61 pages 2 hours read

Maulik Pancholy

The Best at It

Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2019

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Background

Authorial Context: Maulik Pancholy and South Asian Representation in American Media

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of racism and mental illness.

The Best at It is Maulik Pancholy’s debut novel. Pancholy is primarily known as a television actor. His notable roles include Sanjay Patel in Weeds, Jonathan in 30 Rock, and voice acting in the animated shows Sanjay and Craig and Phineas and Ferb.

An NBC study of a decade of films found that half of the roles of Asian actors were used as comedic punchlines, even non-comedic character types (Venkatraman, Sakshi. “Almost Half of All Asian Roles Serve as a Punchline, Study Finds.” NBC News, 5 Aug. 2021). In the early 2000s in particular, acting roles for Asian actors were restrictive, with South Asian actors “inevitably typecast as a nerdy scientist or a heavily accented corner-shop keeper and later maybe a taxi driver or terrorist” (“From Doctors to Shopkeepers, Techies to Taxi Drivers: Moving Beyond the Stereotypes—to the New Era of South Asian Stories.” Chatterbox Media). Asian characters are sometimes stereotypical representations rather than nuanced characters, highlighting discrimination within the entertainment industry. 

Pancholy’s portrayal of Rahul indirectly provides a corrective to the stereotypes embodied in Pancholy’s past roles.