The Journey To Becoming “Miss India America”

The first screening of “Miss India America” took place on Saturday, November 21 at Dole Cannery. This ninety-five minute film was directed by Ravi Kapoor, produced by Megha Kadakia and Saurabh Kikani, and had a cast that included Tiya Sircar, Hannah Simone, and Kunal Sharma just to name a few.

This film is about a high school valedictorian, Lily Prasad, who is the type of person that has to win at everything. For her, losing is never an option. Unfortunately, her winning streak ends and future plans come crashing down when she looses her boyfriend Karim to Reshma, who happens to be the reigning Miss India National. In hopes of getting Karim back, Lily takes on the challenge in becoming the new Miss India National with the help of her friend, Seema. With all the ups and downs Lily goes through, her journey to becoming Miss India National impacts her more than she thought it would.

I really enjoyed watching this film and thought it was very humorous. It definitely gave me and the audience in the theater some good laughs here and there. Although some parts were predictable, the movie still kept my attention. Of course in the end, Lily changes her ways but there was one end result that I liked because it was something that was unpredictable (I won’t spoil it for you guys! haha). Another thing I really enjoyed was seeing a bit of the Indian culture. Especially the intricate and elegant dresses, called sarees, that the ladies wore during one segment of the pageant, I thought they were just so beautiful.

One minor thing that was a bit disappointing was how in the HIFF program guide, the description mentioned that this film was an Indian American take on Mean Girls, but I didn’t really see the resemblance.

Overall, I’d give this film a 4 out of 5. It just goes to show how far girls will go to get what they want, even if we might not think things through logically sometimes. YAY TO GIRL POWER!