined rules and fixed outcomes. The eclectic score includes an Ilaiyaraaja song, suggesting that Shah speaks for all of South Asia in England, rather than only the Pakistanis.
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