In Palace & Hoyts Cinemas February 3rd
(Reviewed by John Glennie)
A delightful comedy/drama – probably more drama than comedy – set in the wealthy Indian community of Ruby Hill in Newark, New Jersey. It portrays the snobbishness of the well-to-do, the gossiping and bitchiness, and domineering male attitudes associated with the generation of arranged marriages.
Alia Kapur (Sophia Ali – I think I’m in love by the way 😍!) returns home from UCLA for the summer break, straight into the community ritual of a party at a different family’s house every weekend. For her first night at home she is dragged along to a party at the Bhatia household where she reunites with their son Rahul, who obviously fancies Alia. She gets annoyed when the mothers come past and cite “Oh, when can we get ready for the wedding shopping?”.
The following week’s party is at the Kapur household and Mum, Sheila (Manisha Koirala) asks her husband Ranjit (Adil Hussain) to get some more biscuits for the party so everyone doesn’t talk about them! Ranjit delegates the task to Alia so he doesn’t miss his golf game. She goes to the local store: India Sweets & Spices, with the Dutta family being the new owners. Instantly taken by their son Varun (Rish Shah) so invites the family to their party, as a way to get to know Varun. Alia’s mother is horrified that she invited “commoners” into their house, and “what will everyone think”!
The Duttas do turn up and instantly feel out of place and shunned by the other wealthy guests. When Alia introduces her mother to the family, Bhairavi (Deepti Gupta) instantly recognizes Sheila from university days – but Sheila is definitely uncomfortable with the recognition and makes excuses to avoid her old companion.
At the same party, Alia – trying to get friendly with Varun – also discovers something about her father that changes her attitude to the rest of the summer break quite profoundly. (Sorry, you will have to see the movie to find out why!).
Eventually, after overhearing bitchy comments at yet another party, Alia escapes from the scene, goes to Varun, and asks to see his mother. Bhairavi reveals all about how she knew Sheila, and Alia confronts her mother with it when the latter returns home from the party.
I won’t reveal more, or it will spoil the story. It is a feel-good movie – I watched it twice – and enjoyed it both times. I really liked the constant portrayals of fake friendships which were really aimed to gather gossip!
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