|
|
CHUTNEY POPCORN (Yellow, as in olio)
|
Punjabi lesbians in Brooklyn - no, not the title of a direct-to-video soft-core but the premise of an archetypal independent movie written and directed by Nisha Garanada, who also plays the main character, Reena. Younger daughter of an Indian immigrant family, she is a motorcycle-riding (hence tough) art photographer (hence sensitive) who, as the movie opens, is painting henna patterns on the lissome stomach of her American partner, well played by Jill Hennessey, late of Law and Order.
Reena's sister Sarita, married at the film opens, wants in the worst way to be a mother but discovers that her plumbing problems preclude this, so on what appears to be a whim, Reena volunteers her womb as host. Mitch, Sarita's American husband, is all for it to the point of putting all his energy, both sexual and emotional, into the child-creating effort. Neglected and frustrated, Sarita calls off the effort... just as Reena's EPT test comes back positive, and Reena decides to keep the child.
Early works, whether novels or films, are vulnerable to author surrogates who have superman syndrome (get all the good lines, have all the attractive people desiring her). Reena's story crowds the intriguing emotional dynamics and complicated issues of parental rights that could have been staged. What are Mitch's rights and Sarita's rights? Alas, these are all glossed over and the movie meanders to the obligatory but nevertheless affecting birth scene and a scroll-credits series of snapshots of the happy extended family. Chutney popcorn it is - cross cultural, fluffy, and ultimately little more than air.