The Mistress of Spices Movie Review 2005

Beautiful but remarkably inert attempt at magical realism. Tilo (Rai) has second sight and has been taught to use the magic of various spices to help others. She emigrates from India and opens a spice shop in Oakland, but there are three severe restrictions she must follow: she can't use the spices for personal gain; she can't touch the skin of another human being; and she can't ever leave the shop. Tilo seems okay with all this until studly Doug (McDermott) has an accident right outside. She helps him, he helps her, and the spices turn on Tilo (and her clients). Although it hardly seems fair that anyone as luscious as Rai should be held hostage by saffron (which attracts love by the way).

Distribution

Not Yet Released

Running time 96 minutes.

Cast and Crew

Genres

Immigration, Magic, Fantasy, Adoption, India

Screenplay

Paul Mayeda Berges, Gurinder Chadha

Cast

Aishwarya Rai, Dylan McDermott, Ayesha Dharker, Nitin Ganatra, Anupam Kher, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Sonny Gill Dulay, Padma Lakshmi

Cinematography

Santosh Sivan

Director

Paul Mayeda Berges

Music

Craig Pruess

Other

John Hayes, Richard Lewis, Alex Rodriguez, Stewart Meachem, Amanda McArthur

Producer

Deepak Nayar, Gurinder Chadha, Kintop Pictures, Capitol Films, Balle Pictures, Ingenious Fim Partners, Entertainment Film Distributors