The Painted Bride: Henna Art among Pakistani Women in New York City (1990)

Plot Summary

Painted Bride features the mehndi body painting tradition as it is practiced among Pakistani immigrants living in Queens, New York City. The film follows a mehndi artist, Shenaz Hooda, as she prepares a henna paste and paints intricate designs on the hands and feet of a bride-to-be, while the bride's friends sing humorous songs mocking the groom and the future in-laws. The film also explores the important role played by mehndi artists, like Hooda, who help to make traditional wedding customs possible in immigrant Indian and Pakistani communities. It follows Hooda as she moves between her job in a drugstore, a public school where she demonstrates her art to students, the wedding party of a young bride, and

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