Movie Type: Gay & Lesbian Films, Comedy of Manners
Themes: Generation Gap, Sibling Relationships, Mothers and Daughters
Main Cast: Jill Hennessy, Nisha Ganatra, Nick Chinlund, Madhur Jaffrey, Sakina Jaffrey
Release Year: 1999
Country: US
Run Time: 93 minutes
MPAA Rating: NR
Plot
The push and pull of familial bonds and clashing cultures sets the stage for the comic drama Chutney Popcorn. Renna (Nisha Ganatra) is a young woman of Indian descent living in New York, where she works as both a photographer and a body artist who creates henna tattoos. Renna is also a lesbian, which does not please her mother, Meenu (Madhur Jaffrey), who prefers to dote on her more traditionally minded (and happily married) daughter Sarita (Sakina Jeffrey). One day, Renna gets some bad news from Sarita: While she and her husband have been trying to have a baby, her doctor has informed that her she is infertile and will never bear a child of her own. Renna volunteers to serve as surrogate mother for Sarita; she wants to help her sister and hopes this will smooth some of the rough spots in her relationship with her mother. But Renna starts to have second thoughts, as her lover Lisa (Jill Hennessy) feels left out of the loop, and Meenu thinks both Renna and Sarita are making a mistake. Nisha Ganatra co-wrote and directed Chutney Popcorn and also plays Renna; the film was enthusiastically received in its screening at the 1999 Los Angeles Independent Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Review
Unconventional subject matter, a decent screenplay, solid casting, and a low-key comedic sensibility distinguish this labor-of-love indie from first-time writer/director/producer Nisha Ganatra. A comedy-drama about an Indian-American lesbian who becomes pregnant with her brother-in-law's child was never going to be an easy sell, but Ganatra and co-writer/co-producer Susan Carnival invest their offbeat story with strong characters, knowing humor, and lots of believable familial and cultural conflict. Peppered with both lesbian and South Asian in-jokes, the screenplay doesn't always meet a mass audience halfway, nor is it particularly elegant in the way it delineates the resentments between Reena, her sister, and her mother. Yet the handful of awkwardly written scenes are mostly forgivable because Ganatra elicits such strong performances from her cast. With her gorgeous eyes and a round, expressive face, Sakina Jaffrey is able to portray her infertile character's grief forcefully and visually, without resorting to bombast. Meanwhile, her real-life mother, veteran actress and cookbook author Madhur Jaffrey, provides gentle comic relief without neglecting her character's inner life. Jill Hennessy, star of NBC's Law & Order, brings emotional directness and easygoing sensuality to her role as Reena's conflicted girlfriend. Unfortunately, though, Ganatra was saddled with the central role in her own film after her lead actress bailed at the last minute; the strain of wearing yet another hat shows in her sometimes flat, unexpressive performance. Recurring images -- of Reena riding her motorcycle, practicing her photography, and working as a henna artist -- provide effective visual shorthand for the emotional life Ganatra otherwise doesn't portray. And it's this strength for visual storytelling that suggests Ganatra has a bright future behind the camera. Despite a few rough edges, her first feature tells a story that hasn't been told before. And despite the limitations of working on a low-budget indie, she tells this story with flair and originality. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide
Chutney Popcorn is a 1999 comedy drama film directed and co-written by and starring Nisha Ganatra.[1] Ganatra plays a young lesbianIndian American woman called Reena. Jill Hennessy plays her girlfriend Lisa and Reena's mother and sister are played by real life mother and daughter Madhur Jaffrey and Sakina Jaffrey.[2] The film explores the conflict between Reena's sexual and national identities as well as her mother Meenu's attempts to come to terms with the Western lives of both her daughters.[3]
Reena is a young Indian American lesbian who lives and works in New York. Her sister Sarita, who is happily married, discovers that she is infertile. Reena offers to be a surrogate mother for her sister's baby, hoping to improve her relationship with their mother, who disapproves of Reena's sexual orientation. Sarita and her husband accept Reena's offer but Sarita begins to have second thoughts. After Reena becomes pregnant, her relationship with her girlfriend Lisa suffers. When the baby is born, Reena and Lisa are reunited, as are Reena's family.[4]
