Lisa: Jill Hennessy	Reena: Nisha Ganatra
Sarita: Sakina Jeffrey	Meenu: Madhur Jaffrey
Mitch: Nick Chinlund	Loretta: Priscilla Lopez
Director/Co-Writer/Producer: Nisha Ganatra

30 Second Bottom Line: Life gets dicey when a woman offers to become a surrogate mother for her infertile sister. The significant others of each sister have very strong feelings about the matter, as do two of the potential grandmothers.

Story Line: Reena (Nisha Ganatra) is an aspiring photographer, who is viewed by her mother Meenu (Madhur Jaffrey), a traditional Indian mother with a ceremony to mark every occasion, as a daughter who has difficulty doing anything right. Sarita (Sakina Jeffrey) is her perfect sister who always makes her mother proud. The role of each daughter is made clear on the day of Sarita's marriage to Mitch (Nick Chinlund). Reena arrives late for the wedding, in leather jacket and helmet, astride her motorcycle.

Meenu, is a single mother who raised her daughters and is looking forward to becoming a grandmother of a child that has two parents at home. Sarita has become a woman who expects to have a stable family with a husband and children, in that order. From the viewpoint of Meenu, Reena is a wandering and somewhat lost soul who lives with roommate Lisa (Jill Hennessy… TV's Law and Order and recently in Exit Wounds). Lisa and Reena are lovers and this arrangement upsets Meenu to the point that Lisa quietly leaves the wedding reception to make her more comfortable.

By contrast, Lisa's mother, Loretta (Priscilla Lopez), is delighted with the fact that she's "…settling down." She even threatens one of Reena's trash talking friends with "I will out you to your father," if she messes things up for Lisa and Reena.

Relationships become strained as a piano wire when Reena reminds her mother that unlike Sarita, her love interest is Lisa and will never be a person like Mitch. Meenu and her two daughters have an uneasy peace among them until Sarita learns that even if she can conceive a child, she will not be able to carry it to full term because of gynecological problems. Sarita is crushed because her self-image is totally related to her view that womanhood requires that she is able to bear a child.

Reena decides that one thing she can do right in the eyes of her mother and sister is to carry a baby for Sarita. The sperm donor will be Mitch, and when the child is born Sarita and Mitch will be the parents. Sarita mentions the idea to Mitch, almost in passing, and he readily accepts it. And we get the feeling that her desire to be a parent is more rote than innate. Lisa gets okay with the idea, because it's only a nine-month commitment. Meenu is not real keen on it at all.

By the time Reena knows she is pregnant, Sarita has become so frustrated with the process of Mitch masturbating to give sperm to insert into Reena that their lovemaking is put on hold, and she must face her inner feelings regarding her true desire to be a mother or not. When there is a question that Sarita may not want to take the baby, Lisa and Reena's relationship is pushed to the breaking point, because while Reena can see herself being a parent, Lisa is not so sure. She knows she loves Reena, but raising a family is another matter altogether. The truth of the notion of extended family is brought home with the birth of the baby.

Tell Me More About It: Chutney Popcorn is a movie that slowly grows on you. It starts out with the raw appeal of the independent film production that it is, and you wonder if the polished performance of Jill Hennessy will overshadow the other actors. As you get to know and care about Reena, Sarita, Meenu and Mitch, that becomes a non-issue.

Very much a film about family values, Chutney Popcorn, is appropriately named as it makes you look at things you give little thought to in a very different way. The film's dedication is "for our moms"; and a tag line reads "for anyone who has a mother." In this case, Meenu, a traditionalist, must decide if she can embrace the grandchild she desperately wants, who might be in a household where both parents are women.

We all grow up with a certain notion about how we want our lives to develop and what we expect of others. As we follow our paths, of uncertainty and unpredictability, we are presented with unforeseen challenges on how to maintain relationships with our friends and loved ones. That's what Chutney Popcorn is all about and what makes it such a special film. It's almost as funny as Meet The Parents and What Women Want while being an even better comedy about life.