Inspiring tale of a home chef who became household name

Sheetal

For the 1936-born home chef, who revolutionised the Indian cooking industry by self-publishing her cookbooks, the biopic ‘Tarla’comes rather late. Nevertheless, the writers, Gautam Ved and Piyush Gupta, were glued to reality while delivering an appetising script narrating the legacy of Tarla Dalal, the first Indian chef to be honoured with a Padma Shri in culinary arts.

As Tarla, however, Huma Qureshi bags a 7 out of 10, if we go by how Tarla’s husband, Nalin Dalal, would rate everything. Sharib Hashmi delivers a stellar performance as Nalin. However, that still seems the easy bit as compared to playing a career woman in the 1960s. Though Huma comes close to stepping into the legendary chef’s shoes, a ‘little something’ is lacking: be it in Tarla’s smile or demeanour. The pairing of Huma and Sharib is fresh.

Although the story has its heart in the right place and is weaved with food, yet the recipes could have been given a closer shot. While director Piyush Gupta sticks to Tarla’s story, the dishes that made her famous are not focused upon. Except for batata musallam, bhindi kofta and bhugga chawal, the film doesn’t talk about her other famous dishes.

Objects like typewriter, scooty and telephones are well placed in the period but art direction, focusing on the aesthetics of the era, could have been better. The difference comes out loud in the original interview clip of Tarla Dalal from the 1990s’ show ‘Surabhi’.

For a home chef who started experimenting to make her non-vegetarian husband like vegetarian food, Tarla’s journey to becoming an author and TV chef host was accidental, but it would have been nice to know about her first steps in cooking.

The runtime as well as editing is crisp. The music effortlessly takes the story forward. Tarla becomes rather preachy at times. For instance, when she says good cooking can help you grant any wish from husband or family, the idea is not entirely lost in India where, in many households, a girl is expected to cook well.

Scenes where the husband is jealous of her success or the mother-in-law scolds her for slacking on house chores successfully deliver the dilemma of Indian women. Just like Tarla’s many recipes, this film is many things from a biopic to a story of empowerment to a coming-of-age family drama. It inspires you to cook, and that’s reason enough to watch it.