India Sweets and Spices

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 am pleasantly surprised how smart the script is. Calling this film a comedy is misleading and a mistake, but it's definitely worth a watch. It doesn't glamorize and idealize the Indian culture, it presents how rich, upper "class" is snobbish and conceited. The main character is an interesting, intelligent girl from the "upper class", whose personal life suddenly gets complicated because she falls for a poor Indian man. It's fascinating to see that the Indian diaspora keeps the old prejudices and flaws of the traditional Indian society despite living and being successful in modern America. Apparently you can get an Indian out of India but it's much more difficult to get India out of an Indian...

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.

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.

Likeable and funny. Portrayal of the Indian community hits close to home. Some of the characters are people I know or have seen in social gatherings. Thoroughly enjoyed it.