The Mistress of Spices

A die-hard fan of Aishwarya, I must start out by saying that Aishwarya looks absolutely drop-dead gorgeous in the red sari. This is one of her most beautiful looks on screen ever. Mistress of Spices dishes up an interesting fare that deals with Aishwarya, a woman with an extraordinary gift that allows her to envision the problems others are going through and the ability to mix the right spices that will solve their problems. She does this by means of a Spice Bazaar store in San Francisco where customers seek her for help. It is quite interesting to see how she helps her diverse clientèle and loyal customers through the use of spices (which by the way seems very possible, as Indian herbal medicine argues that different spices have different chemicals that control our mind and body). However, being a "mistress of spices," Aishwarya is bound by certain rules, which she begins to find suppressing and enslaving once she begins to fall in love. What is interesting about this movie is that there is not much of a plot and mainly just a small store for sets. This film looks at the art of using spices to improve lives and delves into Aishwarya's internal conflict between love and duty, making this a very interesting and reinvigorating movie.

I had almost decided not to watch this movie, what with all the people word-bashing its senselessness. But go I did... fortunately.

Yes, it's not great cinema... of great courage, making you cry... making you angry. But it is good cinema... and a faithful representation of the book. The book is a fairy-tale, simple to the core, and so is the movie.

And who says Aish cannot act? Just look at the finer nuances of her eyes and eyebrows when she is required to emote, and you will realize that this girl knows what it takes to enact a character which has already been "written about" in a book. Yes, she underplays the role... but that is what her character is, right? A woman who is poised, but sometimes the deepest feelings find their vent. I am surely impressed by Aish's restrained expression of feelings... and people who mistake this for an incapacity to act, God give them the subtleties of discernment.

Go watch this movie... not to come out exhilarated or flustered... but to enjoy a good fairy tale, for that's what it is.

My friend gave me the vcd of mistress of spice because i was bored.

I would rather be bored. I closed the movie in about 20mins. I was that annoyed.

This is miscast, mis-shot, mis-edit, a miss-miss and probably was a mistake.

The acting is mediocre. Ash's performance, like any of her Hindi movies, was pathetic. I am surprise she gets all this attention. Seriously, beauty can take places.

The story is strange and the way to present it is even stranger.

Not recommended to watch it. Unless you really want to drool over Ash.

This is an Amazing Film in that it is about something, almost lost in this Twenty first century. In this throwaway society to be taken back to the World of Craft: In This Case This Beautiful Maiden's Love and almost Worship of Spices the way she empathises with them allows her to act as The Foodie Eqivalence of The Now regarded Noble Profession of Aromatherapist. The True Calling of The Crafts men or Craftswomen whoso immerse themselves in the nuances and resonances of their craft or calling is alas something we so rarely see today. So until We can have A Mistress of Spices in every City Town Village or Neighbourhood. This Film is the closest we can get to The Magical Shangrila of The Mistress of Spices.

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