Sabu Dastagir

Explore the presentation of Orientalist discourses in the short film Surviving Sabu. I will be exploring the short film Surviving Sabu which was written and directed by Ian Iqbal Rashid in 1998, with reference to the 1942 film The Jungle Book. My analysis will question the presentation of Indian and Muslim identities in both films. Surviving Sabu presents the relationship between two characters: a father and his son. The family have immigrated to England at some point in recent decades, although

Despite his garnered success as a leading actor, many of his roles subjected him to infantilization, race-bending, and exoticism. Due to the lack of actors of color in Hollywood at the time, Sabu would be often be typecast into the exotic and feral Jungle boy role. In the Thief of Bagdad we see Sabu show off his acting chops as a leading actor representing the South Asian community, despite him playing an Arab. The Thief of Bagdad has its flaws with regard to race-bending, however at

Arab actors or inherent racism in Hollywood at the time, however, most of the main characters were portrayed by Caucasian actors. John Justin and Conrad Veidt, portray the lead characters of Jaffar and Ahmad the sultan in brownface, whereas Sabu is Indian and portrays an Arabian thief. Throughout the film, I could not help but get a sense of how the Arabian culture was being romanticized through a Western lens. I could almost argue that, had this film been directed by someone of a different

Hayakawa’s career was jumpstarted by his leading role in The Cheat, the film catapulted him to overnight stardom despite his negative portrayal of an Asian lead. This later set a precedent for much of Hayakawa’s career where he would be branded as the mysterious, exotic and dangerous foreign lover prior to Valentino. Having reached a level of stardom, Hayakawa used his connections to form his own production company, Haworth productions. This gave the young actor total control over the material