India Sweets and Spices

Home from college, Alia (Sophia Ali), returns to her family's swank suburban New Jersey home. Smitten by Varun (Rish Shah), the handsome son of the new owners of the local Indian grocery, she invites his family to a dinner gathering with her parents' wealthy friends. Snobbery ensues but Alia is surprised to learn of her conservative mother's radical past with Varun's mother. But there are more secrets still, turning on the idea of women's place in Indian society and also on the custom of arranged marriage.

This is a smart, modern film with sharp dialogue exploring both universal themes including hypocrisy and those relating to Indian culture. The soundtrack is excellent too, including modern music. It's about family, truth-telling and hopes of reconciliation. Writer and director Geeta Malik is a powerful artist and her star, Sophia Ali is a dominating and compelling presence, creating a charismatic character.

Wise, lovely, original with a stunning lead performance, India Sweets and Spices is outstanding storytelling.

I think my review will be a bit bias considering I can definitely relate to what happened in the movie. Parents relationship, community dynamic, being an independent/rebellious girl in the family, etc.

With that said, this movie was very enjoyable. The story was interesting and dramatic. The acting was mediocre but I believe that was the script's fault. Overall, a great movie.

I came into this movie expecting another Bollywood mishmash of action/drama/comedy/romance. What I found with something original and different. The movie revealed the dark side of Indian culture with its gossip and rumormongering. Being of Indian descent, I know this is a reality although the movie obviously amplified it for entertainment purposes. The movie was entertaining but like lacked a little depth and made a few plot decisions which didn't make much sense. Overall, it could've been fantastic but ended up being a sweet, not too spicy, and fun watch.

Imagine if the average Lifetime channel original movie actually had an occasional bout of intelligence and nuance to interrupt its cliches and stupid, unlikeable characters. That's this movie.

I'm giving the movie 10 stars because it's upsetting the traditionalists who don't like to see the Indian culture being shown as real people, with real problems. Not on this page, but on other pages there have been some men who don't like to see their culture come out of the closet. Well, welcome to the real world.. I know people of that culture who had arranged marriages and it can become a real misery. Not for all, but for many - this happens.

Aside from my delighting in being petty towards the other people it's a pretty good movie. Fun, lively, the protagonist actress is good and it kept my attention until the end. It's worth a watch. It's nice to see Lifetime channel make a movie where the protagonist is intelligent, gutsy, no nonsense and is courageous about her life. Her bf's mother is a gem.

Well worth a watch, enjoy.