Fridae

Just how influential is Lee Ang's 1993 gay comedy The Wedding
Banquet?

More than a decade after it debuted, gay filmmakers are still making
films seemingly in its image. Alice Wu's Saving Face, now
showing in cinemas, plays like a lesbian version of Lee's movie.
The new gay comedy Chicken Tikka Masala also feels like
The Wedding Banquet, except that it is set in Preston,
Great Britain.

Chris Bisson plays Jimi, a gay British-Indian man with a white
lover. Farce ensues when his parents try to set him up for an arranged
marriage to a Gujarati girl. At the wedding party, Jimi own ups
to being gay.

Directed by Harmage Singh Kalirai, Chicken Tikka Masala
is almost devoid of logic or charm. Characters do and say the most
inane things, and the film ultimately feels like a cheap rip-off
of The Wedding Banquet.

After the utterly charming Monsoon Wedding (2001) and
Bend It Like Beckham (2002), we've come to expect a lot
more from filmmakers belonging to the Indian diaspora.