Paul Mayeda and Gurinder Chadha have always tried to give India this surreal, magical quality. In Gurinder’s earlier movie, Bend it like Beckham, however there was more realism than her Bride and Prejudice, where once again she portrayed India in way that is perhaps not realistic enough. Mistress of Spices too is the portrayal of India and an Indian girl, who has been endowed with magical qualities. Magic-realism, does it mean part magic and part reality fused together or does it mean mostly fictional with a little bit of non-fiction thrown into the plot.
Mistress of Spices is the directorial debut of Paul Mayeda who has assisted his wife Gurinder Chadha with her earlier films. This is another of their ventures where east meets west, it stars the bollywood queen Aishwarya Rai, Dylan McDermott, Anupam Kher, Ayesha Dharker and Padma Lakshmi among others. The story has been adapted from the novel by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni. It’s basically the story of a young girl, Tilo (Ash) and the magical abilities that she has been endowed with and how this magical virtue later on becomes a hardship for her.
Tilo is a simple young girl who runs a spice store in San Francisco. Though outwardly she has a simple get up, inwardly she has been blessed with an uncanny magical power. She has been endowed with the ability to look into the lives of her customers, their past and their future. Tilo can help them sort out their lives with portions of her spices. But there are a few rules laid out for Tilo by the spices, she cannot leave her store, she cannot have physical contact with anyone and lastly she must be truly devoted to only the spices. At first, these rules seem very simple to follow; Tilo upholds these rules and gladly helps out all her customers. But these rules become difficult to follow, the moment a handsome young stranger, Doug crashes his bike outside her store. Tilo is captured by the dynamic magnetism of this complete stranger.
Doug (Dylan) too is enamored with the simple, kind and caring Tilo. Doug begins to woo Tilo; she resists at first but ultimately is overpowered by her own desires to be with Doug. So she throws caution to the wind, her spices and the lives of her customers and embarks on a journey with Doug. As their friendship grows into love, she breaks the rules that she has abided by for so long, one by one. The spices are enraged and decide to punish her for breaking their rules. Tilo is faced with the difficult decision of making a choice between the spices and her customers or the love of her life.
The screenplay does not manage to capture the essence of the novel; the magic-realism aspect is not striking enough. Paul Mayeda has not managed to efficiently adapt the novel. In an attempt to capture the magical and mysterious quality of the spices, the relationship between Tilo and Doug is not exploited in depth. The film is essentially slow and seems to drag at several places, making for a monotonous watch. Ash is first shown as a simple sari clad girl who does not wear make up and then overnight she changes into a pretty damsel in distress, the logic and rationale for this aspect does not make sense. Too much emphasis is placed on the mysterious and magical quality of the spices. The execution of the film is not done skillfully.
The concept of the magical spices and the magical virtue of a young girl are interesting, but the execution does not manage to do justice to the concept. The cinematography is interesting at times when it portrays the beautiful colours throughout the film, but it does not do justice to the locales of San Francisco. A more crisp editing could have perked up the pace of the film. The background music in the romantic scene sounds apt for the situation. The film tries to incorporate too many parallel tracks, like the detailed problems faced by the customers.
Ash seems perpetually in a confused state, the expressions on her face are always sad and bewildered. She manages to look pretty at times but her acting leaves much to be desired. Dylan too does not mange to make much of an impression. There is absolutely no chemistry between the lead couple. Anupam Kher seems to over react too much, Ayesha Dharker does not have a substantial role and even Padma Lakshmi is barely there.
The Mistress of Spices has nothing spicy about it, there’s no masala and the fare is insipid. Overall, it’s a film that is a complete washout at the box-office. Better to give this wish- washy film a miss.
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| Reviewed By: Rachel Fernandes |
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