If you were offended by Ek Chotisi Love Story, prepare to have your feathers ruffled again in this bold story of an affair between a student and teacher, except this one is done rather well and interestingly scoring points where ECLS failed.

Suddenly one semester, the eponymous Leela (Dimple Kapadia), travels to an American uni as a guest lecturer. She’s trying to come to terms with her mother’s death as well as taking a break from her poet husband who’s an incorrigible philanderer. Here’s one more addition to the burgeoning number of NRI diaspora movies, except this one’s sufficiently well-crafted and politically correct for multiplex viewership. Happily Leela isn’t flippant or smug like so many of the previous American Desis. Don’t expect a terrific Monsoon Wedding but a different take on the theme and you wont be disappointed.

Debutant director Somnath Sen achieves his aims to open up the lives of Indians either settled in or passing through the USA by setting up three credible characters. Besides the visiting professor (Dimple Kapadia), there’s an 18-yr old student (Amol Mhatre), who’s hoping to lose his virginity much to the dismay of a single mother (Deepti Naval), a kind of Summer of ‘42 on a US campus, with the boy’s attraction for Leela develops into a mature love story. However, the supporting characters are one dimensional, be it the boy’s permissive father (Gulshan Grover) or the poet husband (Vinod Khanna, smiling beatifically). Despite the film’s plethora of flaws, the mellow Dimple Kapadia is hypnotic. Both Deepti Naval and Amol Mhatre blend into their roles with astonishing skill.

Jagjit Singh’s music is effective in parts, adding up to a film which offers a fairly refreshing take on Indians in the land of burgers, ban-the-bomb activists and basketball. Worth a see and definitely a visual delight. This gets my thumbs up!

Rasika Iyer