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‘The Queen of My Dreams’ Review: A Familiar Tale of Diaspora Tensions
Disconnected flashbacks send Fawzia Mizra’s Bollywood-flavored debut, ‘The Queen of my Dreams,’ darting in too many directions.
It hits all the familiar beats of a first-generation South Asian story and, despite its novel queer bent and tongue-in-cheek casting (actress Amrit Kaur plays protagonist Azra, as well as the character’s own mother in flashbacks), it does little to separate itself, thematically or stylistically, from a now repetitive form of “third culture” storytelling. “The Queen of My Dreams” is an English translation of the title of that movie’s most famous song, “Meri Sapno Ki Rani,” which plays numerous times in Mirza’s film, alongside re-enactments in which characters imagine themselves in the roles of Tagore and heartthrob Rajesh Khanna. In comparison, another recent film featuring a queer Muslim woman delving into her mother’s past, “The Persian Version,” frames its mother-centric flashbacks as a daughter’s discovery and realization, imbuing them, in the process, with tremendous emotional heft.
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