Touch of Pink

i am a hetersexual female but i love any film that has to do with love and romance. i just saw this movie and i thought it was absolutely wonderful, alim (played by jimi mistry) is a gay
movie still photographer who lives in london with a handsome live in boyfriend and he's out to every one except his family.
he also thinks he's living with the ghost of cary grant and when
his mother comes to london not only to take him to his cousin's
wedding but to find him a nice muslim girl to marry every thing
he knows falls apart. cary grant advices him to not tell his mother that he's gay so he has to hide the fact that giles (his
boyfriend) sleeps in the same room so he moves all giles stuff into the guest room. when his mother finally finds out that he's
gay she leaves but then so does giles so he loses every thing,
when he goes to his cousin's wedding it comes to light that his
cousin and he had a sexual incounter when they were younger and
his cousin is only getting married to please his family. alim
finally realizes that he doesn't need cary any more and he gets
back together with giles and his mother comes to accept the fact
that her son is gay. it's a very funny, romantic,beautiful story
about love, truth, and acceptance. i think this movie is great and i am sure that every one ( gay or straight) will love this
movie too.

This warm little film bills itself as a comedy but does not offer much that is clever or new -- some rattletrap humour about non-resident Indians, a perky Kyle Mclachlan playing Cary Grant's spirit spewing quips in an on-screen homage to the thespian, and such.

Yet, it's like that favourite dish your mom prepares when you head home for summer - not a highfalutin recipe, but its loving predictability is the very reason you want it.

Several of the plot's turns and twists labor away at pat stereotypes. Jimi Mistry plays Alim, a culturally conflicted Canadian-born Indian expat living in London with his British boyfriend. They make a jovial young couple except that Alim is uptight and lives a life of carefully partitioned half-truths, having not 'come out' to his family yet, which his partner knows and humours. The crux is rooted in how Alim copes with his disconnection, his prospective arranged marriage, so forth.

Mistry's rendition of a homophile is convincing; no effeminate gestures, thankfully. His British mate provides a bulk of the film's genuinely funny moments. The cardboard-cutout traditional Indian mother seems like she had her hair colored white for the role, which could be the only plausible explanation for her dramatic transformation. If only more Indian conservative types could be wrangled so.

Despite its calculated proprieties, I think the film comes together well overall when all its threads collide in that inevitable Big Indian Wedding to unveil the film's main wrinkle. A good one-time watch anyway, perhaps a decent rental for a discerning evening. If you enjoy this one, may I also suggest Ang Lee's "The Wedding Banquet" that followed a similar vein but did a generally better job.

This review refers to "Touch of Pink" DVD edition(Columbia/Tristar)

Bollywood meets Hollywood in this simply charming romantic comedy. If you loved "The Bird Cage", you must give this one a look.

Alim's cousin is getting married. His Aunt and Uncle are well to do and are pulling out all the stops. Nuru, his mother, wants to keep up with the family's strict Muslim values and traditions, and decides to make a surprise visit to Alim at his apartment in London. Her intentions are to get him back to the impending nuptials in Toronto, and find a worthy girl for him as well.

The only little problem is, Alim is already spoken for. He has been enjoying life with his very handsome boyfriend. Living in London, with the rest of the family in Toronto, he has been able to keep his lifestyle a secret. It is not a relationship that his mother will understand.

The couple go to great lengths to hide their relationship, but eventually they know she must be told. How will she react? What about the rest of the family, will they be able to handle this news? It's a great view finding out.

Added to the fun of this comic and touching tale, is Alim's invisible friend, in the form of none other then Cary Grant,played impeccably by Kyle MacLachlan. Cary is always there to dole out advice to poor Alim in all his confusion. Cary cleverly uses scenes from his own films, to steer Alim in the right direction.

Written and directed by Ian Iqbal Rashid it is a film that will leave you smiling. One that will stand up to repeated viewings.
Jimi Mistry does a fine job in his role of Alim and Suleka Mathew is marvelous as Nuru. The DVD is very nice. A beautiful picture in anamorphic widescreen with excellent color and sound. There is a making of featurette and commentary as well.

Enjoy...Laurie
also recommended:La Cage Aux Folles

Being a Queer As Folk viewer, I thought I could handle any sappy, trite and overly sentimental screenplay. Apparently not. This could have been a really interesting story about a gay man torn between obligation to his family's culture versus his right to act from the values of HIS culture (Canadian).

Instead, we get an imaginary friend who is suppose to be Cary Grant who gives him advice. About half way through the film I just couldn't stand it anymore and had to fast forward through the Cary Grant sequences. If this film had been a really campy comedy, Cary Grant could have worked -- but....ah, no. It was just baaaaad.

The only good thing in this film was the cranky mother who was funny and just gorgeous to look at.

Young Canadian man Alim has recently left his widowed Muslim mother so he can move to London in order to follow his dreams and to seperate himself from the rigid structures of his Muslim faith. While there, he meets his boyfriend/roommate Giles and the two are living an extraordinarily happy life together in the aforementioned bustling city. Meanwhile, back home, Alim's mother (Nuru) is having trouble dealing with her nephew's upcoming wedding, jealous that her own son is not courting and far from marriage. Unbeknownst to her, he is gay and living a life of his own, as well as communicating with the often-times humourous "spirit of Cary Grant". After a comedic series of breakdowns and confessions, she takes an offer from said nephew to go to England to visit Alim. But Alim has as of yet to tell his mother of his sexuality. What follows are hilaroius attempts at obscurity and some touching moments of acceptance and familial love.