Film review: The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

It’s rare to watch a film post “Slumdog Millionaire” that hasn’t frustrated Asian viewers with its volley of Indian clichés that fit every stereotype a Westerner may have cradled since the fall of the British Empire.
 
John Madden’s (“Shakespeare in Love”) “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel” is guilty of this crime; yet, it somehow manages to rise above the mediocrity largely due to the combined strength of its powerful actors, including Dame Judi Dench, Tom Wilkinson, Maggie Smith and Bill Nighy.
 
Adapted from the bestselling book, “These Foolish Things” by Deborah Moggach, Madden takes creative liberty with his screenplay to nip/tuck the original’s premise without comprising on the lead characters or their vulnerabilities.
 
The film follows a group of seven misfit British retirees whose respective personal conflicts and financial hardships encourages them to ‘outsource’ their final days to a Jaipur retirement hotel, which promises a slice of exotic India for the elderly. 
 
It all sounds picture perfect on paper, but lo and behold, upon arrival nothing is as clear-cut or simple in India.
 
Dev Patel’s Sonny is the maharaja of this rundown Jaipur palace, aptly called The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, which is a far cry from any lap of luxury that our foreigners would have imagined.
 
While the lonely Evelyn (Dench) looks upon her Indian misadventure with a share of restrained amusement, awe and vulnerability, as she takes baby steps towards independence post her husband’s death, Penelope Wilton’s Jean is her antithesis as the neurotic, domineering wife of the long-suffering Douglas (Bill Nighy), who resents India itself for not offering her the safety net of familiar surroundings that awaits her in England.
 
Jean and Douglas’ marital problems are immediately evident as the former’s snobbish countenance draws her like an over eager puppy towards the handsome, and well respected retired judge Graham (Wilkinson), while Nighy’s character finds solace and heart-warming grace in Evelyn.
 
Meanwhile, Graham is warding off his own inner demons as he embarks on a quest to find a long-lost friend with whom he once shared a forbidden romance, and then damned him to his fate in a society that still frowns down on gay relationships.
 
As the quartet play out their roles in an emotional dance, humour comes in spades with Maggie Smith’s portrayal of the racist with a heart of gold Muriel, who has been forced to embark on her Indian escapade to find a cheaper alternative to a hip replacement.
 
Joining her brand of sarcasm are the two frisky retirees, Madge (Celia Imrie) and Norman (Ronald Pickup), who see India as a gateway to exotica, rather than the exotic.
 
The plot unravels in layers, with each shedding of skin revealing every individual’s private fears and inhibitions, as they overcome their personal battles or succumb to their weaknesses.
 
Madden briefly touches on India’s controversial caste system, unsurprisingly tying it with Muriel’s tale, while Evelyn’s success in securing her first job is inevitably at an outsourced call centre.
 
Despite the obviousness of the plot, the sincerity of its lead actors warms your heart and almost sees you share that vulnerability with the fear of life’s many hurdles that are married with old age.
 
If there is a hindrance to the film, then it comes in the form of Patel’s Sonny, whose wooden expressions and fake Indian accent grates on the nerves, as he desperately attempts to play the over zealous caretaker of this questionable property, while romancing the modern-age Sunaina (Tena Desae, who is a far improvement on the butter-can’t-melt-in-her-mouth Frieda Pinto).
 
Predictably, Madden (or is it Moggach) also brings in a sub plot that takes a page directly out of a Bollywood potboiler, as Sonny’s mother (a delightful Lillete Dubey) opposes the match, before the hotel’s aged gardener narrates another tale of star-crossed lovers that once walked these palace grounds. Ho hum.
 
You can excuse Madden this folly and the fact that the narrative of “The Best Exotic…” is a far cry from the gripping romance that won his “Shakespeare in Love” seven Oscars in 1998.
 
But his career peak should not be held over his head like the proverbial Sword of Damocles, but rather take this film for what it is – a slice of life that can be poignant and bittersweet but can also teach us the ability to laugh at ourselves.

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