Sami has a realization: “I have to become a Professional American.” It’s his only way up and out of the dark basement full of draftsmen. (And, Alex adds, if you’re nerdy enough to point out that those numbers sum to 110, then you won’t be accepted.) Being accepted means becoming a “Professional American,” a slick guy who schmoozes and talks about baseball and golf. Alex says it’s 10 percent talent, 30 percent hard work, and 70 percent being accepted. Sami asks his American draftsman colleague Alex (Jon Heder) about what it really takes to get ahead in the workplace. The bachelors’ pad is so crowded that they pack together and spoon one another at night, giving new meaning to “sleep tight.” In reality, he’s sharing a crowded apartment with about 12 other young South Asian men, all of whom have technical degrees but work menial jobs, with one named Babu (Rizwan Manji) saying that he works as a “wallet” (valet).

He tells his mother in India that his life as an engineer in America is going swimmingly. He has 30 days to find a permanent job or else he’ll have to return to India as a failure who’ll never win General Iqbal’s approval. Instead he is directed to a temp job as a draftsman in the company’s poorly lit basement. Sami (played by Danny Pudi) sets off for Chicago to work as an engineer with Gradian Technologies, but when he shows up, he learns that the job offer has fallen through. (Be prepared for a cantaloupe-orange dress shirt paired with an extra-wide green tie.) This movie is a comedy, though, so Sami’s path will involve hilarity - and, for viewers, flashbacks to ’70s fashion. A young man is faced with two pressures that many males encounter: living up to a father’s greatness and achieving enough professional success to prove himself marriageable. Though Sami has an engineering degree, he has a fairly lowly job repairing electronics such as radios and record players.Īnd thus we have the opening of the heartwarming comedy The Tiger Hunter, written and directed by Lena Khan. And successful Sami is not, at least by General Iqbal’s standards. The obstacle to wedded bliss with Ruby is her father, the imposing General Iqbal, who wants his daughter to marry a successful man. Second, marry Ruby, his childhood sweetheart whom he has wanted to marry his entire life. First, be great like his late father, a legendary tiger hunter who’s idolized by the community. It’s 1979 in small-town India, and Sami Malik has two goals. Interested in bringing a screening of The Tiger Hunter to your city? Sign up at, and reserve your tickets.

The tiger hunter film