Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.
... View MoreIt is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review
... View MoreA great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.
... View MoreThe film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.
... View More"Scottish-Asian woman returns home to save her family's ailing restaurant." That was the scant, not to mention inaccurate synopsis that I read before viewing. I rather expected a dull, perhaps gritty story of a dysfunctional family with likely a bit of outside racism thrown in for good measure. But hey, it was set in Scotland and we don't see too many films like that so I sat down to watch... So what a treat I got!! This film is well-acted (especially by the two leads) and utterly engaging. I agree parts of the plot were wafer thin but it presented as a fairytale and a cracking good one at that. It was just joyful and poignant and above all uplifting. I am Scottish but neither Asian or gay so others can discuss any significance about such matters, for me it was just a great watch and that is all I care about.
... View MoreOkay - the film is not some earth shattering piece of cinema, but I'm sure that was not the intention of the director. She has made a very gentle love story come to life without huge trauma. As a big cinema fan, I know it's not on a par with other slick films, but again, this doesn't appear to be the director's intention. I think it was brave to make a film that didn't fall into making stereotypes of Asians or gays (although a queer man doing drag is old hat) and the choice of very attractive leading ladies doesn't hurt either. Regarding the accents, there were four that wobbled for me. That of Nina's and her mother's, Sanjay and his father's, but that doesn't make it a bad film. They've done a darn sight better than us mortals could have done. So more power to your elbow Ms Parmar.
... View MoreIf 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.
... View More" I find some of the comments by ukxenafan1 quite insulting. I am Scottish and Asian and when I saw this film I identified with some of the characters on the screen. The actors' accents were authentic Scottish (some of the actors are actually Scottish) - not heavy Glasgow - and some of them talked in a way many Punjabi, Scottish people like myself talk. So for for this person to say that she/he didn't know what the accents were supposed to be is insulting to many Scottish- Asians who talk like the characters in the film. They should do their homework on the actors before they post such disrespectful comments. I went to see this film with friends in Glasgow and we all enjoyed it very much. We thought it was different to see a British-Asian film that didn't have the usual stereotypes that we have seen a thousand times before. Maybe this is why some people are having a problem with this film. There aren't many white people in the film and the Asian family is like any other family. We liked the magical elements of the film. Why should we expect all Brit/Asian films to be like the last one that was made. The girls in this film are not worshipping a white male god like Beckham. Thank god for that!
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