Date:05/07/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/05/stories/2008070558540200.htm

Karnataka

Warm, humorous and wonderfully detailed

Looking ahead: Director Nadine Labaki plays the role of Layale in the movie Caramel.

Caramel (Arabic and French with English subtitles)

Cast: Nadine Labaki, Yasmine Al-Masri, Joanna Moukarzel, Gisèle Aouad,

Director: Nadine Labaki

The caramel of the title refers to a paste made of sugar, lemon juice and water that is boiled till it turns into caramel and used, in West Asia, much like wax, to remove unwanted hair. According to the director Nadini Labaki, who also wrote the script and stars in the film, caramel also stands for the “idea of sweet and salt, sugary and sour”, of the delicious sugar that can burn and hurt you.

The movie follows the lives of five women in a beauty salon in Beirut. There is the boutique owner, Layale, who stays with her parents and is in love with a married man, waiting endlessly for him to call. There is Nisrine, engaged to be married and worried of what would happen when her husband finds out she is not a virgin.

Rima, who cleans the boutique and washes hair, develops a crush on an attractive client, while the older, divorced Jamale is desperate to get a job in the television industry, which favours youth. The movie also tells the story of 65-year-old Rose, a seamstress, who always puts her mentally ill sister, Lili, before her needs. Like the title, the movie is not fluffy and sweetly sickening. “Caramel” is warm, humorous, inviting and wonderfully detailed.

MINI ANTHIKAD-CHHIBBER