The Blue Tower

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Mohan (Abhin Galeya) is desperate - he's trapped in a loveless arranged marriage and facing the prospect of a dead-end job with his shady father-in-law. He embarks on an affair with Judy (Alice O'Connell), the nurse of his ailing aunt Kamla (Indira Joshi), which culminates in the pair attempting to rob the old woman. But Mohan's guilt then begins to manifest itself in visions of a mysterious blue tower. A combination of multicultural treatise and dark domestic thriller, this marks a new departure for British-Asian cinema. Yet while writer/director Smita Bhide should be lauded for her ambition, her penny dreadful screenplay leaves a lot to be desired and ultimately defeats a willing, but not always convincing, cast. Moreover, she allows her laboured symbolism to swamp a derivative storyline that can never quite decide whether it wants to be East Is East or The Postman Always Rings Twice.