misty_77 This is a very forgettable film. It's so fluffy it very nearly became unbearable to me, and I have a very high tolerance for fluffy, trust me! There are two things it does well, however. The photography of the cooking, which is luscious, and the strong sense of chemistry between the two leading ladies.Apart from that it felt limp and poorly constructed. The direction, I think, was the key problem.The characters weren't fleshed out much at all, there was little sense of history, little sense of cohesion. It felt like it suffered from jumping narrative. There were a number of scenes where I wasn't quite sure what was going on, everything was so vague. What was Lisa's background? Why did she assume control of her father's interest in the restaurant? Was she not giving up a job of some kind to suddenly become Nina's kitchen hand? Or was it all done on the weekends? Why was the brother hiding his marriage, the explanation was odd...why didn't Lisa confide in Nina earlier about her situation with Kary? There was just so much that I felt we had to imply into events ourselves...Ultimately, it's a fairy tale, as long as you go in expecting that, rather than expecting a realistic romance, then you should find this film moderately enjoyable.

tanianickola 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.

Erich_Schultz 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.

ukxenafan1 I wanted to like this film, really I did. It sounded like Gurinder Chadha's Bend it Like Beckham could have been if the girls got together! A film focussing on British Asians (in this case Scottish), complicated family relations, cooking, throw in a bit of Bollywood and simmer.Sadly this film lacks the energy and verve of Bend it Like Beckham. Indeed, the script is flabby, the acting stilted, and when even I, a casual movie goer, can spot the need for crisper direction and editing so you aren't watching someone sit still for 15 seconds, well, as I said, a poorly made film. The acting is universally unremarkable, and while the actors are Scottish I think, there are some very odd sounding accents. Are they trying to sound more Scottish or less? Whatever they do, it sounds weird. No idea what accent Art Malik is doing either. I thought that was Kulvinder Ghir from TVs Goodness Gracious Me doing a horrible Scottish accent as the host of the cooking show but he's not listed in IMDb. Was the kid who played the younger sister related to one of the producers? She couldn't act and was supposed to be an award winning Scottish dancer, but looked like she was about to fall over when tentatively hopping about in a kilt.. To sum up, nice set up and premise, attractive star, tasty looking food but limp, predictable script, flat acting and flaccid direction. A wasted opportunity.