Mirch Masala

About the film

Mirch Masala (Translation: Hot Spice) is a 1987 Hindi-language psychological thriller film directed by Ketan Mehta. It stars Naseeruddin Shah and Smita Patil in the lead roles. On the centenary of Indian cinema in April 2013, Forbes included Smita Patil's performance in the film on its list, "25 Greatest Acting Performances of Indian Cinema".

Plot

In the early 1940s, an arrogant subedar (Naseeruddin Shah) (local tax collector in colonial India) and his henchmen ride into a village, scaring a group of women fetching water. Sonbai (Smita Patil) alone stands her ground and politely asks them not to let horses into the village's potable water source.

Subedar settles into his camp and the Mukhi (trans. the chieftain) of the village visits him to pay respect. Subedar's gramophone is an object of fascination for the men of the village. Mukhi's frequent absence from home is resented by his wife. The schoolmaster (Benjamin Gilani), tries to get her to enrol her only daughter in the school. When she does, other women ridicule her. Mukhi pulls his daughter out and beats his wife for disobeying him. The mukhi's younger brother (Mohan Gokhale) is in love with a lower caste girl, but dares not mention it. When their liaison is found out, the girl's father beats her and tries get the mukhi to agree to a marriage. The mukhi rejects the proposal as unsuitable.

The subedar's men routinely loot the village for food, livestock, and supplies. When Mukhi brings a woman to him, he is disappointed that she is not Sonbai, but beds her nonetheless. He persists in wooing Sonbai, but when his demands turn forceful, she slaps him across the face and runs away. Enraged, he orders his soldiers to bring her. Sonbai takes refuge in a masala karkhana (a spice factory where red chillies are ground into powder). Abu Mian (Om Puri), the wizened old Muslim gatekeeper and factory guard shuts the factory doors keeping the soldiers out. The subedar attempts to get the gates open through the factory owner and the mukhi fail. Abu Mian refuses to compromise on his job of providing security to the factory employees.

Key details