A 1970s New York City setting finds Indian-born immigrant Ram Patel trying to establish himself in the turbulent city-life where he encounters various hurdles that prevent him from obtaining his goals of becoming successful and wealthy. The pursuit of the American dream becomes littered with pot-holes for the earnest protagonist Ram Patel. Arriving from the airport to stay with a family friend, he finds himself instantly disliked by an African-American landlord (Floyd) that attempts to make Ram miserable.
Pounding the pavement for a job, Ram is taken-on by a CPA firm run by a strict, former military crew-cut martinet who hires other Indian men like Ram to do countless hours of accounting grunt-work in a hot-box dingy office. With no money to save, he begins to borrow heavily and digs himself into insurmountable debt. In the midst of this self-inducedmisery, he sends for his wife and daughter from India and continues his âfaÃ§adeâ of a successful appearance to his newly arrived wife by going into even further debt on more newly printed credit cards and âlatched-ontoâ friends.
These friends and co-workers begin to get irritated by his lack of commitment to payback, and this leads the protagonist being pressed into self-doubt and constant searching for both âa way outâ and purposeful meaning in his life. Proclaiming to push ahead through his frustration and predicament is based more on stubbornness than enlightenment, where a âdonÊ¼t quitâ mind-set becomes âfuel- to-the-fireâ for his out-of-control situation. Ram has his car stolen, and he becomes enslaved to his increasing debt status, which makes his wife question his responsibility as a husband, father and a man. RAMÊ¼s wife RANI becomes pregnant again, and he must reluctantly send her back to India to deliver their new child due to a lack of medical insurance in the USA. Rani protests, but Ram mentions âfinancial suicideâ as to their status, and Rani goes back to India for the birth of their second daughter.
Into the life of Ram Patel comes an eccentric array of characters who swirl his life into confusion. A colleagueÊ¼s mother offers her connection to a spiritual Holy-man known as âDADA BHAGWAN,â whose followers revere him as mentor and benevolent wise master, professing the release of ego for enlightenment. Ram passes up this spiritual growth opportunity, instead trying to make his way on a fortune-seeking venture in a new business with a puffed-up, egotistical entrepreneur named âADESH.â
Ram continues âspinning-his-wheelsâ and finally tries an introductory session with the eminent Dada Bhagwan. Confronting himself is an intensely difficult proposition, but awareness comes suddenly like lightning and Ram turns over a ânew leafâ as the situation begins to eventually swing in Ram PatelÊ¼s favor. This compelling story addresses the overall-immigrant experience of the midâtolate 20th Century, where âculture-clashâ and âmaking it in Americaâ are the pillars under which many lives are built, or crushed by. The filmÊ¼s ultimate message and Ram PatelÊ¼s plight and subsequent transformation by Dada Bhagwan become the hook whereby any individual can absorb the bracing impact of undeniable fate that results in a firmly entrenched ânever-give-upâ attitude.
Who was holy man?
DADA BHAGWAN