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The Love Terminator Melts Our Hearts
By Aseem Chhabra
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Writer-director Amyn Kaderali's first full length feature – Kissing Cousins is an enjoyable and at times hilarious film about a relationship termination specialist (played with ease and considerable charm by Samrat Chakravarti) who turns up at people's doors to inform them that their significant others are breaking up with them. If the concept sounds familiar, it may be because Chakravarti's character Amir is somewhat of an opposite of Will Smith's Hitch.
But it is to Kaderali's credit that his story is fresh and very engaging. Amir is so tied up and also jaded by his profession that he has forgotten the meaning of the word love, until by chance he meets up with his British cousin Zara (played by a very likeable British-Indian actress - Rebecca Hazelwood). Their somewhat harmless game of pretending to be in a relationship appears to be heading towards disastrous consequences. But Kaderali's clever writing will keep you guessing until the end.
Kaderali's previous works includes the hilarious short Call Center, which became a film festival favorite and then an online phenomenon - having been viewed nearly a million times. In Kissing Cousins, his writing is funny, clever, and his characters and situations are believable. It is also to Kaderali's credit that while his lead characters are of South Asian origin, their goals, motivations, desires and feelings are no different than that of the general American audience.
Kissing Cousins is a star making vehicle for Chakravarti, who has such a fun, romantic and matinee idol appeal in the film. Chakravarti has been acting in shorts, indie features and on stage for a while. But he has never been this cool. His co-star Hazelwood is a real-find - natural, beautiful, and yet naughty and playful. Under Kaderali's direction the two stars really shine.
Kissing Cousins is making the rounds of film festivals across North America. A couple of weeks ago it won the audience award at New York's Asian American International Film Festival.
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 Aseem Chhabra is a freelance writer
based in New York who has previously
written for The New York Times The
Boston Globe Philadelphia Inquirer and
Time Out New York |
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