Chutney Popcorn

Directed by Nisha Ganatra

United States, 1999 (fiction, 92 minutes, colour, English)

Film Description:
"To Meenu's delight, her older daughter, Sarita marries and, with her husband Mitch, looks forward to having children. To Meenu's dismay, her younger daughter, Reena, is in a lesbian relationship with Lisa and has no intention of providing her with grandchildren. When Sarita finds out she cannot have children, her and her mother's disappointment is palpable. Reena, to Lisa's consternation, offers to become a surrogate mother [...]."
-- Janice R. Welsch, J.Q. Adams (source)

Film Credits (partial):
Written by:	Susan Carnival, Nisha Ganatra
Produced by:	Herbert Beigel, Susan Carnival, Nisha Ganatra, Howard Gertler, Beverley Gordon, Roger Kass, Trina Wyatt
Principal Cast:	Nisha Ganatra, Jill Hennessy, Sakina Jaffrey, Madhur Jaffrey, Nick Chinlund, Cara Buono, Ajay Naidu, Daniella Rich
Cinematography:	Erin King
Film Editing:	Jane Pia Abramowitz
Music:	Karsh Kale
Production Company:	First Look International, Mata Productions, Tribeca Productions

(sources)

Notes about Chutney Popcorn

Filmed in New York.

(sources)

Quote by the Director

"Hinduism is very rich with ritual. Therefore, I structured the screenplay around the five central rituals performed by the mother in order to show an arc. [...] Then it was really important to make a cut from a Hindu ritual to a very dyke scene in the East Village, just to constantly show the difference and at the same time the similarity. A lot of the movie is about family and what families go through to stay together. So Reena has this family she's created with her American friends, and she also has this Indian family, which performs all these rituals. Of course there are also rituals in American culture and in girl culture."
-- Nisha Ganatra (source)

Bibliography for Chutney Popcorn

Articles from Newspapers, Magazines, or News Websites

West, Dennis, and Joan M. West "Dishing up comedy spiced with chutney: An interview with Nisha Ganatra." Interview with Nisha Ganatra. Cineaste, vol. 26, no. 2, Spring 2001.

Web Sites about Chutney Popcorn

"IMDb: Chutney Popcorn." Internet Movie Database, Inc. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0126240/combined.