UPDATED
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
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