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The spicy mistress
Aishwarya Rai's Mistress of Spices
is ready for release
BY A CORRESPONDENT
28th September, 2005
Here is another Bollywood heroine
taking a shot at foreign shores:
Actress and former model and Miss
World Aishwarya Rai has just had the
premiere of her movie Mistress of
Spices. We haven't seen the movie yet,
but we are not going to miss it when
the Mistress comes calling either!
Mistress of Spices is the story of an
Indian girl Tilo living in San
Francisco. She manages a spice shop,
called the Spice Bazaar. It is not one
of the usual spice shops you see
around, but one where the shop owner
dispenses with spices that cure you of
your problems and show them the way
ahead. A unique gift handed down to
her from an old lady, Tilo's custody
of the magic requires that she never
steps outside the spice shop, never
touch another human and never love
anything but her spices.
The story takes a turn when Tilo meets
with the Harley-riding Doug, an
American. Tilo's heart flutters, and
little by little, she starts getting
attracted to him. Now, the magic of
tradition prohibits her from this, and
the spices start misbehaving. She
starts ignoring the warning signs from
her red chilli peppers, caught between
two choices: continue with her spice
business as before or follow her heart
as it takes her.
Mistress of Spices is directed by Paul Berges, husband of Gurinder Chadha of
Bride and Prejudice and Bend It Like
Beckham. The movie was premiered
recently at the Toronto Film Festival
where it received a lukewarm response
from critics. It is not known when the
movie will be released in India. It is
also reported that the producers are
still looking for a distributor in
North America.
The original story of Mistress of
Spices was written by Chitra Banerjee
Divakaruni. In an interview recently,
Paul Berges said that he and the
writer worked at the author's San
Francisco house to finetune the
script. The movie, he says, is very
much faithful to the original story.
Some other cross-cultural movies by
Aishwarya Rai include Provoked by Jagmohan Mundhra (of
Monsoon) and
Bride and Prejudice by Gurinder Chadha
(of Beckham).
Berges feels that his own
multi-cultural background may have
helped in the making of the
cross-cultural Mistress of Spices.
Reviewers say that the movie depends
"too much on the radiant beauty of
Aishwarya Rai" to carry it through.
Given her appealing looks, one wont be
surprised if the same tag follows her
in other movies too.
Director: Paul Mayeda Berges
Screenplay: Gurinder Chadha & Paul
Mayeda Berges
Producers: Deepak Nayar and Gurinder
Chadha
Executive producers: Jane Barclay,
Susan Cartsonis, Steve Christian,
James Clayton, Hannah Leader, Duncan
Reid
Director of photography: Santosh Sivan
Production designer: Amanda McArthur
Editor: Alexandro Rodriguez
Costume designer: Stewart Meachem
Music: Craig Pruess
Cast:
Tilo: Aishwarya Rai
Doug: Dylan McDermott
Haroun: Nitin Ganatra
Geeta's Grandfather: Anupam Kher
Jagjit: Sonny Gill Dulay
Doug's Mother: Nina Young
BY A CORRESPONDENT |
