7/16/2004 » Film

Flavors, YADM (yet another desi movie), releases today with a logo inspired by L’Oreal hair gel. I’m diggin’ the track in the trailer, ‘Om tana...’ With Pooja Kumar, the model for the Bombay Dreams print ads, and Rishma Malik from Bollywood/Hollywood. It’s funded by the guys behind a matchmaking site, so expect to see product placement.

I support fledgling filmmakers and all, but the novelty has long since worn off, and I’m aching to see a smart, original film in this genre. Something like Srinivas Krishna’s Masala, but less misanthropic, more polished. A film where arranged marriage, bad desi accents, visa jokes and variations on ABCDs/desi/spices in the title are absolutely verboten. Something with a dark emotional palette, Talvin rather than the mathlete rap, Buddha Bar rather than Gerrard Street; the soft-edged precision of a ta note ringing in darkness, a teental jam in a wine-filtered room; a layered flirtation, slowly undone.

Filmmaker, seduce me. I’m waiting for the desi Almodóvar.