Get to know Devi, an Indian American navigating her way through high school

Wednesday 13th May 2020 05:47 EDT
 
 

'Never Have I Ever' is a teen comedy drama following the life of Tamil Indian American, Devi Vishwakumar, as she navigates her way around high school in Severn Oaks, California.

The series starts with an introduction to Devi (Maitreyi Ramakrishnan) who kneels in front of her shrine at home praying to the gods to make her cool, hot and get a boyfriend.

We learn that Devi’s father Mohan (Sendhi Ramamurthy) and mother Nalini (Poorna Jagannathan) moved to California in 2001 and although they tried to keep to their Indian traditions, Devi, was influenced by the American traditions. At one of Devi’s concerts at school her father suffered a heart attack in the audience and passed away, Devi was very close to her father and idolised him and she was devastated. Things only got worse for Devi as her legs stopped working a week later and she was confined to a wheelchair. Miraculously just as her legs stopped working 3 months later they started working again but she was now known in school as the nerdy Indian girl in the wheelchair.

Starting a new year with legs that now move again, Devi decides things must change. She tells her two best friends that this year they are not going to be the unpopular girls in school and to start building their popularity they must get good looking boyfriends and she is determined to loose her virginity.

At the same time Devi’s beautiful cousin from India Kamala (Richa Moorjani) is staying with them. This again causes issues for Devi as she already feels like the underdog and her cousin is smarter, prettier and more Indian than she is.

The first few episodes of Never Have I Ever will remind you of The Mindy Project, starring the writer of Never Have I Ever, Mindy Kaling. As the episodes move forward in the series we finally start feeling some sympathy towards the main character Devi, as we see a teenager falling apart whilst trying to deal with the grief of the loss of her father.

Never Have I Ever is a great watch for both Teens and Adults who have grown up in a multi-cultural society and although parts may be hard to relate to because it feels like it is stuck in the past it brings a great comic twist watching Devi try and master being an Indian American in High School.


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