The Mistress of Spices

In spite of a very heavy schedule I took time off to watch this because I was curious to see how a film would handle the fantastical elements of the book.

I am sorry to say this so baldly: the film borders on the absurd in some parts and proved to be a damp squib in others despite the (ridiculous)numerous shots of bright red hot chilli peppers in almost every frame.

There was absolutely no chemistry between the two main characters,bunches of hot chilli peppers notwithstanding. I have no doubt Aishwarya has thousands of loyal fans who would defend her "acting talent" but again I failed to see any evidence of it in this movie.

That the director is a novice, a wanna be, and could do with some training is a given. He simply did not know how to handle material so rich in possibilities. He lost every opportunity in the book to make the characters come alive. Even worse, he fails to lift the movie from being a mere depiction of absurd hocus pocus to one where magical elements would seem almost natural even in the humdrum life of a Western city.

In the end, I felt impelled to laugh every time I saw Aish go up to the window to gaze out wordlessly with a bunch of red peppers hanging behind her.

Perhaps the director believed he could ride on the bandwagon of success that all Indian things seem to have currently but he seems to have miscalculated his own ability to interpret a story such as this even with wife Gurinder standing by his side.

Tilo survived rebels in India and the orphan is raised in the ways of the spices. She grows up to operate a spice shop in San Francisco. In order to maintain her spice powers, she cannot leave the shop. She administers to her clients' various ills. One day, Doug (Dylan McDermott) walks in leaving her powers in chaos.

This is a movie of magical surrealism. It does not have any magic visually. The story has surrealism but it's not presented that well. For it to have magic, it needs to do a lot more with its exotic locations from India to San Francisco. This looks like it's filmed mostly in some random backlots. Even being stuck inside the shop, there is lack of magic with the spice world. Aishwarya Rai is really beautiful but her glowing blue eyes are not enough to inject real charisma into the role. She and McDermott struggle to be more than simply ships passing in the night. He seems especially lost in this. The other stories do need more help to develop. Almost every character feels underdeveloped and that's a problem. The premise of magical spice prescriptions could be interesting but it's not done well here.

It's difficult for any one who has a good appreciation for culinary art not to be attracted to this spicy shop, spacious, tastefully appointed, with thousands of colourful spices displayed in so many different interesting fashions. A sheer joy for the eyes.

So is Aishwaryi Rai, Miss World of 1994, who graces the screen with wide-eyed innocence through most of the movie and appears in the last scene radiating with alluring glamour in a bright red evening gown, with her hair finally let down, falling like graceful ripples to her shoulder.

Even accepting the premise of a fairy tale, it's hard to believe how Tilo (Rai) can run her spice shop all by herself without EVER leaving it, the first of three conditions for having her power bestowed by "the spices". The second is easier to abide by if one is careful, not to touch the skin of any human being. The third is not to use the power to benefit herself. This "power" is a vague ability to see other people's past and sometimes future and to use spices to help them.

The romance with dashing architect Doug (Dylan McDermott) is appropriately low-key, and hence believable. Subplots include Tilo's various customers, with their assortment of problems, many caused by cultural clashes in southern California.

All told, this is a delightful little fairy tale which is particularly pleasant visually. I can't help but think that it should also come with these new gimmicks, as a movie with smells. This is the perfect movie for it.

I saw this film at the 2005 Toronto International Film Festival.

Mistress of Spices is based on the novel by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, and is the directorial debut for Paul Mayeda Berges. Berges has worked previously with his wife, Gurinder Chadha, on a number of films including Bend it Like Beckham and Bride and Prejudice. Chadha co-wrote the screenplay here with her husband.

The movie follows Tilo, played by Aishwarya Rai, who is a member of an old, mystical cult that worships spice in all its forms. She is sent to Oakland to open a shop and help people using the mysterious powers of the spices. Tilo, who also has the power to see visions of the future, soon ends up helping a whole coterie of characters: a man (Anupam Kher) who is distressed over his granddaughter (Padma Lakshmi), a woman who has grown up in America and adopted western ways, much to his dismay; Jagjit (Sonny Gill Dulay), a teenager who is having trouble with the kids at school; Haroun (Nitin Chandra Ganatra), a cab driver that has a cloudy future; Kwesi (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje), a man trying to win the heart of a woman.

But to be successful, Tilo must follow three rules: one, she must never leave the store; two, she must never touch the skin of another person; three, she can never use the spices for her own gain. One day a man (Dylan McDermott) falls off his motorcycle outside her store and they are both instantly drawn to one another, challenging Tilo's devotion to her cause and threatening her control over the spices.

This is a nice, light film, reminiscent in many ways of Chocolat, with Aishwarya Rai in the Juliette Binoche role. Rai is luminous on screen, and the chemistry between her and Dylan McDermott is good. I didn't think the voice-over narration of Rai's character's inner thoughts was entirely successful, although I can't see how else you could really do it; funny enough, the voice-overs reminded me of another spice-related movie, David Lynch's Dune. The movie explores a bit of the mixing between east and west and the conflict between old and new, but not quite as successfully as some of Berges' and Chadha's other films, but that is probably due more to the limitations of creating an adaptation.

I don't know what to say about this film. I went into it with zero expectations, apart from Aishwarya Rai to look stunning. So I was sort of pleasantly surprised. Make no mistake though, it is a poor film.

Ill keep it short because there isn't really much to say.

Story: Tilo (Aishwarya) is part of some ancient mystical cult which uses the power of spices to heal people, around the world. So she sets up shop in Oakland. She also has to relinquish any sort of personal desires, and can never leave the shop. Then she meets Doug (Dylan McDermott) and so the normal culture clash thing which pops up in every single one of Gurinder Chadha's films ensues. Blah blah blah...the end There are numerous flaws, but Ill start with the positives The Good - Aishwarya looked great. And she had a consistent accent. Performance was relatively good, given the other flaws inherent in this film - Santosh Sivan did a great job with cinematography. San Francisco looked fantastic Errm I think thats about it The Bad - The script was weak. there was no character development and it was padded out too much with contrived and unnecessary subplots. Anupam Kher was so badly wasted. I mean I think that some subplot was needed to show the way the spices work (or however you want to word it), but they really detracted form the main story, which itself wasn't up to much in the first place.

• I think the very basic concept of the film was handled poorly. the makers never seemed to know themselves whether they were making a realistic film or some sort of magical/mystical fantasy. And resultantly there was no sort of ambiance, build-up or anything to keep someone interested to the end of it.

• Absolutely no chemistry at all between Aishwarya and Dylan McDermott - On the same point, the performances were average at best. I think the fault does lie in the script and the direction as no one had any real scope for performance and they were all just basically required to look good for the camera.

• Unnecessary voice-overs, really got to me As I said, if you go in with no expectations at all, you could well enjoy it, but its still a poorly made film.

4/10