The cheesecake factory
Nina’s Heavenly Delights is the latest badly-written desi flick to hit enough recognizable truths about the diaspora that it’s fun in spite of itself. It’s a Glaswegian lesbian romance interpreted chastely, as if for kids. The female leads nuzzle and kiss without tongue, lest director Pratibha Parmar offend the focus group, while the drag queens camp and vamp to stereotype but are never permitted to smooch on screen. FSM save gays and lesbians from friendly filmmakers.
The problem with gay, desi, and gay desi flicks is that they’re made out of a crying need for representation, but neither ‘boon’ automatically makes one a good director. Nina’s is infested with clichés, begins with a spice metaphor, and ganks not only the ghostly chef from Ratatouille, but also the spirit guide from the atrocious Touch of Pink (Jimi Mistry, Kyle MacLachlan). It rings false and fantastical, with the most understanding desi mom ever written into film. But it leans on an indie soundtrack and a cinematographer who loves slow pans and tilts. Save for a tacky Taj Mahal model-slash-heartlight, it’s not as obviously amateur as Flavors.
Shelley Conn, great niece of stealth desi Merle Oberon, is taller with darker skin than her white love interest. She’s the top in this film, which is unusual for gay desi flicks. (Daniel Day-Lewis’ tomahawk cheekbones were clearly dom in My Beautiful Laundrette.) The plot is yet another battle-of-the-bands exercise, a ‘curry competition’ helmed at last by the great Kulvinder Ghir (Goodness Gracious Me) in burr, kilt and rabbits’ feet. The movie’s relentless focus on Indian food makes it more commercial, as does the lesbian angle; knowing her mainstream, Parmar let the girls get to first base, while any guy-on-guy takes place off-screen. It’s not that one wants to see Ronny Jhutti (Rafta Rafta) get it on — not that there’s anything wrong with that — it’s that it’s a blatant double standard, genuflecting in the direction of heteronormative marketability.
This movie was made earlier with more wit and bite as East is East, which too made great use of Jhutti and Raji James. But its ending video sequence has queens, twinks, brown highland dancers and white Bollyornaments naachofying to Briton Nazia Hassan’s classic ‘Aap Jaisa Koi.’ If you enjoyed Rocky the drag queen’s camp performance in Bollywood/Hollywood, you’ll have fun with this. And Shelley Conn (and Atta Yaqub) aren’t exactly hard on the eyes.
Nina’s opened in NYC a week and a half ago and in San Francisco last Friday. Here are the trailer and clips. For more desi Scots, check out Psychoraag and Ae Fond Kiss, among others .
on Wednesday, December 12th, 2007, 11:59 pm in Film, Gay and lesbian, Video clips › 
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Ahhh… As they say back in the pind, “thand pai gayee”.
I’ll sleep well tonight.
queens, twinks and brown highland dancers? Christmas is made.
not all gay films are terrible though. The object of my affection is pretty cute. And the tv series queer as folk (the uk version, not the n. american one) was pretty awesome. I’m sure there’s plenty more. There may even be some good desi films too!
It’s only when they start getting all “representative” that it starts to feel like one of those cheesy videos we’d have to watch in personal/social education classes in school, trying to teach us to be all understanding…
actually there’s a desi film I’m searchin high and low for, to no avail. I saw a clip for it once on tv (on desi dna on bbc2), but cannot remember any details. I think it was set in Paris, about some desi food-cart guy, very colourful. Had “mumbai” in the title, and I’m sure Waris Ahluwalia was involved in it, but cannot find anything about this! It’s doing my head in.
Was it One Dollar Curry?
aaah! that’s the bugger.
have you seen it? is it any good?
I liked Touch of Pink! I felt for the single mum, the confused Mistry, but hated the Kyle references that were interjected. But, it was one gay flick that didn’t come across cheesy, though it does end with the ubiquitous Indian wedding showdown.
it’s an old flick that i saw and slept through on the plane almost a year if not longer ago..
Pure loathsome garbage. Everything that stinks about the complacencies and stupidities of British Indian ‘art’ is contained in this movie.
this is perfect because i only watch Glaswegian lesbian romances.
thanks
Dude, you are a Glaswegian lesbian romance.
headmistress: Haven’t seen it.
“Chutney Popcorn” was another regrettable flick along the same lines, albeit in America. Blah.
Manish, what’s the story on this Manan Katogora chap? Are we supposed to like his lesbo film or not ? Please to educate.