Chutney Popcorn (1999)

User Rating:

5.7/10   

Director:

Nisha Ganatra

Writers:

Susan Carnival (writer)
Nisha Ganatra (writer)

Release Date:

11 January 2001 (Netherlands)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama

Tagline:

A woman. Her girlfriend. A sister. Her husband. Their baby.

Plot:

Reena is a young Indian American lesbian who lives and works in New York. Her sister Sarita, who is happily married...

Plot Keywords:

Baby | Lesbian | Indian | Indian American | Surrogate Mother

Awards:

5 wins & 2 nominations

Cast

Nisha Ganatra	...	Reena
Jill Hennessy	...	Lisa
Sakina Jaffrey	...	Sarita
Madhur Jaffrey	...	Meenu
Nick Chinlund	...	Mitch
Cara Buono	...	Janis
Ajay Naidu	...	Raju
Daniella Rich	...	Tiffany
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Saylor Creswell	...	Doctor
Eliza Foss	...	Dr. Brendel
Greg Kachejian	...	Nurse
Priscilla Lopez	...	Loretta
Alisa Mast	...	Becca
Sunita Mukhi	...	Bhangra Auntie
Analisa Robertson	...	Deb's Girlfriend
Shazia	...	Henna Model
Amy Veltman	...	Jet

Runtime:

92 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Filming Locations:

New York City, New York, USA

Company:

First Look International

Trivia:

Director and co-writer Nisha Ganatra stepped into the lead role of Reena after the actress originally cast in the role quit the production shortly before filming began.

Quotes:

Mitch: Sarita, the probabilty of you getting on a motorcycle is the same probability of Shiva having a penis.
Sarita: Shiva does have a penis. Shiva's a man.
Mitch: No he's not. Everyone knows all Hindu Gods are genderless.
Sarita (calling up her mother): Hi Mom. Shiva's a man, right?...And that would imply that He has a penis, right?...(To Mitch) Yes!

Movie Connections:

Features The Mischievous Ravi (1998)

Soundtrack:

When You Were My Baby

Love, Kids, Lesbians

I liked this movie a lot. It depicted the life of the second-generation immigration children in New York City well enough to feel for them. These are people who have no permanent roots as director Ganatra says: "These people don't feel Really at home in India because they are too American, but they don't feel really at home in America because they are Indian." Now combine this with lesbianism and surrogate motherhood and you could get a very hefty movie, one that probably would have ultimately just made fun if itself.

But on the contrary this is not the fact with this film. It is a very warm funny depiction of the troubles Ganatra's character is going through. It is funny, witty and it has a fell-good ending.

The acting is way better than average, especially by the sister (Sakina Jaffrey) and the mother (Madhur Jaffrey) of Ganatra's character. The rest of the cast is fine, too.

I was fortunate enough to be present at a screening of this feature with afterwards a Q&A session with Director Nisha Ganatra and Writer Susan Carnival. In this session Ganatra explained that this film was kept light-hearted on purpose, they knew that they could make this into this incredibly heavy piece, but they chose not too. This shines a whole different light on the movie.

A fine film, see it.

8/10