Mystic Masseur [2002] Movie Reviews on CinemaClock

It should be noted that at the moment (June 14th) this web site indicates the country as India, but the only thing from India in this movie are Ismail Merchant and his cast of imported actors. This movie was a gross disappointment. The story takes place in Trinidad, specifically in the rural Indo-Trinidadian community. Aside from the annoyingly phony accents of most of the players - speaking the words of the local parlance, but with an Indian inflection rather than even a shadow of an authentic Trinidadian accent, (a major insult to Trinis of all backgrounds) - to put it frankly, it was just plain old badly done. The draggingly slow pace and lack of any significant drama that characterize other Merchant/Ivory productions were not appropriate in this case and the attempt to overlay that style on a colourful story was ill-advised. The net result was a poorly done production, with a few moments of comic relief, almost a parody of the book at times. In short, justice was certainly not done to the book; the authenticity of the characters and the nuances of the story were irretrievably lost, including some of the true hilarity. Perhaps Ismail Merchant should stick to movies on cultures with which he is more familiar, instead of trying to fit a perfectly good story into a narrow Anglo-Indian interpretation. No surprise that many North American critics raved, but Caribbean ones were not impressed with this movie.