While cultural identity may be a key theme of Somnath Sen's 'Leela', the film presents it well without the use of clichés or at the expense of the story. For example, American Indian Krishna's clash of cultural identity is depicted in a very subtle manner. There is no Indian culture is great and American culture is bad nonsense or vice versa (which is usually the case with this kind of films that are made by Indian directors). Sen doesn't take any side here and he attempts to portray a balanced view.In addition, 'Leela' works excellently as a character-driven piece. The characters are very well-defined. The story moves slowly but this invites the viewer to get to know these people: Krishna, Leela and Chaitali: Krishna has almost completely assimilated to his American identity. Were it not for his parents, he probably would have entirely washed off his Indian identity. The growth of his character as he learns to appreciate Indian culture thanks to Leela is very convincingly demonstrated. The writer doesn't force him to give up his American identity but rather has the character realize that he is both: an Indian and an American.Fiercely independent, his lovely mother, Chaitali, has already embraced American culture without losing her connection to her Indian roots. She has managed to balance her identity and is living her life the way she wants to.Beautiful, intelligent and lonely Leela has just arrived in the country and experiences and appreciates the beauty life in America. She learns that one cannot live a happy life just by living it for someone else. In Krishna, she finds a companion and they both learn something from each other.The use of poetry and music is done delightfully. Jagjit Singh's soothing voice and Gulzar's magical lyrics breathe poetry into the story. It gives 'Leela' a very lyrical feel. The dialogues are splendid.On the technical side, the cinematography is adequate but the lighting is a little faulty.Deepti Naval and Dimple Kapadia are superb. Amol Mhatre looks a little uneasy in the more dramatic sequences but his presence adds to the innocence of Krishna. Gulshan Grover and Vinod Khanna provide good support.Poetic, subtle and engaging, 'Leela' does a fine job of telling a story about cultural identity and self discovery.

*** This comment contains spoilers. *** LEELA (2002) is a modern day (India) Indian-in-America movie. LEELA attempts to have a realistic plot played out in a realistic manner. The film seeks to have common real-life dialog. The film tries to have the highest level of competent visual direction. LEELA tries to be great in every way. Sadly, this good intentioned movie pretty much fails across the board.As a modern drama, LEELA is not horrible, but it is also no where near great either. LEELA rates above a student film, but below a Hollywood level production. LEELA is missing dry, sober, real-life dialog at moments when it needs it most. Maybe the script is fine at these moments, but the delivery is just not realistic. No raw emotion.The condom-walk-into-the-room segment was the weakest scene among many. There were no great slice of life scenes, in my opinion.

I had expected this to be another pretentious drama with stereotypical Indo-American characters and all the identity issues that they face while growing up in the US. But this turned out to be a little less preachy and clichéd, and treated the characters as individuals than caricatures of the culture they represent.The story revolves around the familiar subject of US born Indians, their immigrant parents and all the values that they feel torn between. Movies like American Desi, Hollywood Bollywood have treaded on this path earlier, albeit on a lighter note, and have never really come across as anything more than entertaining. Mitr and ABCD were perhaps more of a serious study on the subject although poor acting and direction seemed to have doomed Mitr right from the start. ABCD on the other hand was an honest effort with believable characters that came off surprisingly well. This film may have set out on the lines of ABCD with big names thrown in for commercial viability but falls short of being convincing.The central character is a teenager who comes from a rather unconventional family (unconventional in Indian terms) wherein his parents are both separated and have found new partners to live with and go on with their lives. They appear to be successful in terms of career, their adaptation to the native culture and pretend to be comfortable with their choices and arrangements - all in the name of freedom and individuality. But they somehow still seem to cling on to their roots of tradition and conservative thinking which manifests hideously when they realize that their boy is having an affair with his teacher, played with finesse by Dimple Kapadia. The mother (a good come-back performance by Deepti Naval) desperately tries to break this with a whole deal of emotional drama which goes to show the real insecurity behind the superficial image of modern thinking and liberate views that she portrays! But in the process the characters are made aware of their own shortcomings and insecurities that bring about a sea of change in all of them to eventually help the movie end in a pleasant note! The actors play their parts with relative ease and do not seem too awkward. Visually the movie is charming with good cinematography and art direction that's done tastefully. The editing is also crisp and the soundtrack with lyrics by Gulzar and playbacks by Jagjit Singh and Shubha Mudgal, amongst others, seems to blend well without really sticking out as a sore thumb. It's finally the narration and the script that limits this effort from really evolving into something meaningful and serious. The film eventually comes across as a half-baked effort that loses purpose as it progresses and a script that never acquires that serious tone or pace to keep you completely engaged.But all said this still seems a step in the right direction for serious Indian filmmakers. The Indian community is often looked upon as made up of successful individuals in fields of commerce and education but never really presented seriously beyond the boot polish smeared faces of Peter Sellers and other Hollywood actors. These films perhaps would pave the way for an entry into the mainstream foray by Indian filmmakers.

There have been quite a few films in the last couple of years that have tried to breakup certain stereotypes ad cliches: 1) The opinion South Asian immigrants have about whites. 2) The opinion South Asian immigrants have about their peers who are born and brought up in the west. 3) The opinion born-in-the-west desis have about South Asian immigrants.Films like American Desi, Bend It Like Beckham, Bollywood/Hollywood have all succeeded to different degrees in breaking these stereotypes and striking a new balance in terms of awareness and acceptance. Leela is another film with similar aspirations and succeeds almost completely in what it sets out to achieve.Leela is a dramatic film that not only attempts to further demolish these stereotypes but it also gives its characters unique identities, identitites that go through a process of change and understanding as the film unfolds.There are a lot of things that impress you about Leela. Starting with the screenplay. It has been written very tightly as in never to slacken the pace of the film or loosen the grip it has on its characters. The dialogue is very intelligent and each character is developed very uniquely. The plot is essentially about a student-teacher affair and how it affects the two, but their subplots and their relationships with other people in their lives give the characters a lot of depth and empathy.Leela has been blessed with a good soundtrack from Jagjit Singh and Gulzar and also the production values and technical credits have done extremely well. The ensemble cast of Leela which includes Dimple Kapadia, Amol Mhatre, Deepti Naval, Vinod Khanna and Gulshan Grover among others do a terrific job with performances.Somnath Sen is a newcomer I believe (at least I am not aware of any previous work by him). But as a writer and director he does an extremely mature and comprehensive job of dealing with the merging sensibilities of two worlds. At the end of the day, Leela is good storytelling and a film about interesting people. People like you and me. 9/10.