Spicezee Bureau

‘Caramel’ a romantic comedy, hits the Indian theatres this week. The drama set in a Beirut beauty salon, involves five women, who meet, share and confide in each other. Writer-director, Nadine Labaki plays the lead role as Layale, a beautiful 30-year-old in love with a married man, while unaware to the fact that a local cop (Adel Karam) has a huge crush on her.

Other characters of the movie have their repective personal problems to deal with. Nisirine (Yasmine Al Masri), is desperate to prevent her Muslim fiancé from discovering that she`s no longer a virgin. Rima (Joanna Moukarzel), develops a crush on one of her female clients - Jamale (Gisele Aouad), a divorcee who is afraid of growing old. Rose (Siham Haddad), is an elderly seamstress, who has devoted her life to taking care of her slightly bonkers older sister (Aziza Semaan), but who experiences a glimmer of romantic possibility when a male client asks her out to dinner.

Labaki’s striking cast of inexperienced actors: Gisele Aouad is perfect as Jamale. Similarly, Labaki herself proves as strong an actress as she is a writer-director.

A beautifully shot film, containing several wonderful scenes, ‘Caramel’ also presents a fascinating portrayal of life in modern-day Beirut, with Christians and Muslims living happily and going about their lives.

`Caramel` is certainly a sugary treat for all you cinematic lovers - thanks to an excellent script and strong performances from its talented cast with impressive histrionic skills.