Mirch Masala

Mirch Masala (Spices in English) is a 1987 Hindi film directed by Ketan Mehta. It stars Naseeruddin Shah and Smita Patil in the lead roles. On the centenary of Indian cinema in April 2013, Forbes included Smita Patil's performance in the film on its list, "25 Greatest Acting Performances of Indian Cinema".

Plot

The film is set in Colonial India in the early 1940s. The plot begins with an arrogant subedar (Naseeruddin Shah) (local tax collector in colonial India) and his henchmen rampaging through a village. The subedar has an eye for women and soon spots Sonbai (Smita Patil) on the riverbank. Sonbai is an intelligent, beautiful and strong woman. Her confidence intrigues the subedar.

It turns out subedar holds ultimate authority over the village. Subservient to him is the mukhi (Suresh Oberoi) (village chieftain) and all the villagers. The villagers do their best to scratch out a living, of which the subedar invariably exacts a heavy tax. We learn also that the villagers are mostly illiterate and ignorant of the outside world. They are most stupefied by a gramophone the tyrant possesses. The only literate person in the village is the schoolmaster (Benjamin Gilani), who insists on educating the children, even girls (the mukhi's wife even enrolls her only daughter, only to be rebuked by the mukhi, who, like all the others believes that girls should not be sent to school). The mukhi's younger brother (Mohan Gokhale) (who also loves a low-caste girl secretly) even asks the school-master the meaning of the word swaraj). The subedar and his men routinely attack the village and raid the food, livestock and supplies. The subedar is a haughty and cruel man, who exploits his power in every possible way. The villagers are compelled to keep him satisfied; they regularly set up parties for him and his men, often at great expense to their meager means. They also arrange a steady supply of women for his pleasure.