Curry Scent (2024) Movie Review: Harmless Immigrant Story Feels Like a long series of nonsensical, awkward moments stitched together 

Every year, many Indians migrate to the US in search of the American Dream. Some of them, who were handsomely upper-middle-class in the country, make the leap to get the big moolah once they settle in the States. However, only some of them manage to sail through the current and become rich. In Christa Boarini’s “Curry Scent,” – which is based on Nisha Sabharwal’s book of the same name, we meet an Indian family that doesn’t. 

Geetha (Indigo Sabharwal), who works at a local grocery store and lives with her family of 8 (including herself, her parents, brothers, and cousins) in a packed suburban home in Sarasota (Florida); one day decides that she would like to get married in order to save her family from the slumber of the poor class. The decision feels random, and the filmmaker does very little to establish it. Anyway, like us, her family also readily agrees to the decision and partakes in the groom hunt. It’s right to point out that a wedding in India is not about the bride and groom coming together, but about two families coming together. 

Boarini is eager to latch onto that idea and makes sure that the entire thing feels like Geetha’s family is getting married. The groom hunt, however, goes sideways when the prospective groom Krishna (Anirudh Keshamouni) turns out to be a momma’s boy – his decisions are controlled by the family’s outright privileged and socially unaware mother Suman (Priya Deva). Geetha’s family is embarrassed by Suman’s brash and unsympathetic behavior, but, somehow and somewhere Geetha finds an interesting and prospective connection with Krishna’s younger brother Lush (Michael MacLeod). 

Now, the back and forth between Geetha, Lush, Geetha’s family, and Lush’s family are all wrapped in a traditional vs modern pull, a shot at the American dream, and a search for identity. However, everything about “Curry Scent” is so awkwardly put together that none of it feels like it’s coming or leading to some conclusion. Not to forget the odd, western gaze that you can feel throughout the film, despite one-half of it representing an Indian family that has just recently migrated to the state. 

Every frame of the film is so poorly composed that the progression from one aspect of Geetha’s life to the next feels redundant. For instance, we are introduced to her family with the most basic and frankly offensive representation of Indian culture  – the film begins and ends with them eating samosas; an idea that only someone unaware of the culture would do. The scene blocking is so odd and out of place that every time you see Geetha, all 8 members of her unit need to be present in the frame no matter what and where the movie is leading. Halfway through the film, Lush keeps insisting that he needs to know Geetha better and despite the obvious attraction she has for him, there are zero instances where we get to see them ‘knowing each other.’ 

Now, this is a pretty harmless tale that wishes to take a comedic approach to represent the immigrant experience. I like how it knows and appreciates why there is a need for a chaperone when Geetha, a young, independent working woman goes out on her dates. But beyond that, it does very little to nothing to help the audience dig into her story or the story of her family’s struggle to legitimize themselves. The acting across the board is mostly mediocre with only Priya Deva somehow standing out. It’s like “Curry Scent” wants to tell a story but doesn’t know how to tell it. 

Read More: India Sweets And Spices [2021]: ‘Tribeca’ Review – An Awful Film With Zero Insight on the Indian American Community

Curry Scent (2024) Movie Links: IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes, Letterboxd
Curry Scent (2024) Movie Cast: Indigo Sabharwal, Michael McLeod, Nikhil Kamkolkar, Melanie Kiran, Priya Deva, Ankita Sharma, Courtney Warner