Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)
A few years ago, I was traveling to Cambodia to see the famed Angkor Wat temples in Siem Reap and had a long layover in Bangkok. What struck me most at the airport was a cosmetic shop I stepped into to buy some sunscreen; the place was filled with skin-lightening products and ads. These beauty creams were a stark reminder of how deeply colorism runs across the globe. In India, we had the notorious “Fair & Lovely” cream, which was renamed to “Glow & Lovely” in 2020 due to its blatant problematic message that only ‘fair’ skin is beautiful. As a brown girl, I’ve had my share of “don’t spend too much time in the sun” advice from older folks, so the short horror film “Lovely” by Naomi Shroff-Mehta hit a chord with me.
“Lovely” follows Indian-American teenager Ria (Ashwini Ganpule), whose mother ensures she uses skin-lightening creams to better her complexion. One day, when Ria runs out of the cream, she steps into the basement to grab a new tube from a carton filled with the creams, only to meet a mysterious stranger lurking in the shadows, waiting to befriend her with ulterior motives. This stranger (Elyse Ahmad) is fair, lovely, and friendly, and promises to make Ria fair forever too. Naomi Shroff-Mehta uses a classic devil’s bargain trope in this horror, even though Ria doesn’t know what the price will be.
About 16 minutes long, “Lovely” opens with a shot of Ria’s mother (Susie Abraham) massaging her scalp before putting some fairness cream on her face. It’s an interesting opening scene, with the massage establishing the close bond between mother and daughter, yet the mother doesn’t embrace Ria as she is. Even though “Lovely” isn’t very scary, it’s a gripping metaphorical horror film about how parents pass on their insecurities to their children, trapping them in the pursuit of absurd beauty standards. The obsession with wanting “lovelier” (fairer) skin is like a curse running through the family, and it’s up to the mother and daughter to either break the chain or remain compliant victims.
Except for a tiny overdose of theatrics in between, the short film is subtle, swift, and entertaining. It ends with a clever climactic scene, which marks an emotional end to the mother-daughter’s tale, with some blood and violence of course, since it’s a horror movie. Viewers are left with a clear message: someone who appears ‘fair and lovely’ can be grotesquely ugly in character.
Watch “Lovely” on YouTube.
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