Recalling
Ang Lee's
The Wedding Banquet (1993), writer/director Hunt Hoe debuted with this intercultural romantic drama. Vijay Chatterjee is a lonely widower and a successful restaurateur in Montreal. His thoroughly Westernized son Ashish works at his father's eatery but is more interested in the rock band that he started with his friend Michael. One day, Vijay meets the elegant, strikingly beautiful Maarya, who recently emigrated from Calcutta. He immediately hires her for his restaurant and introduces her to Ashish, thinking that she would make the perfect wife. Though Maarya soon realizes that the young Chatterjee has a closer relationship to Michael than she originally thought, she plays along, keeping the secret from Ashish's dad so that she can remain in the country. When the elder Chatterjee starts to pursue Maarya and her jealous knife-wielding brother arrives on the scene, this volatile situation turns downright explosive. Seducing Maarya was screened at the 1999 Montreal Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide