Bicycle Bride

This Bollywood rom-com set in America takes a fresh approach to the old story of immigrant families trying to reconcile native traditions with a looser way of living in the U.S. Beena (Melanie Kannokada) is the daughter of Indian parents now residing in L.A. A very contemporary, free-thinking young woman invested in her college education, Beena is one kind of person outside of home but a dutiful daughter under her parents' roof. Beena's mother has every intention of teaching her grown child how to cook and clean, and she expects Beena to give up everything and submit to an arranged marriage. But the heroine's romance with a handsome Swedish student named, of all things, James Dean (Andreas Wilson), makes for conflict. Writer-director Hassan Zee has fun with scenes that play like one-off comedy sketches; unfortunately, however, the love story is unconvincing, since there is no chemistry between Kannokada and Wilson. Not a necessary purchase. (T. Keogh)