Susan Granger’s review of “THE MYSTIC MASSEUR” (THINKfilm/Susan Norget PR)
Ismail Merchant travels to a Caribbean island for this picaresque fable about the trials and tribulations of a spiritual guru/masseur who rises up the social ladder into national renown and politics. Adapted by Caryl Phillips from the novel by Nobel Laureate V.S. Naipaul, the story of power, success and humiliation begins back in the ’40s within Trinidad’s thriving Indian community. A failed schoolteacher, Ganesh Ramsumair (Aasif Mandvi), parlays his fame as a healer into becoming a published writer and acquiring a wife (Ayesha Dharker), whom he soon discovers cannot bear children. His simple, philosophical books – actually simplistic pamphlets – enjoy tremendous popularity amongst the literature-starved Hindu community. Always idealistic and ambitious, he then enters the complex colonial society of Government House, not realizing that his aspirations for acclaim are driving him farther and farther away from the culture and people that have nourished him. In the title role, Aasif Mandvi is appealing – you can currently see him as the peddler Ali Hakim in “Oklahoma” on Broadway – but, as his sly father-in-law, Om Puri steals every scene he’s in. So does Zohra Segal as his wise old Auntie. James Fox is briefly memorable as an Englishman gone bonkers in the blazing sun, and Jimi Mistry is wistful as Ganesh’s protégé, now at Oxford. Problem is: the piquant story needs more dramatic meat on its bones, and the padding shows as several scenes become repetitive. As in “Cotton Mary” and “In Custody,” Ismail Merchant illuminates a richly exotic, fascinating culture too rarely shown on the screen. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “The Mystic Masseur” is a whimsical, bittersweet 5. Too bad Merchant didn’t tackle Naipaul’s far more satirical “One Out of Many.”
