A romantic feast of love, life, and spices.
Nina’s Heavenly Delights move storyline. Returning to Glasgow to run her recently deceased father’s curry house, Nina Shah, a feisty, young, Indo-Scottish woman, finds half of the business is owned by Lisa, daughter of the local bookie. She is also reunited with her childhood friend Bobbi, a Bollywood drag queen.
Nina and Lisa embark on their personal mission to win the ‘Best of the West’ curry competition, a highly coveted prize in the world of Indian cuisine. A blend of adventure and discovery follows with humourous and startling results.
Nina’s Heavenly Delights is a surprising love story where Scottish humor meets Bollywood spectacle! It follows the mixed fortunes of a Glaswegian family, The Shahs and their award winning Indian restaurant, The New Taj.
The story is told through the eyes of Nina Shah, a young Scottish Asian woman. Nina had left home under a cloud after an argument with her father but when he dies suddenly, Nina is forced to return. Her return reunites her with her childhood friend Bobbi, a wannabe Bollywood drag queen, and brings her face to face with Lisa, a charismatic young woman who now owns half the restaurant.
Then Nina discovers her father’s secret – The New Taj has been selected for The Best of the West Curry Competition. In the turbulent, but exhilarating days that follow, Nina, with Lisa’s help, embarks on a personal mission to win the trophy for the third time. But Nina’s feelings are thrown into turmoil when she realizes that she is falling in love. Can her feelings ever be reciprocated? And, if they are, what will this mean for Nina and her family?
Q & A With Pratibha Parmar
Tell us about the film? Where did the title come from?
The inspiration for the story came from my own experiences and in some ways it’s autobiographical. I wanted to write a love story where a young woman falls in love with another woman in a surprising way, when they least expect it. I wanted to set it in an Indian restaurant because my partner grew up in her family-owned Pakistani restaurant in London and we had fallen in love when making a curry for a group of mutual friends. The title of the film actually comes from my sister, Nina, who once owned a catering company called, Nina’s Heavenly Delights. So that’s how those different personal elements came together. Ultimately, it’s a film about family, food and love, all themes that I am interested in.
Why did you set the story in Glasgow and did you enjoy working there?
I loved working in Glasgow. I fell in love with the city on my first visit there many years ago when I was making a documentary for Channel 4. I remember going to an Indian restaurant and being greeted by Indian waiters in kilts and turbans. The way they spoke in a lilting Scottish-Asian accent made me smile. I also loved the charming mixture of Scottish and Indian cultures. At the time I decided that one day I wanted to come back and shoot a feature film in Scotland and so when I wrote the story, I decided to set it in Glasgow. It seemed a natural fit. Creatively for me, it was great to find so many fantastic locations and we were also very lucky to find many of them close together, which helped enormously on a practical level.
Can you talk about the writing of the screenplay?
I was keen to bring on board a Scottish writer who could write real characters who were not clichés but multi-faceted and layered. I had read Andrea Gibb’s early draft of Dear Frankie and really liked her characterizations and attention to detail and her acting background gave her an edge in writing sparkling dialogue. I commissioned her through my company, Kali Films to write the first draft. Over the years our process was very collaborative and it was great that Andrea was so open to working closely with me. She hadn’t worked on a screenplay, which she hadn’t originated before so this was new for both of us.
The director, John Boorman, once said that ‘all serious directors write … you can’t separate the shaping of the script from the writing of it.” And after going through the process of working on NHD, I agree with him. I think it’s an essential part of directing to sit down with the writer and shape the script in detail and give it structure, especially when it’s such a personal story. I was fortunate to have Andrea as my collaborator.
And you know the writing continues even when you are editing. The opening title sequence was a pick up we did while in post. It became clear that what we needed was a sense of the magic for the relationship between Nina and her father, so I wrote in this back-story with Little Nina and her father and shot it while we were editing. And sometimes it is only when you are shaping the film during the edit that you discover which emotional beats are needed or what tone you need to emphasize.
Why did you come to choose Simon Dennis as your DOP?
From the get go I wanted NHD to look lush, sensual, sexy and vibrant. I wanted to work with a DOP who would be able to create this lush look, but at the same time understand that this was an ensemble piece with many big set pieces, and work at a fast pace. Simon’s experience of shooting features on HD was a definite plus. He understands how to light for digital film and from his show reel I could see that he had an eye for the poetic – both in terms of framing and movement of camera.
I am a big fan of the moving camera as a visual story telling device. Even in my documentaries I would end up using steadicam and tracks. Simon and I did a comprehensive shot list for the film before we started the shoot and watched and discussed many films. In the end Simon’s lighting design is stunning and far surpasses my original vision.
How difficult or easy was it to direct Shelley Conn and Laura Fraser’s kissing scenes?
I think I was more nervous about this then they were. The first kissing scene that we shot was actually the one at the finale when they win the trophy. I had a closed set but they didn’t seem at all nervous. They even volunteered further takes and asked, “Do you want us to snog again, we don’t mind.” I suspect they rather enjoyed it!
But the kissing scene in the kitchen halfway through the film is an absolute stunner. This kiss is their first time and I had wanted to shoot it on the rooftop with the moonlight falling on them. Make it very romantic and lush. But of course it always rained on the days we had scheduled this. In the end the scene was shot in the kitchen, which felt right, as this is where they had fallen in love. I have to thank Simon for his breathtaking lighting of this scene – it’s so simple but incredibly beautiful. My only direction to Shelley and Laura was “I want full on passion, I want to see tongues and it has to be bold and robust.” That was it. They certainly don’t disappoint!
Continue Reading and View the Theatrical Trailer
Nina’s Heavenly Delights (2007)
Directed by: Pratibha Parmar
Starring: Shelley Conn, Laura Fraser, Art Malik, Raji James, Kulvinder Ghir, Veena Sood, Zoe Henretty, Elaine C. Smith, Rita Wolf, Kathleen McDermott, Kavita Dass
Screenplay by: Andrea Gibb
Production Design by: Andy Harris
Cinematography by: Simon Dennis
Film Editing by: Mary Finlay
Costume Design by: Louise Allen, Bobby McCulla
Art Direction by: Mags Horspool
Makeup Department: Jacqui Mallett
Music by: Steve Isles
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for some sexual content.
Distributed by: Regent Releasing
Release Date: November 21, 2007
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