“Does good lurk in you, red pepper, quiet noise?” . ? Did you know that the most terrible jealouss and the biggest owners in the world are spices and spices? Do you have any idea of their magic and character? Are you familiar with them? Do you distinguish them by names that you can go through, like a dragee in your mouth, rolling your tongue one after another: asafetida, turmeric, Kalinji, dashamul, tulsi, cardamom, badyan, cinnamon, vanilla, sesame, ginger... And this is not: “sofa, suitcase, baggage, painting, basket, cardboard and a little dog.” It's practically a sacred mantra! Repeats it in the frame, graphically opening the plump sponges, demonstrating a full set of anime clichés and seductive Bollywood tricks, Aishwarya Rai is the first Indian woman whose wax figure decorated the Madame Tussauds museum, and the most that is neither alive, of flesh and blood - a filmed version of the novel by Chitra Banerji Divakaruni.
The frame for framing Thilo (Aishwarya Rai) and her unforgettable Alpharean-mermaid eyes was designed by production designer Amanda MacArthur. It was she who breathed life into the fake shop, filling every invented shelf with comfort. I don't know about you, but I'd live amongst those flasks and pots and jars and boxes! The Temple of Spices was also a palace for Princess Thilo. Three formidable and mysterious rules guide her through life, along with indisputable authority and sometimes the terror of red pepper. It has its Charon, a guide not from the Kingdom of the Living to the Kingdom of the Dead, but from the surrounding spices to the world of men. She is a confessor and healer of human souls, a soothsayer and conqueror of memories, a comforter, and also “a student, a Komsomol, an athlete, and, finally, just a beauty.” The work of the spice princess is the embodiment of the most daring “dreams” of a versatile maniac:
- tactile (immersing your hand in a basket of sesame);
-olfactory (drunken from the aromas of cinnamon, vanilla and curry, like a cat from the smell of valerian);
Audial (freeze every time from the rustling of dry pods of red pepper);
-visual (inspired by the colorful color of the bench, even if you are not a maker of embroidery schemes or the creator of impressionist canvases).
If Aishwarya Rai played a coal-dust-stained miner with a jackhammer in her hand, or a quarterback in bridges with shields, a frame, a helmet and a mouthguard, or a diver in a deep-sea suit, she would still be inimitable on screen! For the viewer would still have the opportunity to admire her amazing eyes. Two bottomless oceans of eyes, ocean of eyes, ocean of eyes. But here the Indian nymph is clothed in a sari, moves along the magical perimeter of her shop, is equally captivating on a motorcycle and in a breadboard of spices crumbled, and, although she neither sings nor dances (oh Gods, Gods, why have you deprived us of such a spectacle?), but she conducts long heartfelt conversations with visitors and with the spices themselves. Among her favorites are visiting architect Doug and Red Pepper. They will be the main competitors in the fight for the heart and body of Tilo. "Tili-tili dough!" Tilo-Tilo, Hali-Gali, we flew all day!
I have no intention of downplaying director-debutant Paul Mayeda Burgess, his co-creator and wife (or in reverse order?) Gurinder Chadhi and others related to The Spice Princess. But, by and large, hand on heart: does it matter who shot it, how and why? The main thing is that there is a film, the holiday was a success, and Fireworks colors from now on all year round! It seems to me, as a sinful matter, that even Dylan McDermott, Mrs. Rye’s partner in the picture, exists here solely for one mission: to be with someone to lay her luxurious body on a red pepper background. She, like a matador with a red muleta in her hand, performs magically fascinating manipulations with the viewer’s consciousness. Aishwarya in a red dress, Aishwarya in a red car, Aishwarya with red pepper. Aishwarya, Aishwarya, Aishwarya... Constance, Constance, Constance. A poster in motion, in which red shades replace one another, is aggravated by flaming flames and triumph, leading to ecstasy, a couple lying on a red bed and covered with red silk. "American Beauty" is resting!
This film is not about the assimilation of Hindus and their career growth, like Michael Hoffman’s “Spices and Passions.” Not a repetition of Lasse Hallström’s story of how one woman globally changed the mores of the harsh population of the town (the city here, by virtue of the second rule, is mostly viewed from the window, and the scenes of traveling in San Francisco look more exotic than the Indian theme). Not a hymn to magical realism and sacred secrets of cooking in the format of the soap opera “Like water for chocolate” by Alfonso Arau.
It is absolutely charming, picturesque and charming idleness. Illogical, unassuming, shallow and not pretending to be golden bears or uncles, who can be loved... and for what? No reason! After all, someone likes cherry jam more than apple just because taste buds suggest it. Or children's memories of the season of cooking cherry jam in the country, where in a large cast-iron pelvis gurgled, fragrant, something that attracted wasps and you, but the right to eat delicious foams went exclusively to you? You can love a passer-by for a smile given to you in passing. The sun is for hiding in the clouds at the exact moment when you start to burn yourself, returning from the beach. “Princess of Spices” – for the “Princess of Spices” and the brilliant beauty of Aishwarya Rai.