More than Masala: Indian Food and Culture through Film

This guide is a companion to the film and speaker series More than Masala: Indian Food and Culture through Film, an IU Cinema Creative Collaboration sponsored by the IU Libraries, the Dhar India Studies Program, and the IU Media School. It includes further reading suggestions and links to recipes specific to each film as well as a guide to Bloomington restaurants where you can explore South Asian cuisine.

About the Film Series:

More Than Masala presents a sampler of the diversity of Indian film and food, offering three award-winning films from different regions of India that deal with social issues like gender, caste, class, and more through a focus on cooking and cuisine. From a story of love, loneliness, and lunches in bustling Mumbai, to a dark exploration of carnivorism and illicit desire in Assam, to a searing exposé of the gendered invisible labor of the kitchen set in a traditional household of Kerala, audiences will be able to explore Indian cinema and cuisine beyond the standard "masala" films of Bollywood.