Basmati Blues came out in 2017. Which means it was in production prior to the 2016 election. It received (and deserved) a really terrible thrashing at the time. But since then we’ve been through some stuff. It hits a little differently now.

Basmati Blues is a Bollywood knockoff made by white people. It’s full of racist tropes and a goofy love story. The Indian characters in the story speak with American accents. Brie Larson plays Linda, a brilliant scientist who sings to her super good rice in her laboratory. Her fellow scientist is her dad (Scott Bakula).

The two of them work for the same company. That company, run by Gurgon (Donald Sutherland) and Evelyn (Tyne Daly), is out to make millions selling their rice in India. These two sing and dance as well. All the characters sing and dance.

The company sends Linda to India to convince Indian rice farmers to switch to the new rice.

Linda falls in love with Rajit (Utkarsh Ambudkar) before she’s even off the train. She’s pursued by another Indian man, William (Saahil Sehgal), once she gets there. They all sing and dance.

What Linda doesn’t know, and what the Indian farmers are obviously too culturally backward to grasp, is that once they switch to the new rice, they have to keep buying seed from the company to grow more rice. The corporation intends to exploit the farmers, bankrupt them, seize their land, and be richer than ever.

Of course, the white girl saves the whole of India from a terrible disaster. They rise up to take their rice back! A show of resistance! Gurgon’s private security force, in helmets carrying shields, try to block them. Yes, he brought his own army.

Here we are in 2026, and corporate greed with its cadre of uncaring billionaires look less benign now. Gurgon, the gray haired old white man, stands in front of people and lies to their faces while he’s stealing from them. Definitely less benign.

After Linda saves everything, she and all the villagers sing a song about how they can make their voices heard by sticking together. That message might not have hit home in 2017, but here in 2026 we’ve learned it’s the only thing that works.

I’m not telling you to rush over to the TV to watch Basmati Blues. It’s pretty bad, really. But it was there to point out the dangers of unfettered corporate greed before people were quite ready to think about it much. I’m giving it points for foresight and courage.

I watched it on Prime Video. How’s that for irony? But it’s also on Tubi, The Ruku Channel, Pluto TV, Plex, and Fawesome.