THE MISTRESS OF SPICES
UK, 2005, 96 minutes, Colour.
Aishwarya Rai, Dylan Mc Dermott.
Directed by Paul Mayeda Berges.
More than a touch exotic. Like the spices that are ever-present, the film has a range of flavours, some beguiling, some a touch sweet, others bittersweet.
The film has been adapted from a novel by the team of Gurindar Chadha and Paul Mayeda Burges, the husband and wife who have written What’s Cooking, Bend it Like Beckham and Bride and Prejudice, all directed by Gurindar Chadha. This is her husband’s first direction. They bring a spicy multi-culturalism to their work: she is from and Indian family from Kenya, he is a Japanese Hispanic American.
In India, small girls are trained to be mistresses of the spices by a wise old woman. They have to memorise the thousand or more spices available and learn their particular qualities so that they will be able to read people and recommend their spice. They then scatter throughout the world. Our heroine (former Miss India, Aishwariya Rai of Devdas and Bride and Prejudice), who is bound to live within her shop and remain unmarried (not betraying the spices by intruding any of her own desires), runs a spice bazaar in San Francisco where she does a great deal of good for her customers to whom she is not only devoted but dedicated. She can offer positive spices, but she also has visions of disaster and tries to forestall these.
When an architect working on a nearby site (Dylan Mc Dermott) has an accident on his motorbike and she looks after him, we know that her emotions are going to intrude. Her confidence is shaken and she feels she has betrayed the spices. Will they destroy her? Should she venture out of the shop? Never see the architect again?
If you belonged to the Sceptics Society, you would dismiss all this as Indian superstition. If you were a sceptic but attacked superstition only in Christian contexts, then you would express delight at the ‘magic realism’. If you believed in magic and/or superstition, then there is no problem.
If you are wary of superstition but want to respect cultures, then, like me, you would probably see the spices as symbolic of human feelings and attitudes which become part of the symbol – along the lines of holy water or sacred oils.
It is all very sweet and romantic.
1.A film of magic realism? The tradition of food, recipes and magic healing: Chocolat, Like Water for Chocolate, What’s Cooking (by the same writing and directing team)? The popularity of this kind of magic realism?
2.The prologue, India, the young girls, consecrated to the spices, the elderly teacher and her instruction? The beach, the rituals? The clothes? The exotic atmosphere of India? The thousands of spices? The little girls having to learn their names, their powers? The memories for Tilo? The little girls being scattered throughout the world to live out their mission to the spices?
3.The magic, religious, superstitious? Symbolic? The spices as exotic, tasty, for healing? Everyone having their own spice? The mistress of spices and her knowledge of the spices – special powers to recognise what each client needed?
4.The transition to Oakland, California, the shop, its being packed with spices? The shut-in atmosphere? Tilo and her vocation, not to touch anyone, not to leave the shop? Never to use her powers for her own ends? The destructive threats for the mistress of spices?
5.The adult Tilo, her beauty, staying within the shop, her clients? Her kindness? The range of clients: the expected clients, the Sikh boy who was bullied at school and his concerned parents, the cabbie who is friendly but is victimised, the old grandfather and his inability to cope with his granddaughter and her moving in with her Latino boyfriend? Tilo and her listening, her discerning the spices, helping them?
6.Doug, her noticing him on the building site? Her modesty, her feeling of shame at having noticed him? His accident outside the shop? His coming in, her healing him? The attraction? Keeping her distance? Her dreams about him? His return, his courtesy, inviting her out? His not understanding her responses? His keeping away? The death of his mother, his coming to see her? The flashbacks to the mother, native American Indian, her western glamour, alienation from the family? His alienation from her – and separation? His grief at her death? The effect of Tilo listening to him?
7.Tilo and her not finding a spice for Doug? Her concealing her insights? Her neglect of her other customers? The importance of Haroun and his change of occupation, driving the taxi, her visions of the violence? Going to his house? His being away? her going out with Doug, waiting for Haroun? His return? His having been bashed? Her feelings of guilt?
8.The decision to go back to India, to be faithful to the spices? The importance of the voice-over and her comments about the spices, her talking with them?
9.Her rectifying every situation? The transition for the boy, the old man accepting his granddaughter, the taxi driver’s improved condition? The young woman coming in to buy spices for Doug? Her collaboration? The woman returning and accepting that Doug loved someone else?
10.Her decision to burn herself? The setting up of the pyre? Doug’s finding her, unharmed?
11.Her transforming herself, the dress and the makeup, her going out with Doug? His rescue – her being unharmed, her decision that the spices would allow her to go out, to marry Doug, to find happiness?
12.The popularity of this kind of story? A sceptical response to the superstition? The querying of the realism? Audiences letting go their imagination and treating the spices as symbolic?
