Touch of Pink (2004)

User Rating:

6.5/10   

Director:

Ian Iqbal Rashid

Writer:

Ian Iqbal Rashid (writer)

Release Date:

16 July 2004 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Comedy | Romance

Tagline:

Playing it straight...is about to get very complicated.

Plot:

A gay Canadian living in London has his perfectly crafted life upset when his devoutly Muslim mother comes to visit.

Plot Keywords:

Muslim | Gay | Wedding | Canada | Indo Pak

Awards:

4 nominations

Cast

Jimi Mistry	...	Alim
Kyle MacLachlan	...	Spirit of Cary Grant
Suleka Mathew	...	Nuru
Kristen Holden-Ried	...	Giles
Brian George	...	Hassan
Veena Sood	...	Dolly
Raoul Bhaneja	...	Khaled
Liisa Repo-Martell	...	Delia
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Andrew Gillies	...	Raymond
Quancetia Hamilton	...	Airplane Woman
Dean McDermott	...	Alisdair Keith
Malika Mendez	...	Sherubai
Barna Moricz	...	Alex
Sam Moses	...	Vendor
Les Porter	...	Caterer
Niki Sabet	...	The Bride
Sanjay Talwar	...	Karim
Linda Thorson	...	Giles' Mother

Also Known As:

That Touch of Pink (USA) (working title)

MPAA:

Rated R for sexual content and brief language.

Runtime:

91 min

Country:

Canada | UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Australia:M | Iceland:16 | Argentina:13 | Chile:14 | Singapore:R21 | UK:12A | USA:R

Filming Locations:

British Airways London Eye, South Bank, London, England, UK

Company:

Martin Pope Productions

Trivia:

The character of Karim was added to the script just before filming had started. Ian Iqbal Rashid felt that Nuru should also have a love interest and a happy ending.

Quotes:

Alim: Closet Drunk, Closet Queer, Name a closet, you're hanging there.

Movie Connections:

References Notorious (1946)

Who knew there were gay Muslims?

I had the opportunity to view "Touch of Pink" as a special showing to members of the Miami Gay and Lesbian Film Festival community this week. The director, Ian Iqbal Rashid, was present and provided a wonderful Q&A following the showing.

The film is "low budget" - just how low is low? The director wouldn't say (a provision in his contract with Sony, apparently). Frankly, I have seen many big budget films that delivered much, much less. The fact that the director also wrote the screenplay and the lyrics to the original compositions shows his devotion to delivering this film. From concept to screen took him 11 years!

Several facts speak for themselves: 1. The audience reacted very favorably to this film at Sundance, and at the screening I attended, 2. It has been picked up by several major Lesbian & Gay Film Festivals for prime opening or closing night slots and 3. It is scheduled for release by Sony Pictures in July. This is not your run of the mill film festival film! Most films come to the film festival circuit LOOKING for a distributor.

One could easily say the premise has been overdone (i.e., homophobic mother/gay son/coming out angst story). For me, however, this film had unique twists that made it anything but trite. A gay, Indian Muslim from Canada living in London and forced to confront his own and his family's, homophobia isn't something I've ever witnessed before. Kyle MachLachlan as Cary Grant (a make believe friend of the main character, Alim) is a sight to behold. The acting is generally superb; the timing of the lines perfect. Throw in enticing sets and wonderful costuming and you've got magic going on.

At a time when we in the West are confronted daily with images of the "evil" radical fundamentalist Muslim world, I believe this film serves yet another purpose. It shows the humanity of Muslims, and I'm certain this image is much more realistic than the one we see repeated ad nausea on CNN. Dealing with homophobia is a common denominator: Maybe we have more in common with the vast majority of Muslims than we have been lead to believe. One leaves with a sense of optimism (if Alim can survive this mess with such cultural obstacles, maybe there is hope for the kid in the Midwest from a fundamentalist Christian family). There is even an Indian distributor signed up, so maybe an even greater impact will be made in the Muslim world.

As one audience member put it, "I like movies that make me think, make me laugh and make me cry...this did all three." I couldn't agree more. This is a must see!