Posted by I went to see a movie called India Sweets & Spices on Friday. It’s about an Indian American girl named Alia who comes home from college to her affluent suburban NJ home, meets a cute boy at the Indian grocery store, and discovers some family secrets that both her parents would prefer to stay hidden.
Overall, I was pleasantly surprised, as was my friend. Look, I get some Desis’ reluctance to give credence to a freakin’ rom-com (so-called) about us. This is the best we can do, they’ll say? Because of the sheer number of stories told about and made for white people, it’s understandable that we want the few stories with us that do make it to be fully realized and all the more beautiful. So there’s a tendency to pick them apart for imperfections.
This movie certainly does have imperfections. But I’m happy that it exists and that it adds to the growing (and never perfect) list of stories told about South Asians. In a society as mind-numbingly complex as the USA, the only way to ensure that BIPOC stories are part of the American canon is to tell more stories. Period. Not to shrink from the challenge. More with South Asians, more with Indigenous, more with LatinX, more with Blacks, more with South Asians & Whites, or East Asian Queers & Indigenous, or South Asians & Black Trans. More pie for everyone.
And now that the preceding paragraphs have warded off the people who think that wokeness and inclusion and allyship is a disease, let’s look at the fun of the movie itself. Mildish Spoilers! And this isn’t a professional review so I’ll be jumping around.
I went into this movie thinking it would be pretty standard rom-com and immigrant/diaspora fare… the sort of work that made Jhumpa Lahiri famous in the early 2000’s. But everyone in the previews is very attractive and I remember Manisha Koirala from her early days, most notably from Dil Se, so I thought I’d give it a go.
Actoring
Overall, I thought the performances were very good.
Sophia Ali (who plays Alia) is fiery and quick without being too overbearing. She’s 19(ish) after all so her idealism and fight were appropriate and refreshing to this beaten down old dude. Her love interest, Varun (played by Rish Shah) doesn’t have a whole lot to do besides being middle class and a good son. He pulls off those traits well. The other supporting characters are foil to Alia’s growth and a bit nondescript but do their work well.
There’s a certain quiet dignity to the two sets of parents, Alia’s parents and Varun’s parents. With the mothers, Manisha Koirala (as Sheila) and Deepti Gupta (as Bhairavi), we can see the weight and responsibility of the years and the compromises they’ve had to make along the way. How they try to fight for their kids in different ways, one in defending hard work and the other in wanting to make things easy. Their reconciliation at the end was touching and cathartic.
Alia’s father, Ranjit (played by Adil Hussain) is a jagoff but perhaps not irredeemable. There’s a small moment towards the end where Alia watches her father alone and (rightfully) defeated, where maybe we also see that he hasn’t exactly lived the life he might have wanted either and that despite his reprehensible actions, maybe he’s not a bad man, just terribly imperfect and beholden to his own patriarchal culture.
Colorism
A friend of mine rightly pointed out from the trailer that the lead female actor is “shadaaa” (white/light-skinned) and skinny. And that many South Asian women are darker and curvier. She’s right. But the film subtly uses colorism to make its point.
The rich and affluent are lighter-skinned and the ‘poorer’ shopkeepers (though I’d place them more as middle class) are darker-skinned. But the ‘fair and lovely’ aren’t sympathetic characters; they’re not made out to be a standard to which one should aspire. They’re shallow, vapid, and self-absorbed. The darker-skinned shopkeepers are the ones who work hard and haven’t forgotten their values or where they come from and provide ballast to the lighter-skinned folks. There is perhaps a touch of the Magical Negro trope in the Sheila/Bhairavi dynamic but it stills feel genuine.
The Eeevil of Aunties (not really)
The aunties and unkels are huge caricatures. But caricatures do have truths behind them. The dinner party circuit and the one-upmanship is real. I can’t tell you the number of times that I’ve been asked, “ohhh betta, when are you getting married? We want to have a reason to wear our finest clothes!”. So much face palm.
However, the film takes the caricature a bit too far. You see, real-life aunties aren’t dumb. They’re smart! There’s a scene where two aunties sit down next to Bhairavi and ask her outright for juicy stories about her old college mate, Sheila. Real-life Aunties wouldn’t be so blatant about it! They would wine & dine their target and extract the information slowly, subtly, almost insidiously. Still, seeing them all get their comeuppances was hilarious, although not realistic.
Not Really a Rom-Com
I actually used to like rom-coms. They’re light, fun and everyone eventually seems to find their happily ever after. Time and tide have beaten me down a little so maybe my own traumas are surfacing but I don’t know if I’d call this movie a rom-com in the traditional sense. Yes there’s romance and comedy. But that’s not the point of the movie.
It’s more a coming-of-age story about Alia and how she attempts to balance authenticity with familial obligation & history and the rigid but beautiful and rich culture she and her family all come from. It’s still light and fun and maybe everyone eventually begins to find a new and real happily ever after. And that’s not a bad way to spend 1 hr 41 min.
Additional reviews
- Tribeca Film Festival
- NY Times – ‘India Sweets and Spices’ Review: Gossip, Secrets and Biting Laughs
- LA Times – Review: There’s more than meets the eye in charming ‘India Sweets and Spices’
- Washington Post – The film ‘India Sweets and Spices’ paints a world of high expectations, with nuance and complexity
