Mirch Masala

Mirch Masala Spices in English is a 1987 Hindi film directed by Ketan Mehta. It stars Naseeruddin Shah and Smita Patil in the lead roles. On the centenary of Indian cinema in April 2013, Forbes included Smita Patils performance in the film on its list,Greatest Acting Performances of Indian Cinema.

It turns out subedar holds ultimate authority over the village. Subservient to him is the mukhi Suresh Oberoi village chieftain and all the villagers. The villagers do their best to scratch out a living, of which the subedar invariably exacts a heavy tax. We learn also that the villagers are mostly illiterate and ignorant of the outside world. They are most stupefied by a gramophone the tyrant possesses. The only literate person in the village is the schoolmaster Benjamin Gilani, who insists on educating the children, even girls the mukhis wife even enrolls her only daughter, only to be rebuked by the mukhi, who, like all the others believes that girls should not be sent to school. The mukhis younger brother Mohan Gokhale who also loves a lowcaste girl secretly even asks the schoolmaster the meaning of the word swaraj. The subedar and his men routinely attack the village and raid the food, livestock and supplies. The subedar is a haughty and cruel man, who exploits his power in every possible way. The villagers are compelled to keep him satisfied they regularly set up parties for him and his men, often at great expense to their meager means. They also arrange a steady supply of women for his pleasure.The mukhi means well but is generally weak and powerless before the subedar. His principal goals are to negotiate concessions to the tax and to keep the subedar happy. The safety and security of the village are mostly dependent on the moods of the subedar, and so he tacitly arranges to keep the subedar sated and out of his way. The mukhi also represents the prevailing male attitude in the village women are mostly confined to their homes and have no education. The other character in village life is the school master, who is a Gandhian and a reformer, and hopes the village may someday be liberated from the shackles of the likes of the subedar. ........

Source: Wikipedia