'India Sweets and Spices' Featurette Reveals the Authenticity of the Film

Director and writer Geeta Malik’s new romantic comedy India Sweets and Spices has recently received a new featurette which features commentary from Sophia Ali, Manisha Koirala, and Malik herself.

Indian Sweets and Spices centers around the character of exemplary UCLA student Alia Kapu (Ali), who returns to her family home for the summer break. However, she does not get a break from the upper-class parties that are weekly hosted by her family, which are breeding grounds for endless chatter and gossip. Filled by the desire to be different from her family, Alia decides to invite a romantic crush, Varun Dutta (Rish Shah), a young man who works in a grocery store his family owns, and his family to one of her family’s social gatherings.

At the party, however, the two different realities clash and well-kept family secrets are revealed when it turns out Alia’s mother Sheila (Koirala) and Varun’s mother Bhairavi (Deepti Gupta) know each other from the past.

RELATED: ‘India Sweets and Spices’: Sophia Ali, Rish Shah, and Director Geeta Malik on Making a Universal Story That Happens to Star Indian Americans

The film is not only a coming-of-age story for Alia, but it also bears a strong social critique that is motivated by Malik’s own background. One of the main things we can take away from this featurette is that the film is authentic in its depiction of upper-class Indian families in America. The Indian social parties, which the film depicts in detail, are a common occurrence among the upper class. This, apparently, is a reality that the film’s director knows very well: “I grew up being dragged to hundreds of different parties growing up,” Malik explains with a smile and an eye-roll. “for all these immigrants it’s a place in America to gather, to wear their own clothes, eat their own food…”

Indian Sweets and Spices premiered last Friday, November 19. If you have not already, you can watch it in theatres now.

Read Next

About The Author