Respond to these rapid questions in our India Sweets And Spices quiz and we will tell you which India Sweets And Spices character you are. Play it now.
Thematically similar films about “ethnic” communities frequently follow a similar pattern. It is difficult for a first-generation member of a community to meet the expectations of their parents, relatives, and other members of their same ethnic, racial, or national group. They are attempting to forge their own path and wonder when they will be able to come clean about who they truly are. A romantic partner from outside the community may be included in the mix, and there may be some kind of physical distance placed between them and their family in order to really emphasize the “start anew” messaging.
In fact, there are a slew of excellent films, particularly about South Asian protagonists, which follow some variation of this formula—”The Namesake,” “Bend It Like Beckham,” “Hala,” “The Big Sick”—and it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that films inspired by overlapping cultural experiences will end up looking eerily similar to one another. The question of why films about friction within immigrant communities and the allure of American “freedom” seem to get financed and distributed more than other films about these same groups is one that deserves to be explored further at a later time. And into this subgenre arena comes Geeta Malik’s “India Sweets and Spices,” directed and written by Geeta Malik, which in some ways is a mashup of each of the films that came before it.
“India Sweets and Spices” is a pleasant but uninspiring film that distinguishes itself by providing a brief history lesson on women’s movements throughout India (which are still ongoing, such as during the March 2021 farmers’ protests). A strong asset is the character’s backward gaze, which is conveyed through a layered performance from actress Manisha Koirala, who is well-known for her decades of work in Indian cinema. She transforms from someone who is acquiescing to someone who is resentful with minute changes in her gaze or stare; with slight shifts in pitch, she conveys feelings of regret and pride. There should have been more scenes between her and the equally formidable Deepti Gupta; the two of them bring real-life lived experience to a film that relies on their grit and wisdom to make its points about relocating and reinventing one’s life.
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Aside from that, so many of the elements of “Indian Sweets and Spices” are presented in an unremarkable manner. Check for a daughter’s desire to live in a way that differs from her parents. Check. She’s dealing with the ramifications of her parents’ arranged marriage. The presence of a love interest who comes from a different walk of life than her own is confirmed. Check. She discovers a hidden history in the “old country” that causes her to question her relationship with her mother and father. “India Sweets and Spices” is a film that falls into familiarity from the very beginning and then spends the rest of its running time attempting to climb its way out. Some of the plot developments are a little too general (a dinner party where the aggrieved party calls out everyone else on their hypocrisy, secret photos used as relationship blackmail). While some of the dialogue is unforgivably corny (“I’m not superficial, I watch documentaries!”), other aspects of the film’s observations of Indian-American rituals are lacking in both insight and bite. This has all been done before in more stylish and well-rounded films, and “India Sweets and Spices” suffers as a result of being compared to those previous works.
India Sweets And Spices Quiz
During her summer break after her freshman year at UCLA, Alia Kapur (Sophia Ali) returns home to her parents’ extremely upper-class neighborhood of Ruby Hill, New Jersey, to spend time with her family. She drank, she had sex, and she was able to express herself freely while in college. Once she returns home to her parents’ palatial home, Alia resents her mother Sheila’s (Koirala) strictness and perceived classism, and she turns to her father Ranjit’s (Adil Hussain) more laidback nature for comfort. In spite of all of the pomp and circumstance, Alia’s annoyance with it all only grows with each Saturday night dinner party tradition that rotates through the other wealthy members of her parents’ friend circle, which she finds irritating. Every weekend is an opportunity for the hosts to outdo everyone else—with more courses, more help staff, more elaborate outfits, and more lavish interiors—and Alia, with her biting asides and simmering sarcasm, is getting tired of being the target of everyone else’s attention.
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It’s not until Alia walks into an Indian grocery store and locks eyes with employee Varun (Rish Shah) that the tension between them is so intense that, in a nod to Bollywood classics, Alia’s hair blows back from the force of their encounter. Varun (Ved Sapru) is the polar opposite of Alia’s longtime friend Rahul (Ved Sapru), whom Alia’s aunts believe Alia is planning to marry. The straightforward, unpretentious Varun is Alia’s antithesis. Everything is simple for Rahul, who is wealthy and well-connected, whereas Varun, who comes from a working-class background and attends a community college, is more grounded and appealing. To avoid being caught sleeping with Varun behind her parents’ backs, Alia makes a more scandalous decision by inviting his family, including shopkeeper father Gurvinder (Raj Kala) and mother Bhairavi (Gupta), to a dinner party at her family’s home. Arriving in their nice but not ostentatious outfits and carrying a plastic container full of homemade desserts, the family causes a tittering frenzy of gossip and snideness among the partygoers as they gather around the table. After discovering that Sheila and Bhairavi have some sort of shared history, Alia comes to the realization that her parents may not be who they appear to be.
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What follows in “India Sweets and Spices” is a gradual unraveling of exposed lies, betrayals, and hidden identities, and to Malik’s credit, she does a good job of keeping the film’s humbleness throughout the process. Amidst all of the chit-chat in the background, Alia and Sheila’s relationship is the film’s primary focus, and the film delivers some touching moments between mother and daughter: a shared haircut, a quiet drive, and a photograph that they look at side by side. More thought could have gone into “India Sweets and Spicescritique “‘s of traditional customs (such as arranged marriages) and parody of parental behaviors (such as the “model minority” trope or jokes about the “doctor, lawyer, engineer” pressure for children’s careers) than was given in the film. The film’s message of “don’t be too quiet” is a little hollow if it doesn’t have some of that substance to it. However, just for the work of Koirala and Gupta, “India Sweets and Spices” is a worthwhile viewing experience.
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Select theaters are now showing the film.
For more personality quizzes check this: The Emperor S New Groove Quiz.
