Chutney Popcorn

"Chutney Popcorn" is a warmhearted, earnest, sincere story with a subtle sense-of-humor. With all the ear marks of a low budget independent film, this flick moves with serenity and honesty through the lives of some New York City dwellers including a surrogate mother, some Indian-Americans, some lesbians, and some others. Not for the mindless masses, this flick will play best with those who appreciate brave independent films.

Shout out to production and location management on this film. This movie is a little gem among similar fare with so many diverse outlooks that every scene gives you a nugget of character. The colors make this film really pop; along with Nisha's use of visual metaphor melting together seamlessly.

However, Nisha is no actor and the ADR can be pretty....uncanny at times. Like "The Room" levels of bad dubbing of lines that can break focus for many viewers.

As an Indian American and a female, I was pleasantly delighted by this movie. I found it to be very funny and especially interesting because of the lesbian themes. It surprised me to see this in the movie, because Indians generally feel uncomfortable talking about homosexuality at all. I don't think it's necessarily a bias or prejudice against it, just conservatism.

I didn't really relate to any of the characters in the movie, mostly because there were too many characters and little development of any of their personalities. But I adored Madhury Jaffrey, who was very natural and realistic as the mother. She reminds me so much of my own mother, and many of the things she says to her two daughters about marriage and family are comments my own mother's made to me. It was strangely comforting to see the ambivalence that Indians born and raised in the US feel in trying to maintain their culture while being true to themselves. Until now, I haven't seen it discussed so frankly and honestly in a movie.

What really stands out about Chutney Popcorn is the sense of humor that persists through an emotional plot, and this gives it a good degree of realism. Even as the family is falling apart, one can still laugh at their quirks. Life, and the funny moments that define it, goes on for these people. The humor transforms this film from the overdone melodrama it could have been into a sweet and convincing story.

The realistic quality of this film is what makes it so wonderful, in my opinion. The characters are really genuine human beings who talk like real people instead of actors with a script. There aren't any gaping plot holes or implausible events. There's plenty of lesbian humor that you don't have to be part of the gay culture to understand, and the family's Indian heritage has its parallels in any family's cultural background. The camerawork, acting, everything pretty much makes the film down to earth and real. The movie was a bit slow at times (the plot isn't really conducive to a lot of action) but it held my attention.

If you're a fan of movies about people and family, go see this! Expect more character-based humor than slapstick - it's not so much a comedy as a story that happens to have funny moments. Check this movie out, it's a lot of fun.

For what this film is -- a low-budget indie targeted mostly at the expanding lesbian audience -- this isn't too bad of a film. Not my cup of tea, but there's an earnestness and grit that this production has that you can't help respecting.

That being said --

I felt that the central character of Rena was almost Job-like in dealing with family issues, and that most people would have blown off the family by that point. I certainly had a hard time believing that anyone would have offered to carry a surrogate pregnancy for a sister as demeaning and awful as Rena's. I also felt that the actress playing Rena (also the director) was half-asleep during most of the movie. The part needed more energy.

Most of the rest of the principals turned in good performances, especially Jillian Hennessey from Law & Order (I almost didn't recognize her without the dark hair and business suit). Some of the peripheral characters were Offbeat-stereotype lesbians; not much to work with there. The script suffered from some ridiculous dialogue and situations. The worst was probably in the waiting room, where two of the minor characters crudely act out a birth (in front of the two grandmothers, no less) and then petulantly wonder why Rena's taking so long. Come on, these are lesbians, not idiots. I think they understand the birth process a little better than that. I think children of eight understand the birth process better than that, and have better manners as well.

Like I said, not my cup of tea, and has some serious shortcomings, but it was a good effort and is worth a watch, if you don't mind the subject matter.