To call CHUTNEY POPCORN a chick flick would be ironic, as the film treats a wide variety of topics with an openness that is careful not to exclude any group--specifically men. However, the film is, in essence, about women loving women--as sisters, as mother and daughter, as friends, as lovers--so to call it anything other than a chick flick would be a lie. Nisha Ganatra, the film's director and writer, stars as the excellent, introspective, accepting lead Reena. She peacefully glides past flowing grain fields on her motorcycle, paints henna designs on her beautiful blond girlfriend, Lisa (Jill Hennessy, whose lovely muscular arms will win over any viewer, regardless of sexual preference), snaps photos of other henna-painted "dykes," and participates in traditional ceremonies with her Indian-American family. However, when Reena offers to be a surrogate mother for her sister, Sarita (Sakina Jaffrey), and her white brother-in-law, Mitch (Nick Chinlund), all of the film's relationships--familial and romantic, begin to shift. The hilarious artificial insemination scenes are rife with complex tension. Each member of the family--especially Reena's mother, Meena (Madhur Jaffrey)--has weird feelings about the plan. With a fitting acoustic guitar soundtrack and a light-hearted approach to asking serious questions about difficult issues, Ganatra gets viewers thinking with CHUTNEY POPCORN.
