‘Flavors’ serves bland plot

The Indian American comedy “Flavors,” a bland ensemble tale of young immigrants assimilating with varying degrees of success, aims for a kind of hip cultural fusion but lacks the sharp satirical perspective to pull it off.

Rather than the spice and spectacle of a Bollywood epic, the film more closely resembles a U.S.-style indie that has overdosed on sitcom influences. Despite an appealing cast, the result has all the pizazz of processed cheese.

Most of the film’s humor comes from gently tweaking cross-cultural and cross-generational shifts with running gags about being besieged by calls offering special long-distance rates and elderly aunties in the home country using e-mail.

Set in the leafy, generic suburbs of the East Coast (presumably New York and New Jersey, where it was primarily shot), the film begins with a wedding then flashes back to tell four parallel stories that lightly bump up against one another in the weeks leading to the nuptials.

A good-natured, middle-aged couple (Bharati Achrekar and Anjan Srivastava) arrive from India to see their son Rad (Anupam Mittal, who is also one of the film’s producers) marry a blond American named Jenni (Jicky Schnee). Mom and Dad playfully squabble over what is proper in America and what is proper in India.

In a fairly traditional romantic comedy setup, Kartik (Reef Karim), a callow IT consultant, carries on a 3,000-mile long-distance cellphone snipefest with his beautiful pal Rachna (Pooja Kumar), each telling the other how they should lead their lives. Sangita (Sireesha Katragadda) is a bored housewife, disappointed with her life in the U.S. Her workaholic husband is never home, and she is so lonely she resorts to inviting in Jehovah’s Witnesses.

Lovelorn Vivek (Mohit Shah), a software programmer, gets laid off, which only compounds his misery over a girl he knew in college but to whom he never confessed his feelings.

The stories are told more or less independently, separated by occasionally clever intertitles, and gradually reveal how these people are connected.

The film doesn’t offer any real surprises, making fairly routine observations about the contemporary immigrant experience. The one time it threatens to become interesting is when Mom and Dad become lost while sightseeing and encounter Kartik and Rachna. There is a dynamic between the four actors that the rest of the film fails to capture, but the sequence doesn’t go anywhere and the narrative quickly reverts to form.

To their credit, filmmakers Raj Nidimoru and Krishna D.K. avoid wrapping things up too neatly, allowing the stories to play out in a satisfyingly open-ended manner. However, the characters are too archetypal, and none of the conflicts ever reaches enough of a crescendo to truly engage an audience.

*

‘Flavors’

MPAA rating: Unrated

Times guidelines: Aside from some bleeped swearing, everything is far milder than what is on prime-time television.

Reef Karim...Kartik

Pooja Kumar...Rachna

Anjan Srivastava...Dad

Bharati Achrekar...Mom

Mohit Shah...Vivek

Sireesha Katragadda...Sangita

Released by Net Effect Media. Writer-directors Raj Nidimoru, Krishna D.K. Producers Anupam Mittal, Raj Nidimoru, Krishna D.K. Executive producer Sita Menon. Cinematographer Dave Isern. Editor Frank Reynolds. Music Mahesh Shankar. Production designer Tusha Runadkat. In English and Hindi with English subtitles. Running time: 1 hour, 54 minutes.

Exclusively at the Naz 8 Cinemas, Naz Plaza, 6440 E. South St., Lakewood, (562) 866-2444.