Mistress Of Spices bland?

Aishwarya Rai in Mistress Of Spices

The Mistress Of Spices revolves around an Indian woman in Oakland who runs a spice shop and has magical curing powers. Suddenly, she finds herself without magical answers to her own dilemmas when she falls in love with an American.

"We were delighted to find out that here was someone in the US who was exploring the same themes as us, in terms of diaspora, culture, cultural negotiations and identity," Chadha said.

"What was fresh about the book was that it combined beautiful immigrant tales with magic realism," added Berges, former director of the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival. "I hadn't seen that done cinematically, other than in Like Water for Chocolate (1992). It isn't always easy to do, but I thought the book was so visual and so rich."

Like Berges, Chadha too was initially attracted to the story through its magic realism. "The film is a fable," she said. "People appreciated our previous works. But this is really a departure from that style and if people are expecting a realist film, they must leave those expectations at the door. This is very much a film in the tradition of the Latin American magical movies."

About Aishwarya Rai who dons the title role in the film, Chadha said, "Paul had given her the script during Bride & Prejudice and she really responded to it. I think if you see the film, my belief is that it is probably Ash's best performance. It is much better than Bride and much more understated. This feels much closer to who she is and her sensibility." American actor Dylan McDermott (of The Practice fame) plays the male lead opposite Aishwarya.

But is the movie all that and a bag of chips? The film recently released in UK has bombed unceremoniously and has been nicknamed by many critics as 'Mistress without Spices'. It opened with a paltry US $150,000 on just about 30 screens.

"Aishwarya Rai -- is there a wishier, washier, wimpier actor anywhere in the known universe?" asked The Guardian's influential critic Peter Bradshaw, giving Mistress Of Spices a single star in the reputed London daily. "Rai wafts and simpers through yet another film, this one a sub-magic-realist romance: she plays the mystical proprietress of a spice store in San Francisco, sorting out customers' emotional problems with her sensuous wares," Bradshaw continues. "Ooooooh! Sort of like Juliette Binoche in Chocolat, only more annoying."

Even the mild online reviewer for the BBC could not give the film, which cost about $3 million, a good review. But The Daily Telegraph called the film a sweet old-fashioned romance.

"Despite its colourful eastern palette and amiable performances from Bollywood starlet Aishwarya Rai and American hunk Dylan McDermott," wrote the BBC Online's Jaspeet Pandohar, "the drama is as bland as a cucumber sandwich."

The film opens in India and the US today. It is getting a low-key release, and Aishwarya hasn't done any publicity for it.

Compiled by Cultural Correspondent