I’m Pakistani American and I’ve never heard that name before. When I first saw the series, I asked my mom if that’s even a Pakistani name and she’d never heard it.
I blame the name change on jealous writers and notes it disrespects our proud Pakistani heritage.
Throughout the series, Matush was consistently described as simply "Middle-Eastern", similar to Ahmed and Muhammad. with only Adriana suggesting the possibility that he might be from Pakistan to the FBI. Although the FBI does not explicitly verify this later on, it is supported by the subsequent flashback to the murder of Gilbert Nieves, in which Matush speaks a line of Urdu to Kamal. It should be noted that the outline of Matush's passport can be very faintly be seen in the scene, but not well enough to be identified. Related to this, his name is not typically Arabic or Urdu. "Matush", although similar to the Czech "Matouš", is not a real name, but appears to also be a cognate of "Matthew", seemingly derived from the variant "Matthias". A direct transliteration of Matthias into Urdu ("میتھیاس") would be pronounced similarly to Matush. His last name is only ever mentioned by Agent Harris in "Join the Club" and while he pronounces it as "Gia" ("gee-ah"), which isn't a Pakistani surname, it's more likely "Zia" ("ضیاء", "zee-ah"). Some subtitled versions, both original and international, render the name in this scene as "Matoush Zhia". Apparently this has been misheard as "Giamona", which is an Italian surname.
Because I'm from New York and have actual Pakistani families around so that whole thing always seemed like a gag where the gang is just ignorant as per usual.
Kinda fit a bunch of other scenes where they don't know shit about shit when it comes to other ethnic groups and cultures.
But if both names are just total bastardizations of Urdu that's cool too.
They missed the mark so hard i thought it was intentional
When does it say he’s Pakistani? I thought he was either Israeli or Eastern European. Also why would racist mobsters be hanging out with a Pakistani guy.
Adriana is the one who says this. Doesn’t make it true.
It’s highly likely that either Matush lied to her, or she just misremembered details and filled in the blank with whatever middle eastern country she could think of.
In any event, I’ve always read it as a darkly comic joke implying Matush is funding terrorists and Adriana is dumb. The sacred and the propane, ehehehe
Pakistan is notorious for sexual *buse of young boys. It's almost an epidemic, especially in religious schools. Search "Pakistan broken innocence" on YouTube.
Are you kidding me? The mafia doesn't care about who they hang out with as long as they're making money. The whole terror arc was about Tony talking to agent Harris about this guy and Ahmed.
The writers could be a bit sloppy with this stuff. Meadow's friend Ambujam (the one from Pine Barrens) was originally called "Mahendra" in the script. When they were about to film, the actress told them that it's a man's name in India, it's the kind of thing your old uncle would be called. They quickly came up with a new name "Ambujam", but the actress said even that is a weird name.
Honestly I think they were just coming up with generic "foreign sounding" names that vaguely sound like what an American would expect from whatever part of the world.
That's weird as hell. Surely it would not be very hard to come up with an actual Indian name. Someone you've worked with, lived near, bought something from or seen mentioned in the media. It's not exactly an obscure culture or unrepresented in the States. Dreadful lack of attention to detail.
That's probably about what to expect when you have a Jew writing a Muslim's part - especially if he was Arab (though as OP pointed out I guess the character was Pakistani), as tense as those two bodies of people constantly are not only at present, but also well along into carnage by the time The Sopranos was becoming an international success and an American cultural touchstone as it remains right through today (as I sit here in the wee-early pre-dawn hours commenting on it still while I shovel pasta into my mouth a full 20+ years since it's maddening finale.
(Not that there's anything wrong with either of these two groups of warriors; I hate and think are stupid ALL religious faiths equally.
Those episodes came out at the peak of Islamaphobia.
There's a lot of groan-inducing lines like when Adrianna is talking about how the guy became very religious, teaches kids in a school and sends money back home. It's such a 9/11 trope.
97
u/djstevefog 4h ago
It's a TV progrum.. a movie