India Sweets and Spices

I came into this movie expecting another Bollywood mishmash of action/drama/comedy/romance. What I found with something original and different. The movie revealed the dark side of Indian culture with its gossip and rumormongering. Being of Indian descent, I know this is a reality although the movie obviously amplified it for entertainment purposes. The movie was entertaining but like lacked a little depth and made a few plot decisions which didn't make much sense. Overall, it could've been fantastic but ended up being a sweet, not too spicy, and fun watch.

Imagine if the average Lifetime channel original movie actually had an occasional bout of intelligence and nuance to interrupt its cliches and stupid, unlikeable characters. That's this movie.

Home from college, Alia (Sophia Ali), returns to her family's swank suburban New Jersey home. Smitten by Varun (Rish Shah), the handsome son of the new owners of the local Indian grocery, she invites his family to a dinner gathering with her parents' wealthy friends. Snobbery ensues but Alia is surprised to learn of her conservative mother's radical past with Varun's mother. But there are more secrets still, turning on the idea of women's place in Indian society and also on the custom of arranged marriage.

This is a smart, modern film with sharp dialogue exploring both universal themes including hypocrisy and those relating to Indian culture. The soundtrack is excellent too, including modern music. It's about family, truth-telling and hopes of reconciliation. Writer and director Geeta Malik is a powerful artist and her star, Sophia Ali is a dominating and compelling presence, creating a charismatic character.

Wise, lovely, original with a stunning lead performance, India Sweets and Spices is outstanding storytelling.

I enjoyed this film. Visually it's often quite beautiful, especially if you're someone like me who loves the Indian aesthetic. It's also at times amusing and at other times addressing deep issues. More than once it reminded me of what I consider to be one of the greatest films of all time, The Graduate. Not that India Sweets and Spices approaches The Graduate's greatness, but they have a few things in common. This includes a main character who is twenty-ish, exploring life and her own role in it, and grappling with the phoniness, hypocrisy and superficiality of the adults in her life. Oh, and of course, there's the scene in which she attempts to escape the world around her by exhaling bubbles while sitting at the bottom of her parents' pool.

Added to this in India Sweets is something The Graduate does not have, i.e., the implications, both subtle and not, of what women have to tolerate in a male-driven culture. The message comes across, loud and clear!

I think my review will be a bit bias considering I can definitely relate to what happened in the movie. Parents relationship, community dynamic, being an independent/rebellious girl in the family, etc.

With that said, this movie was very enjoyable. The story was interesting and dramatic. The acting was mediocre but I believe that was the script's fault. Overall, a great movie.