Chutney Popcorn

I’m gonna be real with you. I straight up do not like 90’s indie movie aesthetic. I respect it and certainly understand the necessity for lots of it. But I do not enjoy looking at it with my eyes. They went so far past the necessity of handheld camerawork into just straight up horniness for it. Not a fan. Luckily, Chutney Popcorn has positives beyond its love of handheld close ups.

Chutney Popcorn’s lead character is Reena. Reena is a second generation Indian immigrant living in New York. She’s also a lesbian with a white girlfriend named Lisa. Predictably, Reena’s mother is not thrilled with Reena’s life choices. By contrast, Reena’s sister, Sarita is living up to her mother’s expectations of marrying well and having a family. Until Sarita learns she’s infertile. After her girlfriend suggests she can be selfish, Reena offers to be a surrogate for Sarita and her husband. However, as the process goes on, Sarita starts to question if this unusual path to motherhood is even what she wants. This leaves a now pregnant Reena with a suddenly much more complicated situation regarding the raising of her child.

This film is clearly heavily autobiographical. Writer/director Nisha Ganatra absolutely drew on her experiences as a gay Indian living in America for this movie. I respect that hustle. Ganatra didn’t see herself in media. So, she created a space for her and those like her. That’s impressive passion and dedication. And the final result is something that has universal truth and cultural specifics for being gay, Indian or both. Admittedly, there’s not a tone of subtly in getting these points across. But hey, it’s her first movie. And it’s a debut with a lot of talent and potential.

Admittedly, Ganatra is a better write and director than an actress. For all that Reena is very much the fictional version of herself, Ganatra does not have the same level of acting talent as the rest of the cast. Despite Reena having incredibly strong material, she doesn’t stand out as the lead. There’s a level of timing and emotional portrayal which Reena lacks. Luckily, her dialogue is generally strong enough to carry the character. However, it’s still probably good Ganatra pursued directing more than acting.

Chutney Popcorn is indie as hell in terms of aesthetic. Like I mentioned, it’s very big into handheld camera work and choppy close-up montages to set tone. Of course, some of the indie aesthetic is out of necessity. The sound quality being kinda bad is probably not a deliberate choice. But there’s still a lot of actual style choices that are hallmarks of this subgenre. Chutney Popcorn was made in the late 90s. The indie scene and its style had been pretty well established by then. And Chutney Popcorn doesn’t offer much new to the aesthetic. It uses indie cinema language well but does feel somewhat derivative of earlier indie classics like Go Fish.

The ending of Chutney Popcorn feels a bit rushed. As Reena’s pregnancy progresses, relationships become more and more complicated. Some break down. Then, the baby is born and the movie just ends. The whole thing feels a bit messy and unresolved. But hey, that’s life. The credits show a bunch of pictures of Reena’s baby and their large, blended family. Reena, her girlfriend, Sarita’s husband and Reena’s mother are all major caregivers for this child. Messy though the adult’s lives are, it is certain that this baby will be the recipient of a great deal of love from its family.

Chutney Popcorn is an impressive debut. The story is personal and unique though the directing and aesthetic fits more into a preexisting mould. The themes of the story are progressive in terms of non-traditional family models and intersectionality. Overall, Chutney Popcorn is a good movie. I can’t get more passionate about it than that but that’s because I’m inherently biased against the 1990s.

Overall rating: 6.3/10

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