‘Night of Henna’ Romantic comedy-drama. Starring Pooja Kumar, Girija Shankar, Craig Marker, Suhail Tayeb, Reef Karim .
Written and directed by Hassan Zee.
Carrying on the torch of film-makers such as Gurinder Chadha (“Bride and Prejudice”, “Bend it Like Beckham”) Hanif Kureishi (“My Son The Fanatic”), and Mira Nair (“Kamasutra”, “Mississippi Masala”), director Hassan Zee is one of the most recent film-makers to enter this fray with his debut, “Night of Henna,” in which he tackles head-on the Pakistani-American cultural divide and the controversial subject of arranged marriages, a practice which is prevalent in the Muslim culture.
You want to root for the home team, and goodness knows how hard it is to get an independent film made these days, but while the San Francisco-made “Night of Henna” is colorful and has its heart in the right place, its story of intergenerational conflict between immigrant parents and increasingly Westernized children falls flat.
Writer-producer-director Hassan Zee, a 33-year-old independent filmmaker with a degree in medicine, bills this as the first Pakistani American film. I’ve tried, but can’t name another one. The admirably scrappy Zee raised $500, 000 (with help from the Film Arts Foundation) and hired a big-time cinematographer, Hiro Narita (“Never Cry Wolf,” “Honey, I Shrunk the Kids” and “The Rocketeer”).
The film does look terrific, with an energetic and attractive cast.
Hava (Pooja Kumar of ‘Bombay Dreams’) is newly arrived in San Francisco from Pakistan. Her parents, Abdul (Girija Shankar), a cab driver, and Rafia (Ponni Chesser) have paved the way for her arrival, having immigrated nine years earlier.
Unbeknownst to her, Mom and Dad have arranged a marriage to Salman (Suhail Tayeb), who is dating a white woman and happily pursuing his own independent American lifestyle.
Hava is amazed at the freedom women have in America, and she shocks her family by taking a job at a coffee shop run by a fellow Pakistani, Baboo (Reef Karim of ‘Flavors’ Fame). Baboo’s friend, blond American Justin (Craig Marker), falls for her, and soon she wants to reciprocate – but is torn between familial duty and her own freedom of choice.
Unfortunately, the plot is much too thin to sustain its 93-minute running time, and the underwritten script and sometimes painfully awkward staging and acting make “Night of Henna” rough going at times.
Still, Kumar is charming as the shy Hava, and is quite beautiful (she is a former Miss India USA) – she seems promising.
Zee gets top marks for his smart location scouting – he depicts San Francisco as lived-in and neighborhoody rather than something out of a tourist brochure as most movies set here do.
