the masala film

24.03.2026

S: Have you heard of this phrase, the masala film? The spice film.

A: What does it mean?

S: This film has everything in it. Tragedy, melodrama, comedy, action, music, dance and songs. It has been the typical Indian film.

A: How can something be everything?

S: This is an Indian tradition. It is also said that The Mahabharata, the ancient Indian epic, that it also has everything in it.

A: Why everything? How can you bear it?

S: It is the temperament of India. Instead of narrow focus, everything is included. Instead of discrete categories, we have an overlap. We are alive with all life’s richness and nuance. They fight. We clap. They love. We laugh. They cry. We are sad.

A: And your writing?

S: It is also limitless rather than limited. It is also wide rather than narrow. It is also life and not shrinking. There is more and more, never less.

A: This pride in India, can it be justified?

S: Yes. Not the state, which we hate. But the people, the spirit of the Indian artist. The one that is the true Indian, the philosopher, the lover and the poet. No one knows the oppression but us the people that have been oppressed. Yet still, there is the love of freedom which is the mark of freedom, the connection with life and the cosmos. The more of India.