Nina's Heavenly Delights

I hate the way this film has been criticized in the press. By insisting, as the BBC does in their review of her film, that any treatment of Asian queerness needs to be portrayed as brutish and gritty, and that any story of an Asian family coping with a queer member must be shown through the lens of a "multicultural family and their troubled psyches", the press is putting the same straight-jacket on Asian filmmakers, as they do on black filmmakers, when they insist that the only stories that can come of out the black community are stories of gun violence and rat-infested squats.

The critics demand that queer Asians aren't allowed to do "Kissing Jessica Stein", that domain is reserved for whites only. Reading the reviews, you get the clear picture that the crime they want to charge Pratibha with, is not "making a bad film" but for "not telling an Asian queer story in the appropriate manner", as set out by films like East is East and My Beautiful Laundrette. That bloody sucks. More power to her for daring to challenge the stereotypes.

Knowing the struggles that a lot Asians go through with coming out and their acceptance by their families, this movie is a breeze of fresh air. It is OK for parents to have preconceived ideas and hopes for their kids but a little bit of open mindedness can make everyone so happy!

I watched this movie at the GLBT Festival at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, where this movie was selected to be screened on the closing night. Its a movie I can comfortably watch with my parents without making them uncomfortable also.

I also got an opportunity to hang out with Ms. Parmar, the director of the movie, who I interviewed for a magazine. A very down-to-earth, real person, who has kinda lived the story.

Kudos to Pratibha Parmar for giving me 2 hours of smiles and happiness through her movie!!

"Nina's Heavenly Delights" is actually more interesting for the milieu in which it's set - a community of Indian ex-pats living and thriving in Scotland - than for the story it has to tell.

Nina (Shelley Conn) moved to London a few years back to escape an arranged marriage to a man she knew she could never learn to love. When her father dies unexpectedly, Nina returns to Glascow to help run the Indian restaurant he's owned and operated for decades. Her partner in the endeavor is Lisa (Laura Fraser), a close friend of the family whom Nina finds herself falling in love with, a fact that may not sit too well with her traditionalist family.

"Nina's Heavenly Delights" is definitely a mixed-bag when it comes to virtues and flaws. It's at its best in its quieter, more serious moments, as Nina engages in thoughtful discussions with her family members and her new-found love interest. But when it aims for a more lighthearted tone, the movie tends towards the coy and the cloying. The coming-out aspects of the tale are handled with delicacy and restraint, though the determinedly upbeat ending is a trifle on the implausible and unconvincing side, to put it mildly. The movie also suffers from a surfeit of soulful montage sequences and irrelevant musical interludes, a holdover from its Bollywood roots, no doubt (the movie may be British in origin but its Indian influence is undeniable). Moreover, the blending of gourmet cooking with magical realism feels too reminiscent of "Like Water for Chocolate" for total comfort.

However, the performances are so authentic and the whole enterprise so well-meaning and upbeat that it's hard not to have positive feelings about the movie in the long run.

If you ask me, the crux of the matter in _Nina's Heavenly Delights_ is revealed when Ms. Lady G's comments that the small battery-operated plastic Taj Mahal was a giant testament of grief. Parmar's film revolves around mourning and the comforts of beauty, love, aesthetics, family. And at the core of the film: is grief. Grief for her her father, yes, and also for the all that needs to be rewound: communication, home, deep friendship, solidarity, respect. If you've watched her documentaries over the years, you've found activist poetic diasporic politics running through, for her work is dutiful. But the films are always full of the other side of activism -- yearning -- and the other side of community -- grief. This film articulates those complicated emotions beautifully.

I find in this move to the feature film (which I applaud Kali films for with both hands clapping) a perfect topic: the loss of the father, the fall of queer idealism (we can't be gone for ever), and a return to the intricate and difficult subject of integrity and community integration. Less I sound too sophomoric to you, think again: Parmar and her crew are smart filmmakers: they've seen "Bend it Like Beckham" and "Fire" and many other important lesbian-type films ... and then delved into what drives us to love. No, Mia Hamm isn't in the limelight these days anyway, but more importantly didn't attempt the epic architectural overhaul of resovling the question of privacy and respect. Or, more poignantly, she and her writers did attempt the overhaul, but they did so in such subtle and lovely ways -- wouldn't you love for your future lover to discover something written behind the wallpaper? -- that the past becomes a sweet companion to the grief of the present. How is it possible to live without our memories? It is not. Patience is a virtue in this film, and I would love to hear your comments about mom and brother in light of such a topic as patience. I refuse to believe that honor is dead.

Shed Lacan -- _Nina's Heavenly Delights_ is not a typical, vacuous tale of lesbian and/ or progressive family who show their feathers when the big guy goes out. There seems, actually, to be a more important story going on about what shifts, and how we shift, through death, love and respect. To consider this a flat tale about "the law of the father" would be to belittle death and the dense process of mourning.

Quick last note: Three cheers for the best friend. Pratibha has finally given a body and character to her love of dance. Finally we can celebrate this with her.

I just viewed this film at the MGLFF in Miami Beach, Florida. The audience very much loved the film. It was shown at the Regal Cinema on Lincoln Road. I like great cinema.I also liked the internation feel of the film. Great detail to light and framing make this film unique. I so enjoyed the beautiful truth that unfolded. We are fortunate to have such great filmmakers who celebrate relationships like this one. Pratibha(Director) takes the viewer on a journey that uses all of their senses. I loved the story. Here are some words to describe it. ENLIGHTENED! EVOLVED! BEAUTIFUL! I look forward to seeing more of this young directors work. I know that she will be doing more and more great projects....