The universal truth of love: When it turns sour, it hurts! It also doesn’t differentiate the young from the old, especially when the society, despite all its claims to modernity, draws certain guidelines on how people in love should be.

This Arabic film from Lebanon tells the story of a group of women who taste love’s sweetness as well as its bitterness.

Most people have a pre-conceived notion of Arab women as being repressed. However, inside Si Belle, the beauty parlour, we see a contrasting mix of rebellion. Layale (Nadine Labaki) falls in love with a married man; Nisrine (Yasmine) seeks remedy to repair her virginity as she fears her to-be husband would discover that she is no longer a virgin; Rima (Joanna) craves for same-sex partner, and Jamale (Gisele), an old actress obsessed with her looks, is out to revive her career.

Besides, we have a very old, lonely Rose (Sihame) who tries to tailor her heart with Charles  (her customer) even as she is saddled with her mentally ill sister Lili.

The women do all they could to find a solution to their problems. Layale’s frequent encounters with the neighbourhood policeman for rash driving; Nisrine pretends to be a French lady as she attempts to have her virginity fixed by plastic surgery and Jamale trying to show her young rivals that she still has a way to go before menopause by daubing her skirts with pigeon blood are just a tip of this comic yet tragic film. All the actors, in fact the actresses, live up to their characters. Aziza (as Lili) exudes the bitter-sweet reality of life.

Caramel is not exactly an art film but certainly a well ensembled creation by director Nadine Labaki’s (who also acts as Layale). It was premiered at the Festival de Cannes in 2007 and has won the Audience and Youth Award at the San Sebastian Film Festival besides others.

Will it win the hearts of cinegoers in India? Well, the film is a treat for those appreciating good cinema.