Spices

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Audience Member Such a cast and fine performances with a story depicting the vulnerability of women in the times. Clearly none of the recent movies can out do the gems created by Shyam Benegal, Mani Kaul, Satyajit Ray and the others mirroring our society on a range of issues. Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 02/09/23 Full Review Audience Member It takes about an hour for the crux of the story to start, but once it does it's an intriguing power struggle both mental and physical. Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/06/23 Full Review Audience Member 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. Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 01/22/23 Full Review Audience Member well directed as well as acted. Rated 4.5/5 Stars •  Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 01/21/23 Full Review Audience Member oh i fuckin' loved it.... Rated 4.5/5 Stars •  Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 02/16/23 Full Review Audience Member Nice film by Ketan Mehta, but it is not WOW. I liked it, especially Naseeruddin Shah's performance. Smita Patil is good also, along with Om Puri, and Deepti Naval. Climax of the film is good, watch it once. Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/02/23 Full Review Read all reviews

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