Índia, Amor e Outras Delícias

This film does not tick the 'right' buttons for white expectations of an Asian British film or a queer film and so people may be wrong footed. So there is no culture clash with parents who are living an 'Asian' read outdated culture with westernised children, no arranged marriage, no white person learning and being surprised by 'Asian' culture. No belly laughs ensuing from said conflicts. Instead we have a film about being true to yourself and learning to follow your passions for whatever - cooking, dance, love. I wait for the day that Black filmmakers can make work without having to conform to the prescribed script written for them to fulfil and they can just follow their passions.

Great to see this kind of film out on general release in British cinemas and now on DVD. It's about time! One thing I would say is that if I were a sixteen year old girl or so, this would be my favourite film for a good while because of the 'girl-on-girl action'. But don't get me wrong this is definitely about women and not girls!

Well done Pratibha Parmar for bringing this fun-loving film, full of diversity of many kinds, out for all to see. I look forward to seeing more.

This film marks a time where more and more expressions of true love, identity and passion should be allowed onto the big screen for the mainstream to see. There are plenty of interesting works out there, which are simply not being allowed into the cinema for people to see because there is deemed to be 'no audience'. So pay attention to what you chose to see! It's people that determine what's out there and what isn't.

This film was at the International Lesbian & Gay Film Festival in Turin, and it was a real pleasure to see it and to meet the film-maker afterward. Parmar is a well known documentarist, and she brought in this feature film the richness of her past experience. It's a fresh, delicate comedy, with very sensuous details about food. But what I appreciated most it's the multicultural view, the idea of multi-layered identities (Indian-Scottish, Indian-Lesbian, etc...). It makes you feel it's possible to combine successfully the ingredients of your personality, like in a good recipe, instead of having them at war with each other. The actress who plays Nina's mother is wonderful. I'd like to see her more on the screen.

I just viewed this film at the MGLFF in Miami Beach, Florida. The audience very much loved the film. It was shown at the Regal Cinema on Lincoln Road. I like great cinema.I also liked the internation feel of the film. Great detail to light and framing make this film unique. I so enjoyed the beautiful truth that unfolded. We are fortunate to have such great filmmakers who celebrate relationships like this one. Pratibha(Director) takes the viewer on a journey that uses all of their senses. I loved the story. Here are some words to describe it. ENLIGHTENED! EVOLVED! BEAUTIFUL! I look forward to seeing more of this young directors work. I know that she will be doing more and more great projects....

"Nina's Heavenly Delights" is actually more interesting for the milieu in which it's set - a community of Indian ex-pats living and thriving in Scotland - than for the story it has to tell.

Nina (Shelley Conn) moved to London a few years back to escape an arranged marriage to a man she knew she could never learn to love. When her father dies unexpectedly, Nina returns to Glascow to help run the Indian restaurant he's owned and operated for decades. Her partner in the endeavor is Lisa (Laura Fraser), a close friend of the family whom Nina finds herself falling in love with, a fact that may not sit too well with her traditionalist family.

"Nina's Heavenly Delights" is definitely a mixed-bag when it comes to virtues and flaws. It's at its best in its quieter, more serious moments, as Nina engages in thoughtful discussions with her family members and her new-found love interest. But when it aims for a more lighthearted tone, the movie tends towards the coy and the cloying. The coming-out aspects of the tale are handled with delicacy and restraint, though the determinedly upbeat ending is a trifle on the implausible and unconvincing side, to put it mildly. The movie also suffers from a surfeit of soulful montage sequences and irrelevant musical interludes, a holdover from its Bollywood roots, no doubt (the movie may be British in origin but its Indian influence is undeniable). Moreover, the blending of gourmet cooking with magical realism feels too reminiscent of "Like Water for Chocolate" for total comfort.

However, the performances are so authentic and the whole enterprise so well-meaning and upbeat that it's hard not to have positive feelings about the movie in the long run.