MYSTIC MASSEUR, directed by Ismail Merchant, written by Caryl Phillips, 117 minutes, rated PG. Now playing, Railroad Square Cinema, Waterville.

In the new Merchant-Ivory film, “Mystic Masseur,” the focus is on books, the power they possess, and on how one man’s life is dramatically changed in his quest to write them. It’s about as far removed from a summer blockbuster as one can get – which, for some, will be a big part of its charm.

The film, from a script Caryl Phillips based on Nobel laureate V.S. Naipaul’s 1957 debut novel, takes place in the British-colonial Trinidad of the 1940s and early 1950s.

It follows Ganesh Ransumair (Aasif Mandvi), a former schoolteacher from Port of Spain, Trinidad, who returns to his native village after his father’s death, decides to stay when he marries a local woman named Leela (Ayesha Dharker), and then sets out to complete his dream of writing books.

Ganesh’s first book, “One Hundred Questions and Answers on the Hindu Religion,” is a bit slim in size and content, asking such probing questions as “Who is the greatest modern Hindu?” and immediately follows with, “Who is the second-greatest modern Hindu?” It takes Ganesh such a supreme effort to write it, it nearly costs him his marriage – and even then it doesn’t sell.

Disappointed and nearly broke, Ganesh is nevertheless a man who knows the value of a gimmick. Assuming his father’s former job as a mystic healer, he soon calls himself the Mystic Masseur, dons a white robe and hits the road, where he cures one man of having a torrid affair with his bicycle and another of believing he has the power to fly.

For Ganesh, fame follows in a rush, leading to his desired career as a writer and ultimately as a politician.

If “Mystic Masseur,” which marks Ismail Merchant’s fourth effort at directing, is sometimes a bit long in the massage and misses the satirical snap of Naipaul’s novel, it nevertheless comes to offer a compelling glimpse into Trinidad politics near the end of the British colonial era.

What lifts it is Merchant’s affection for his characters, especially Ganesh, whose relationships with Leela, his conniving father-in-law, Ramlogan (Om Puri), and his feisty aunt (Zohra Segal) gives the film the humor and the dramatic tension it needs – and would have seriously lacked without them in it.

Grade: B

On video and DVD

A BEAUTIFUL MIND, directed by Ron Howard, written by Akiva Goldsman, 129 minutes, rated PG-13.

Ron Howard’s Academy Award-winning “A Beautiful Mind” stars Russell Crowe as John Forbes Nash Jr., the Nobel Prize-winning mathematician whose 30-year battle with paranoid schizophrenia was detailed in greater detail in Sylvia Nasar’s 1998 biography of the same name.

The film’s treatment of Nash’s life is extraordinary for a lot of reasons, but mostly because of what it chooses to omit, such as; his divorce from his wife, Alicia (Jennifer Connelly), whom he eventually remarried; his bisexuality; the illegitimate child he fathered and ignored; and the real reason he was expelled from the RAND Corp., which involves the sort of men’s room proclivities that got singer George Michael into so much trouble a few years back.

What audiences are left with is a biopic spanning more than 50 years that excises the more salacious and interesting details of Nash’s life. Whether Howard chose to do so in an effort to spare the film a less-commercial R rating – or because he wanted to focus instead on Nash’s schizophrenia – remains unclear. But what is clear is this: While “A Beautiful Mind” is a misrepresentation of Nash’s life, it nevertheless offers a thoughtful, often engrossing examination of his fight to overcome his illness and find meaning within the turmoil.

On those terms, it succeeds, mounting a finely acted story that becomes increasingly involving as Nash struggles to mine the truth – and thus what’s real – from his hallucinations.

With Connelly, Ed Harris and Christopher Plummer all strong in supporting roles, the key to “A Beautiful Mind” rests with Crowe, whose excellent performance allows audiences a riveting glimpse into Nash’s struggle even while Howard prevents him from fully showing us the man.

Grade: B

Christopher Smith is the Bangor Daily News film critic. His reviews appear Mondays and Fridays in Style, occasionally on E! Entertainment’s “E! News Weekend,” Tuesdays on “NEWS CENTER at 5” and Thursdays on “NEWS CENTER at 5:30” on WLBZ-2 and WCSH-6. He can be reached at BDNFilm1@aol.com.