Still from The Lunchbox
Gwendolyn Kirk, South and Southeast Asian Studies Librarian with IU Bloomington Libraries, breaks down the pleasures of masala films and why audiences should check out the upcoming More Than Masala series.
At its most basic level, masala means “spice” in several South Asian languages. The term is unsurprisingly most familiar to Americans through their encounters with Indian cuisine. Many will have heard of the dish chicken tikka masala, itself a British invention that hardly makes an appearance on Indian tables. Some might be familiar with the ubiquitous spice blend known as garam masala, which in recent years has made its way onto US grocery shelves not far from lemon pepper and celery salt. In the film world, however, masala has its own set of meanings.
Within the Indian film lexicon, a masala film is one with a little bit of everything, meant to cater to the tastes of all kinds of moviegoers. Masala films must have action, romance, comedy, drama, and of course include songs and dances. They rely on traditional, normative tropes of love, honor, and sacrifice, and count on drawing in audiences with the star power of their lead actors. The term “masala film” is often used dismissively or disparagingly to describe films that are seen as without artistic merit, cheaply and quickly churned out to please the lowest common denominator or audiences. We reject this devaluing of popular cultural forms and firmly believe that such films are not only a critical part of the Indian mediascape, but also a ton of fun! At the same time, when we began to conceive of this film series, we wanted to highlight films that deviate from the brightly colored Bollywood fantasy that Americans are more likely to have encountered. Thus, More Than Masala: Indian Food and Culture Through Film is a series that seeks to present genre-bending films from beyond the Bollywood mainstream, linking them together through the theme of food.
The Lunchbox (October 15, 7pm) is a quiet meditation on love and loneliness, featuring a subdued but unforgettable performance by the late, great Irrfan Khan. Two strangers are brought together by a rare flaw in Mumbai’s incredible dabbawala system. This lunch delivery system dates back to the 1890s, where it originated as a way to get hot lunches to office workers in the middle of the day, even more important in a social context where anxieties around caste and touch-taboos around food were prevalent. The dabbawala system expanded, following the city’s sprawling rail system; today the workers in their iconic white caps deliver hundreds of thousands of metal lunchboxes, known as tiffins, to white-collar workers all over the city. With a staggering delivery accuracy rate of 99.999999% — only one error for every 16 million transactions — this delivery system has been studied by business experts all over the world as a model of accuracy and efficiency.[1]
The Great Indian Kitchen (November 12, 7pm) presents a scathing exposé of the inequality foundational to the patriarchal family systems that keep homes running and bellies full. The joy and happiness of a woman’s new marriage quickly fade as the film’s protagonist — known only as “Wife” — attempts to settle into the routine of domestic labor expected of her as a daughter-in-law in a traditional household of Kerala in South India. In granular detail, the film lays bare the inescapable drudgery of daily cooking and housework, making visible the essential domestic labor that so often remains invisible and uncredited. The film unflinchingly tackles traditional gendered notions of purity, cleanliness, and pollution — for example, the set of severe taboos adhered to by some groups that isolate women during menstruation. A quiet but powerful film, it subtly questions the very foundations of Brahmanical patriarchy.
Finally, Aamis/Ravening (November 19, 7pm) is a haunting, horrifying exploration of meat-eating and forbidden desire. PhD student Sumon has a chance meeting with Nirmali, a pediatrician, wife, and mother. They bond over a shared interest in trying new and exotic meats, a pastime Sumon indulges in with his friends in their “meat club” — they regularly get together and butcher and cook different and novel animals, seeking increasingly exotic flavors. The film quickly moves from the familiar to the strange, pushing the limits of conventionality and desire into the realm of taboo. As the connection between Sumon and Nirmali intensifies, the film explores the relationship between desire and consumption and questions the unspoken social norms around them. The film is visually stunning, inviting the viewer to feast their eyes even as the recipes become increasingly horrific.
To complement the film series, we invite audiences to “Steeped in Tradition: Chai Stories,” a discussion to be held at Redbud Books (November 16, 2pm) with local chai entrepreneur Raji Muthukrishnan, proprietor of Aahaa Chai. We will explore the rich history and cultural significance of chai in India and learn about Raji’s journey from research to entrepreneurship. Audiences will also learn tips and tricks for making the perfect cup at home.
We have chosen food as our entry point for understanding Indian cinema and Indian culture precisely because it is a key point for Americans to encounter India. Like everything else about India, its food culture is extraordinarily diverse. There are dozens of distinct culinary styles that vary with region, ethnicity, caste, religion, and more, although unfortunately in the United States we typically only find a few different styles represented, dominated by the food of urban north India. The films in this series highlight Indian cuisines that American viewers might not know, such as the simple but nourishing lunches of office workers, traditional Keralan home cooking, and wild meats that would be unfamiliar and exotic to most Indians, let alone US audiences. Food is connection and caring, it is identity and community; and ultimately, food is inextricable from love itself. So, this set of films invites audiences to consider food deeply as a mediating force in a variety of relationships, including the relationships on screen as well as in their own relationship to and understanding of India. We hope that viewers come away hungry for new foods and curious to learn more!
[1] India Today. “Mumbai’s Dabbawallas | The Retreat of a Moveable Feast,” December 1, 2023. https://www.indiatoday.in/magazine/special-report/story/20231211-mumbais-dabbawallas-the-retreat-of-a-moveable-feast-2469853-2023-12-01.
More Than Masala: Indian Food and Culture Through Film kicks off on October 15 with The Lunchbox, followed by The Great Indian Kitchen on November 12 and Ravening on November 19.
More Than Masala is organized by Gwendolyn Kirk, Shobha SV, and Pedro Machado as part of IU Cinema’s Creative Collaborations program. The series is supported by the IU Libraries, the IU Media School, and the Dhar India Studies Program. It is also part of the Dhar India Studies Program’s food-themed semester events series, including a set of exciting speakers and other films. Learn more about the films in our series and about Indian cuisine here.
Gwendolyn Kirk is the librarian for South and Southeast Asian Studies at IU Bloomington. Her background is in linguistic anthropology and she researchers the links between language and cinema in South Asia. She is proud to have co-founded Reel Pakistan, the first scholarly periodical dedicated to Pakistani screen cultures.