AN AUGUST WOMAN

If Singapore wants its Michelle Yeoh moment the way Malaysia did, we need look no further than Black Mirror star and Olivier Award winner Anjana Vasan

- SUFFIAN HAKIM

ONE OF MY FAVOURITE British television series – even though only a season has been released, and I binge-watched it within a day during the Covid-19 circuit breaker – is We Are Lady Parts. The sitcom follows an all-Muslim, all-girl British punk rock band called Lady Parts as the members balance being brown and Muslim in the UK while waving the flag of fourth-wave feminism with their anthems. Lady Parts performs hits such as “Voldemort Is Under My Headscarf” and “Bashir With a Good Beard”.

The show is at the forefront of intersectional politics in the UK, as it explores Western popular culture, punk music, the Muslim experience, the brown experience, the female experience and the modern British experience. It is a celebration of London’s rich diversity of peoples and cultures, and above all, of friendship.

The heart of this rambunctious comedy is its lead, 36-year-old Anjana Vasan, who plays Amina, a microbiology PhD student that quite literally stumbles into the role of lead guitarist for Lady Parts.

Vasan stood out to me instantly. There is a vibrant energy to her performance, and it informs the aforementioned bouts of performance anxiety and puking, as it does when the show required her to face down her inner demons and rise from the ashes of her social awkwardness to become a punk rock goddess. Her well-performed gawkiness was measured, feeding the comedy while grounding the character, making her as funny as she was relatable.