In a rural village of Punjab India a moony young man crouches over his phone in a rapeseed field near his familys cabbage farm His name is Happy Singh Soni and hes watching YouTube clips of his favorite film Bande Part by JeanLuc Godard In fact Happy is often compared to a young Sami Frey by the imaginary journalists that keep him company while he uses the outhouse When hes not sleeping among the cabbages and eating his mothers sugary rotis Happy dreams of becoming an actor one who plays the melancholy rolesrare in Indian cinema
Happy works a deadend job at the amusement park biding his time and saving money for a clandestine journey to Europe where hell finally land a breakout role After a nightmarish passage to Italy Happy still manages to find relief in food and fantasy even as he is forced into everworsening work conditions over a debt he allegedly accrued in transit But his daydreams grow increasingly at odds with his bleak reality one shared by so many migrant workers
Set against the enmeshed crises of global migration and the politics of labor within the food industry Celina Baljeet Basras luminous debut argues for the things that are essential to human survival food water a place to lay ones head but also pleasure romance art and the inalienable right to a vivid inner life
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