Absolutely wild seeing doyenne Shabana Azmi, who started out as a sloe-eyed naïf in Bolly romances, playing a ball-busting general in Spielberg’s Halo.
![](https://mvij.org/content/images/2024/02/IMG_6615.jpeg)
![](https://mvij.org/content/images/2024/02/Screenshot-2024-02-09-at-6.44.50-AM.jpeg)
It’s the Shohreh Aghdashloo in The Expanse arc.
Indian female leader / general is a sci-fi trope: an evolved society does not discard the talented based on gender and skin; a small globe has a diverse world govt.
Shabana’s shrewd side-eye here is the same side-eye she gives as a tawaif / courtesan queen in Umrao Jaan. Her exasperated look, anger, coquettishness—all the same. Major flashbacks, just now in game-derived sci-fi.
![](https://mvij.org/content/images/2024/02/IMG_6641.jpeg)
Ali Khan 🇬🇧 as a haggling merchant selling salvaged mil gear, in a bad desi accent:
![](https://mvij.org/content/images/2024/02/Screenshot-2024-02-09-at-6.34.49-AM.jpeg)
![](https://mvij.org/content/images/2024/02/Screenshot-2024-02-09-at-6.34.05-AM.jpeg)
Nila Aalia
![](https://mvij.org/content/images/2024/02/Screenshot-2024-02-09-at-6.36.46-AM.jpeg)
Starring Pablo Schreiber, Natascha McElhone
![](https://mvij.org/content/images/2024/02/Screenshot-2024-02-09-at-6.39.00-AM.jpeg)
![](https://mvij.org/content/images/2024/02/Screenshot-2024-02-09-at-6.39.24-AM.jpeg)
Spielberg also cast Naomi Scott, Shelley Conn 🇮🇳🇬🇧 in the short-lives Terra Nova sci-fi series (’11).
![](https://mvij.org/content/images/2024/02/IMG_6547.jpeg)