NRI, Chitra Banerjee
Divakaruni
Her novel to become $80 mn
film
New Delhi, Sep 22, 2004
An acclaimed magic realism novel by a California-based
Indian writer will soon be made into an $80 million lavish Hollywood
production starring Bollywood queen Aishwarya Rai.
"Mistress of Spices", a novel about
the dilemmas of fitting in by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, is being
made into a film by Paul Mayeda Berges, the screenplay writer-husband
of British Indian director Gurinder Chadha.
The Mistress of Spices (1997)
The Mistress of Spices is unique in that it is written with a
blend of prose and poetry. The book has a very mystical quality
to it, and, as Divakaruni puts it, "I wrote in a spirit of
play, collapsing the divisions between the realistic world of
twentieth century America and the timeless one of myth and magic
in my attempt to create a modern fable."
The novel follows Tilo, a magical figure who runs
a grocery store and uses spices to help the customers overcome
difficulties. Tilo provides spices, not only for cooking, but
also for the homesickness and alienation that the Indian immigrants
in her shop experience. In the process, she develops dilemmas
of her own when she falls in love with a non-Indian. This creates
great conflicts, as she has to choose whether to serve her people
or to follow the path leading to her own happiness. Tilo has to
decide which parts of her heritage she will keep and which parts
she will chose to abandon.
Praise for The Mistress of Spices:
"Divakaruni's prose is so pungent that it stains
the page, yet beneath the sighs and smells of this brand of magic
realism she deftly introduces her true theme: how an ability to
accommodate desire enlivens not only the individual heart but
a society cornered by change." (The New Yorker)
"The Mistress of Spices becomes a novel about
choosing between a life of special powers and one of ordinary
love and compassion. If Tilo's choice is rather predictable, the
way Ms. Divakaruni gets us there is anything but." (The New
York Times Book Review)
"The Mistress of Spices is a dazzling tale
of misbegotten dreams and desires, hopes and expectations, woven
with poetry and storyteller magic." (Amy Tan)
"A splendid novel, beautifully conceived and
crafted." (Pat Conroy)
Biography
Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni is an award-winning author
and poet. Her work is widely known, as she has been published
in over 50 magazines, including the Atlantic Monthly and The New
Yorker, and her writing has been included in over 30 anthologies.
Her works have been translated into 11 languages, including Dutch,
Hebrew and Japanese.
She was born in India and lived there until 1976,
until she was nineteen, at which point she left Calcutta and came
to the United States. She continued her education in the field
of English by receiving a Master's degree from Wright State University
in Dayton, Ohio, and a Ph.D. from the University of California,
Berkeley.
To earn money for her education, she held many odd
jobs, including babysitting, selling merchandise in an Indian
boutique, slicing bread in a bakery, and washing instruments in
a science lab. At Berkeley, she lived in the International House
and worked in the dining hall. She briefly lived in Illinois,
Ohio and Texas, but has spent most of her life in Northern California,
which she often writes about.
Divakaruni currently teaches in the nationally ranked
Creative Writing program area at the Univ. of Houston and divides
her time between Houston and Northern California. She serves on
the board of Maitri in the Bay and on the Advisory Board of Asians
against Domestic Abuse in Houston.
In 2000, Divakaruni was one of the judges for the
prestigious National Book Award
Awards
Chitra's work has been included in over 30 anthologies, including
Best American Short Stories and The Pushcart Prize Anthology.
Her book of short stories, Arranged Marriage, has won critical
acclaim and the 1996 American Book Award, the Bay Area Book Reviewers
and PEN Oakland awards for fiction.
Her literary awards
include:
The Hackney Literary award, Birmingham-Southern
College, Alabama, 1988
Barbara Deming Memorial Award, New York, 1989
Nominated for the Pushcart prize, 1989 -1993
Editor's Choice Award, Cream City Review, 1990
Santa Clara Arts Council Award, California 1990, 1994
Honorable mention, Paterson Poetry Prize, 1992, for Black Candle
Gerbode Foundation Award, California, 1992
2 Pen Syndicated Fiction Awards, 1993 and 1994
Pushcart Prize, 1994
Allen Ginsberg Poetry Prize, 1994
C.Y. Lee Creative Writing Award, 1995
Bay Area Book Reviewers Award, Best Fiction, 1996, for Arranged
Marriage
PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles Award, 1996, for Arranged Marriage
American Book Award, 1996, for Arranged Marriage
California Arts Council Award, 1998
Included in Best Books of 1997, Los Angeles Times, The Mistress
of Spices
Included in Best Paperbacks of 1998, Seattle Times, The Mistress
of Spices
Story, "Mrs. Dutta Writes a Letter," included in Best
American Short Stories, 1999
