So far, not encouraging.

Chris Kattan plays a version of himself, and when he despairs at the most recent role his agent has got him (a goat-like alien), he allows himself to be convinced by a young Indian director to go to Bombay and play the lead in Peculiar Dancing Boy.

Upon arrival in the city, Chris gets to do both the fish-out-of-water bit with occasional flourishes of Ugly American.   (“Oh!   Indian food is so spicy here, not like in California!” says he, as he very publicly spits out an appetizer at cocktail party, not once, but twice. )

Pooja Kumar plays Priya, sister of the director and producer of the film and she takes an instant dislike to Chris, which is further supported by his obvious lack of dance skills the next day, at the mahurat of the film.

She fires him, he gets thrown out onto the street (because his Dad back in LA has messed up his credit card; what?   he only has one??) and wanders the creepy (?) lanes of Bombay by night.

Next morning, the director sorts things out and installs him in their family home, where he gets to meet the grandmother (who he first mistakes for the maid).   She teaches Chris how to dance, and he improves a bit, even managing to convince Neha Dhupia’s character, his would-be leading lady, to give him another chance.   To the strains of Bachna Ae Haseeno they take a turn on the dance floor, and then he spoils it all by doing a Richard Gere, and the episode’s over.

Scenes from tonight’s Episode Two show him getting burnt in effigy for the kiss, running out of town, and possibly starting to fall in love with Priya.

As a comedy, last night’s episode was a flop.   I laughed out loud one time only, at Kattan trying to dance on the day of the mahurat.   Everyone knows white men can’t…oh wait….well, I guess they can’t dance either.

For Indophiles or anyone missing Bombay, well, yeah they do film on the street a bit, and guess what, there’s autos, a cow, some goats, people washing themselves in public, and lots of street urchins begging.

For fillum fans, since this is targeted to the US audience, there’s no cameos of big Indian stars like in Luck By Chance, and the music and dance sequences – the very special feature which would be most likely to get americanos curious about Bollywood movies and maybe wantin’ to see more – are seriously toned down.   The only cameos are lackluster appearances by Keanu Reeves, David Allen Grier and Maya Rudolph.

Let’s see what tonight brings…