Mystic Masseur, The

Aroview: An ambitious adaptation of V.S. Naipul’s first novel, that traces the rise of a poor Indian student in 1950s Trinidad who emigrates to Oxford and becomes first a masseur and eventually a revered mystic guru.

At times wry and ironic, with traces of Naipul’s literate humour about the post-colonial quirks of his native Carribean nation, though the story is told mostly in the straightforward Merchant-Ivory vein. Thoughtful and offbeat.