If you’ve ever dreamed up some outrageous costume ideas for Halloween and wondered how they might be received, then you’ll want to watch Reena Karia’s short comedic film My Hot Mom Gandhi. Karia’s film has been screened at film festivals in the United States and Canada since its premiere at 3rd i films last year, and now it’s available online for everyone to see.
Watch diasporic desi couple Reena and Shane drive around the streets of San Francisco talking about their ideas for Halloween party costumes that incorporate Indian history and their political views and touch upon sensitive issues such as political assassinations, white privilege, and drone strikes.
Karia was nicknamed “Inappropriate Reena” by college friends for always joking about things they deemed inappropriate. She describes how she and co-star Shane Gill come up with the idea for this film:
The script pretty much wrote itself. Shane and I were having a conversation about what to be for Halloween and we were in splits! Our sides were hurting and our eyes were tearing. We had been trying to think of ideas for a film to make and we realized that our conversation was the film! …
We didn’t ever actually wear the costumes in public. The first time we put them on was during the filming and it was actually a little bit uncomfortable even amongst my really close friends who share my political views.
