Warm and simmering

Nonika Singh

The way to a man’s heart is through his stomach. But what happens when the man himself is discovering that way to other people’s hearts? Men in kitchen are no oddity today. In the day and age of celebrated master chefs, they are just about as commonplace.

But Roshan Kalra reminds us when he began his culinary journey no one knew the difference between rasoiya and a chef. So, he had little option but to run away at 15. But this, mind you, is only a minor detail of a chef’s culinary journey, who has made it big but at the cost of losing his love and passion. How he re-discovers it is a return to roots story, something on the lines of The Hundred-Foot Journey and of course, Chef, on which it is officially based.

Food movies in India are few and far between and fewer still are those that come strong on food imagery. Chef manages to serve you straight from his table, for it doesn't digress away from its main plot and the central protagonist. Saif as the chef is endearingly natural. Be it slicing those rich succulent tomatoes or scooping spaghetti straight from the pan or connecting with his teenage son (Svar Kamble a natural too), he is effortless. In a performance, easily one of his best till date, he instills an aroma of his own making. From Kerala cuisine to Punjabi chole bhature to the fusion dish he concocts, the narrative does stay close to food.

Only besides food, there are other flavours, especially cultural, that get to you. Kochi’s picturesque beauty quietly grows on you, not once overwhelming just like the beautiful actress, Padmapriya Janakiraman, who plays Kalra’s estranged yet calm and collected wife, it reaches out captivatingly yet softly. Menon, the director, who earlier gave us winsome, Airlift, drops all standard tropes and follows a rather simple, perhaps all too simple way of telling his story that has a heart too. Central to the track also is the father-son relationship dominating the show. There is some home-spun wisdom, including the joy of feeding others with visuals of langar at the Golden Temple leaving an impression. 

Of course, the film throws no surprises. There are no transformative moments so to say even though it charts the transformation of a Michelin-starred chef with fat pay checks. At points the film seems like an advert for Bharat darshan as it takes you from Kerala to Amritsar to Delhi. Thrown in the food ride is the famous singer Raghu Dixit described as “a singer with a lungi” for some jig and music (he has composed a couple of songs in the film) and some big names from the art world for suitable effect. If you like your films simple and sweet, this flavoursome seasoning of two cultures (Kerala and Punjab) will please your senses, else you may find the combination a tad insipid. 

A slice of life film this is how life ought to be or even it is at times. So is the movie; warm and touching at points and rather placid at others. For those of us, who cook day in and out know too well serving a delectable fare each day is a tough task. And tossing up a wholesome film with food as a leitmotif can be no mean feat either. Chef does whet your appetite for cinema with a difference, if not completely satiates your hunger pangs.