Touch of Pink

"Touch of Pink"
Rating: R
2004
CANADA
Director : Ian Iqbal Rashid
Producer : Jennifer Kawaja,Martin Pope,Julia Sereny
Screenwiter : Ian Iqbal Rashid
Starring : Jimi Mistry, Kyle MacLachlan, Sue Mathew, Kristen Holden-Reid, Veena Sood, Brian George, Raoul Bhaneja

Alim (Jimi Mistry) is so caught up in the romance, style and dreams of old Hollywood that he thinks he's living with the spirit of Cary Grant (Kyle MacLachlan). A young, South Asian Canadian based in London, Alim lives with a handsome, charming intelligent English boyfriend, Giles (Kristen Holden-Reid), who is completely unaware of his lover's fantasy life. Alim and Giles are happy together, despite Cary's presence, until Alim's mother Nuru (Suleka Matthew) shows up for a visit. Totally unaware that her son is gay, let alone that he is living with Giles, Nuru has come to London to find Alim a proper Ismaili-Muslim girlfriend and to convince him to come home to Canada. With his mother in the picture, Alim's different worlds quickly begin to collide, and he has to choose between his fantasy life with Cary and the earthlier pleasures of real life.

The infiltration of pop culture nostalgia into every square inch of our entertainment landscape is, depressingly, a foregone conclusion. And Touch of Pink, Ian Iqbal Rashid’s pleasant but conventional dramedy about a South Asian gay man hiding his homosexual lifestyle from his traditional Muslim mother, is yet another entry in the burgeoning canon of wistful

film-referential movies that think it’s clever to drop obvious, pointless allusions to stars of bygone eras. You see, Rashid’s film isn’t just about a guy trying to hide his true colors from his sure-to-be-disapproving mother; it’s a film about a guy trying to hide his true colors from his sure-to-be-disapproving mother with the help of his loyal, dapper imaginary friend Cary Grant. Cue incessant eye-rolling… now.

Alim (Jimi Mistry, of last year’s The Guru) has abandoned his widowed mother and stultifying old life in Toronto for the swinging sexual freedom of London, where he currently works as a film-set photographer and lives with his handsome UNICEF economist boyfriend

Giles (Kristen Holden-Reid). All is great in Alim’s life, except that he desperately wishes he could share his good fortune with his conservative Muslim family. This loneliness drives Alim to Cary Grant, who as personified by Kyle MacLachlan (affecting a decent replica of the actor’s distinctive voice while simultaneously parodying his suave mannerisms) is a dashing gentleman always ready to boost Alim’s confidence with advice, compliments, or a pithy quotation from The Philadelphia Story or Gunga Din. Meanwhile, Alim’s mother Nura (Suleka Mathew) is woefully jealous of her sister, who is staging a lavish wedding for her son (who has sexual issues of his own), and tries to persuade Alim to leave London – a place that holds shameful secrets for Nura – and return home to fulfill his duties as a good son by getting married and producing grandchildren.


The culture clash that ensues is straight out of countless other Hollywood confections (including Mistry’s funnier East is East, which employed an East-West dichotomy rather than this film’s gay-straight schema), though such derivation is part of writer/director Rashid’s plan. Touch of Pink is designed as both a straightforward romantic comedy about learning to accept yourself and your loved ones, and as a fond homage to old Hollywood charm, passion, and star-power. While Alim attempts to maintain his façade of heterosexuality, Grant – who radiates the poise and self-assuredness


Alim longs to possess – pops up from time to time decked out in square ‘50s sweaters and suits while arguing for screwball solutions to Alim’s problems, thus turning the film into something of a tribute to Grant’s finest effervescent films. Occasionally – such as a scene involving Alim and Grant watching a movie in matching stripped pajamas (with Grant even buttoning the top button of his shirt) – the film successfully achieves a droll visual


incongruity that matches its straightforward story about the allure (and danger) of maintaining appearances.

What it can’t achieve, however, is a measure of originality or surprise. Rashid’ s script so rigorously adheres to a predictable three-act structure (guy hides boyfriend from mom, guy alienates boyfriend and mom upon publicly admitting he’ s gay, guy wins back mom and boyfriend and lives happily ever after) that only the most novice filmgoer will fail to stay ahead of the leisurely plot. And despite suitably solid performances by the entire cast, even fewer will find much humor sprinkled throughout Alim’s frustratingly ordinary de-closeting experiences.

That Alim must ultimately break free from his fictional Cary Grant – and, by extension, his classic movie dreams – so he can embrace the real world is foretold by the film’s initial scenes, and thus the film’s minor twists play out in a pleasantly benign, but thoroughly unexceptional, manner. Rashid clearly believes that cheekily employing a fake Cary Grant and old-school Hollywood tropes (transitional fade-outs, swelling melodramatic music) makes up for the banality of Touch of Pink’s inoffensive, laugh-free coming-out narrative. Color me unconvinced.

SPANISH REVIEW

Opposites attract. Alim (Jimi Mistry, who made an impression in the 2002 comedy, Guru) is a young, intelligent gay Muslim living in London with his charming, very British boyfriend, Giles (Kristen Holden-Reid). Things get complicated when Alim's mother arrives in town, unaware of her son's sexual orientation, let alone his live-in companion. Starting with this premise, the routine comedy follows all the requisite steps, complications, encounters, and resolutions.

I am sure it's still not easy to be openly gay in Muslim culture, even though Alim lives in London and his family in Toronto. What's striking about writer-director Ian Iqbal Rashid's film is its showing of how similar all mothers are. How universal their reactions (sort of 'what have I done wrong?') are. How easily they're persuaded to accept their sons' orientation and lifestyle, when faced with the basic facts and the right gay lovers. In one of the film's most amusingly romantic scenes, Alim's mom is taken on a date by Giles and is completely swept away by his charm and savoir vivre.

Except for the mother, all the characters, including the central couple, are one-dimensional. But this is particularly the case of Alim's family, his bourgeois materialistic aunt, his stern and conservative uncle, and his phony and duplicitous cousin, who's about to be married but doesn't see any problem with continuing to fool around with Alim. Considering that the film was written by an insider, it's surprising full of racial stereotypes and cliches.

The film ends on a boisterous note with a big wedding, which in color and costume represents a pale imitation of Mira Nair's Monsoon Wedding. Truths are disclosed, relationships are felicitously cemented, and all characters are happier. Though good-natured and well-intentioned, Touch of Pink is an outdated by-the-book comedy that belongs to another era.


JIMI MISTRY

Date of Birth: 1973
Jimi Mistry was born to an Indian father and an Irish mother, both of whom are in the medical profession. Growing up in Manchester, England, Mistry had no idea what he wanted to do after high school, so when he was 17, his father sat him down and together they decided Jimi would go to drama school. He enrolled at a drama school in Birmingham, but soon got restless and decided to make the trek to London to try his hand at auditioning.


One of his first jobs was a non-speaking role as a sailor in Kenneth Branagh’s Hamlet (1996). However, he soon landed a job that would earn him some attention, as the rebellious son Tariq in the stage play East is East at The Royal Court Theatre. Mistry then moved from the stage onto the small screen in 1999 when he landed a recurring role on the hit British TV series, EastEnders, playing Dr. Fred Fonseca.

When East is East was made into a feature film, Mistry was asked to reprise the role he’d played in the stage production. Produced by FilmFour, East is East (1999) won a British Academy Award for Best British Film, as well as a British Comedy Award and British Independent Film Award. The following year, he played an incompetent petty thief in the British feature film, Born Romantic (2000), followed by a role in My Kingdom (2001), co-starring Richard Harris and Lynn Redgrave.

While filming The Mystic Masseur (2001), Mistry met with director Daisy von Scherler Mayer to discuss the starring role of Ramu in her new comedy, The Guru (2003). He landed the part, and on his one free day between jobs, he was married.


In The Guru, Mistry plays an Indian dance teacher who wants to make it big in Hollywood and winds up becoming a famous spiritual sex guru to American women. Also starring in the film are Heather Graham and Marissa Tomei.

Mistry lives with his wife, Meg, and their daughter, Elin, in London.

Filmography:

The Guru (2003)
The Mystic Masseur (2001)
My Kingdom (2001)
Born Romantic (2000)
East is East (1999)
Hamlet (1996)






























Jimi Mistry and wife Meg attend Touch of Pink (2004)

Kristen Holden-Reid
He sometimes shows up in the credits as Kristen Holdenreid. He played the role of F. Scott Fitzgerald in the Canadian made mini-series Hemingway vs. Callaghan.

Features & TV Movies:
VR indicates Direct-to-Video Release

Young Ivanhoe (TV-1995)
Rowing Through (1996)
When Innocense Is Lost (TV-1997)
Habitat (1997)
Night of the Demons III (1997)
Going to Kansas City (1998)
The Defenders: Taking the First (TV-1998)
Forget Me Never (TV-1999)

The Crossing (TV-2000)
Gossip (2000)
Hendrix (TV-2000)
Girls Who Say Yes (2000)
Chasing Cain (2001)
A Killing Spring (TV-2002)
K-19: The Widowmaker (2002)
The Many Trials of One Jane Doe (TV-2002)
Ice Bound (TV-2003)
Alice Blue (2003)
Touch of Pink (2004)
Waking Up Walter: The Walter Gretzky Story (TV-2005)
Niagara Motel (2005)

TV Series:
Riverdale (1997)
Degrassi: The Next Generation (2001)
Paradise Falls (2001)
Hemingway vs Callaghan (mini-series, 2003)