{"id":1411,"date":"2021-11-19T04:51:00","date_gmt":"2021-11-19T11:51:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/juror\/blog\/?p=1411"},"modified":"2021-11-22T15:13:40","modified_gmt":"2021-11-22T22:13:40","slug":"india-sweets-and-spices-the-south-asian-american-coming-of-age-film-of-the-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/juror\/blog\/2021\/india-sweets-and-spices-the-south-asian-american-coming-of-age-film-of-the-year\/","title":{"rendered":"India Sweets and Spices * The South Asian-American Coming-Of-Age Film Of The Year"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignleft size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/juror\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/indiasweets.poster.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1412\" width=\"138\" height=\"205\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Alia Kapur (Sophia Ali) returns to her family\u2019s posh suburban New Jersey home after a year away at college and upends their well-ordered life with her newfound independence. Befriending Varun (Rish Shah), the handsome son of the new owners of the local Indian grocery, she invites his family to a weekly dinner gathering with her parents\u2019 wealthy friends. She is shocked to learn that her perfectionist mother Sheila (Manisha Koirala) has a previous connection to Varun\u2019s mother Bhairavi (Deepti Gupta). Alia\u2019s surprise turns to indignation when she uncovers secrets about both her parents that push her toward a daring and transformative confrontation. <em>India Sweets and Spices <\/em>celebrates a young woman\u2019s coming of age set against a lovingly framed glimpse of the life of an Indian American family. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>KIDS FIRST! Film Critic Eshaan M. comments, \u201c<em>India Sweets and Spices <\/em>is the South Asian-American coming-of-age film of the year &#8211; a tale of family, feminism and biscuits and bravery. With masterful acting, beautiful cinematography, and a strong script, it\u2019s certainly not a film to miss!\u201d See his full review below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>India Sweets and Spices<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>By Eshaan M., KIDS FIRST! Film Critic, age 15<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Enjoy Eshaan M.&#039;s review of India Sweets and Spices\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/GgCsAj7JrfQ?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignright size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/juror\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Indiasweets.a.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1413\" width=\"225\" height=\"126\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><em>India Sweets and Spices <\/em>is the South Asian-American coming-of-age film of the year &#8211; a tale of family, feminism and biscuits and bravery. With masterful acting, beautiful cinematography, and a strong script, it\u2019s certainly not a film to miss!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Alia Kapur (Sophia Ali) returns to her family\u2019s New Jersey hometown after a year away at UCLA and upends their life with her free-spirit personality. She befriends Varun (Rish Shah), the son of the new owners of the local grocery store, India Sweets and Spices. But when she invites his family to a dinner party at her house, family secrets from their Delhi University days are uncovered and lives are changed. Alia is motivated by the new discoveries to seek out more information about her parents\u2019 pasts, which mounts up to a powerful (and slightly hilarious) rebellion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignleft size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/juror\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Indiasweets.b.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1414\" width=\"225\" height=\"126\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Everything about this film is well thought-out and executed. I&#8217;m a massive fan of the star cast. Veteran Bollywood actress Manisha Koirala plays Alia\u2019s mother Sheila. She is known for her work promoting women\u2019s rights, and so it was only logical that she chose to be a part of this film. Her journey with feminism in the film (which I won\u2019t spoil for you) is also one you won\u2019t want to miss. A master of her craft, Koirala shows great depth of emotion and truly becomes her character in the film. Sophia Ali seems to hit one note for a large part of the film, and comes through with an emotionally dynamic performance towards the last half hour of the film. Deepti Gupta plays Bhairavi Dutta, Varun\u2019s mother. Her portrayal of the warm, yet fiery shopkeeper truly steals the show. There\u2019s so much mystique to Bhairavi, which Deepti plays beautifully.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignright size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/juror\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Indiasweets.c.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1415\" width=\"225\" height=\"126\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><em>India Sweets and Spices<\/em> promotes standing up for yourself, especially in the context of women&#8217;s rights. It teaches others to never bend to the will of others if it goes against your principles. Some profanity is used and there are some intimate scenes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I give <em>India Sweets and Spices <\/em>5 out of 5 stars and recommend it for ages 14 to 18, plus adults. <em>India Sweets and Spices<\/em> releases in theaters November 19, 2021<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Alia Kapur (Sophia Ali) returns to her family\u2019s posh suburban New Jersey home after a year away at college and upends their well-ordered life with her newfound independence. Befriending Varun (Rish Shah), the handsome son of the new owners of the local Indian grocery, she invites his family to a weekly dinner gathering with her parents\u2019 wealthy friends. She is shocked to learn that her perfectionist mother Sheila (Manisha Koirala) has a previous connection to Varun\u2019s mother Bhairavi (Deepti Gupta). Alia\u2019s surprise turns to indignation when she uncovers secrets about both her parents that push her toward a daring and transformative confrontation. India Sweets and Spices celebrates a young woman\u2019s coming of age set against a lovingly framed glimpse of the life of an Indian American family. KIDS FIRST! Film Critic Eshaan M. comments, \u201cIndia Sweets and Spices is the South Asian-American coming-of-age film of the year &#8211; a tale of family, feminism and biscuits and bravery. With masterful acting, beautiful cinematography, and a strong script, it\u2019s certainly not a film to miss!\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[1116,1122,1121,1123,1115,1114,1118,1113,1119,1117,1120],"class_list":["post-1411","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-film-critics-blog","tag-adil-hussain","tag-anita-kalathara","tag-deepti-gupta","tag-geeta-malik","tag-gigi-pritzker","tag-john-penotti","tag-manish-koirala","tag-naomi-despres","tag-rish-shah","tag-sidney-kimmel-sophia-ali","tag-ved-sapru"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/juror\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1411","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/juror\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/juror\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/juror\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/juror\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1411"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/juror\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1411\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1418,"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/juror\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1411\/revisions\/1418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/juror\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/juror\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/juror\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}