Mirch Masala

MIRCH MASALA is a film that I watched for my World Cinema class this semester and it certainly is a good one. It tells the story of a woman, Sonbai (Smita Patil), who is sought after by a subedar (tax collector). She continually resists his advances and ends up hiding in a spice factory as the subedar doesn't intend to take her rejection of him. Thematically, the film deals with resistance to (colonial) oppression, with the subedar serving as the symbol of British colonialism and Sonbai representing the ordinary Indian citizen. And since the story largely focuses on women, it could be thought of as a feminist film to a certain degree. What the film does well is develop its characters in terms of personality and motivation. The most attention is paid to the tax collector, but with the intention of having you hate him. There was a particularly well-done scene in which he overreacts to someone who accidentally breaks one of his phonograph records. In this one scene you get a sense of this man as someone who looks down on his fellow countrymen who aren't in service to the British, as well as someone who is quick to anger when something happens that he doesn't like. There is also his singular motive to sexually claim Sonbai, a married woman, and which provides the main narrative thrust (no pun intended). Generally speaking, I thought that the themes were handled well, if a little broadly and "on the nose" at times. What didn't always work for me was a lot of the acting, which seemed kind of stagey. I also didn't care for the sound mix on the DVD. I understand that a lot of films from the 1980's and before (especially foreign films) were post-synced, but there didn't seem to be a good balance between various sound elements. Also, for all of the build-up to the finale, I thought it went by a little too quickly. Overall, MIRCH MASALA has a good, socially conscious message, but it hasn't aged too well in my opinion.

Absolutely excellent. The hubris of petty officers, the crisis and tension coming from lust and gratuitous violence, the horrifying banality of colonialism, the abuse and victimization of women: all these elements combine to create a tragedy which the Greeks would not have disavowed. We are the transfixed witnesses of a horrendous, and at the same time, magnificent process: the price of a woman's virtue depends on how much it costs for the community. Even feminine solidarity crumbles when submitted to enough masculine pressure… And yet, does it? The fantastic last scene of the film, when everything seemed lost, shows that women have stupendous resources that make one realize the strength of a resistance in which women take part, and I am reminded of the British resistance to Germany during World War 2, when the wives and mothers of soldiers took part in the war effort, and replaced them in the factories and mills of the besieged island. Hurray for women's valor!

A complex and beautifully filmed work. The tale is full of pathos, but the experience is completely enriching! Though it's described in some movie guides as a "feminist" film, do not let that categorization deter you from seeing it.

Year 2003. Quentin Tarantino directed Kill Bill Vol.1 which had a climax scene of sword action between Uma Thurman & Lucy Liu. There is a beautiful sequence of shots wherein the two duelist are photographed in close-ups & simultaneously, a long shot where, the two actors are placed on the right corner of the screen while, a pivoted water tap moving up and down is placed on the left part of the screen. Year 1985. Ketan Mehta, India's acclaimed director and in his best cinematic achievement, had directed a similar shot wherein one of cinema's most memorable & immortal villain character played by Naseeruddin Shah counts-down from 10 to 1 alarming the lead actress to come out of her hideout simultaneously photographed with a Water Tap on the Extreme Left of the 70 mm screen, creating a magnificent scene.

And since then, there has been no such cinematography ever induced in any other Indian Movies. For those foreign audience, be noted, that this Movie is not a conventional Hindi movie loaded with songs. This Movie is a serious cinema of high degree of art.

Only 4 words can make a review of this movie: "Watch it on Priority" !

It is a deeply moving, crisply logical (even as the peppers dried in the sun would be), beautifully thought out film. The range of Son Bai's character from the early playfulness, the innocent chanchalta of a happy, hard working village wife, the tender moments with her husband, her loneliness when the husband is gone to his job in the railways, and her fiercely effective rage towards her greedy attacker: the Subedar. Yet, there is no Mother India like (a film alluded to, in a complimentary way, throughout parts of the film's plot line) high drama in her rage; it is very authentic, sincere, not filmy, and the silent alliance between Abu Mian and Son Bai, their clear understanding of what is at stake is depicted powerfully -- with very few spoken words, only Ketan Mehta's brilliant cinematography and Om Puri's and Smita's excellent chemistry. Others, including such stars as my most favorite Indian actress, Dina Pathak (whose mother roles are as profoundly moving as Daisy Irani's, though fewer, child roles), Deepti Naval, Supriya Pathak, and of course, Naseerudhin Shah (only he could have acted the Subedar in just that precise, perfect way to make all other elements of the film work so extremely well), also Ratna Pathak is very good, nearly everyone who acts in this film has done excellently well. One of the world's ten most important films, a timeless classic and firmly grounded in historical time.