| The Mystic Masseur | |
| Director: | Ismail Merchant |
| Producer: | Nayeem Hafizka and Richard Hawley |
| Starring: | Om Puri Aasif Mandvi Ayesha Dharker Rajendra D. |
| Music: | Zakir Hussain Richard Robbins |
| Language: | Trinidadian English |
The Mystic Masseur is a 2001 Merchant Ivory film based on the novel of the same name by V. S. Naipaul.[1] It is one of relatively few films directed by Ismail Merchant, who is better known as the producer in the Merchant Ivory partnership, and addresses issues of Hindu subculture in Trinidad and Tobago.
The movie was the first film adaptation of a novel by Naipaul. It was filmed in Trinidad and Tobago and was released in 2001, to lukewarm response. The screenplay is by Caryl Phillips. The film features performances by Om Puri and Aasif Mandvi, and original music by Zakir Hussain.
The novel by V. S. Naipaul moves between farce and acerbic social commentary on Trinidad, the country of his birth. The characters are mainly members of Trinidad's Indian community. The protagonist is Ganesh Ramsumair, a frustrated writer who rises from poverty on the back of his dubious talent as a "mystic" masseur, known as Pundit Ganesh, who can cure illnesses. In the end he becomes a successful colonial politician, under the name G. Ramsay Muir.
Variety ended its balanced review with: "Despite all frustrating aspects, on the whole “The Mystic Masseur” succeeds as light entertainment — even if at the cost of the material’s greater potential." Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian called the film a "forgettable 1950s period piece... the scenes look stitched together in the editing room without any cumulative sense that any of it is leading to anything at all".[2] Time Out wrote, "fitful gags and some clever incidental detail... can't compensate for the plot's lumpen pace".[3]