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Saturday, April 20, 2024
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BOLLYWOOD CHEF
EDITOR'S PICK
'Chef': Saif's careers best in heartwarming culinary drama (Review By
Subhash K Jha , Rating ****1/2)
There is a lot of teasing between the father and son ,played with endearing
casualness by Saif Ali Khan and Svar Kamble. Aptly , "Chef" teases our appetite
for cinema. It's a culinary delight-warm tender, inviting and appetizing--
served up in a dainty dish with a dash of debonair but played-down posturing,
like a masterchef who is shy to show off his skills but can't help it. He's so
adept at what he does.
"Chef" conveys the kind of sagacious skill born not out of arrogance but wisdom
sometimes misplaced.Like the protagonist Roshan Kalra's traditionalist father
who believes the kitchen is for women.
Speaking of which -- arrogance more than wisdom -- Saif Ali Khan's Roshan
Kalra(from Chandni Chowk Delhi married to and divorced from the lovely Malayali
danseuse Radha Menon) is portrayed as an epitome of prideful arrogance waiting
to fall.
The fall comes sooner than we expect. Director Menon wastes no time in taking on
his protagonist's burnished ego and cutting it down to size, piece by piece.
Come to think of it, Roshan's downsizing needs no push. Saif Ali Khan's inbuilt
nawabi pride and an urbane humour that often hurts others in ways that are more
permanent than permissible,seize the character to make it so imminently
relatable ,I felt someone had stolen parts of my life.Saif's Roshan says things
to earn points as a clever conversationalist. Much like the prestigious Michelin
star rating for food which determines quality to the point of rendering the
pleasure of food into an exercize in technical grading.
And here's where director Menon and his co-writers Ritesh Shah and Suresh Nair
score resoundingly over the original Jon Favreau film. Food, as a cultural
binder, is a far more vital metaphor in India than in America. Instinctively,
Menon understands the deep and indelible connection between food and family in
our culture.
Much in the same way that music binds human relationships, food is great unifier
.
The narrative teases the cooking and food into the human relationships without
making culinary conceits a fetish in the plot. Food is vital but not
in-your-face in Menon's Chef. This director understands the difference between
appetites and feelings. He tightens the screw on his protagonist's arrogance
whenever Roshan Kalra's failings become the food for his feelings.
This guy, played so intelligently and persuasively by Saif, doesn't know where
to stop. Sometimes the banter between Saif's Roshan and those close to him,
turns ugly. But that's life. The relationships that govern our existence are not
always based on sweetness and positivity. The dark side is always there, lurking
in the corners of life...lurking lightly and gently at the backdrop of Raja
Krishna Menon's fourth feature film(he actually came into his own with his third
"Airlift").
It is to Menon's credit that he keeps the proceeds airy and light on the top but
allows us a peep into the darkness beneath just when we begin to savour the
blitheness. The father-son relationship is paramount to the plot. It works with
blessed vigour . Saif and the boy Svar Kamble look and feel for their parts.They
are born to play a family.
Menon is not impatient to tell Roshan Kalra's story. The narrative's pace in
unhurried but never dull. There is a lingering grace to the mise en scene. And I
refer not just to the father-son scenes. Saif's longish sequence with his
girlfriend(Sobhita Dhulipala) in New York after she takes over his chef's job in
a restaurant where he altercates with a client, is written with so many
subtextual interjections and prickly hurt-points polished down to
injury-proofness, it's like walking a terrain mined with explosives.
I only wish the music and songs were better. If food is seen as the strongest
cultural metaphor in Chef, music which has been described by a wise man as the
food of love , gets a raw deal here. Also the climactic denouement(airport run,
traffic snarl, breathless reunion) could have been avoided in a film that pretty
much dodges all the signposts of smart-mart filmmaking to forge its own
languorous grocery-store language of estrangement and reconciliation.
A major of the film's lingering charm emanates from the casting. Menon has cast
so authentically it almost feels as though the actors were destined to play
these parts.
Whether it's Saif's Punjabi chef or his screen wife, the very elegant
Padmapriya's as his Malayali wife, or Chandan Roy Sanyal as Saif's faithful
Bangladeshi pal, or Dinesh Prabhakar as the sodden cantankerous but ultimately
goodhearted driver chosen to man Roshan's mobile bus-restaurant...they all exude
the scent of supremely believability without making a song-and-dance of it(wish
they could ,though, if only the music didn't let them down).
And yes, cinematographer Priya Seth gives us one more reason to celebrate life.
Kerala has never looked more inviting. After watching Kerala play the lead in
"Chef" (with due respect to Saif) I've decided to head there. Preferably with my
child.
Chef': Endearingly palate pleasing (Review By Troy Ribeiro ; Rating:
***)
An official Hindi remake of Jon Favreau's 2014 film by the same name, Director
Raja Krishna Menon's 'Chef' is a breezy film, centring around the self-discovery
of Chef Roshan Kalra (Saif Ali Khan), a Michelin three star chef.
Roshan, who hails from a middle class Chandni Chowk family, is attracted towards
cooking from the age of ten and aspires to learn cooking from the 'chole bhature
wala chacha' in his neighbourhood and become a chef much to the chagrin of his
father who wants him to become an engineer.
How after losing his job at a renowned restaurant in the US, Roshan returns to
Cochin to meet his son Armaan (Svar Kamble) who lives with his ex-wife Radha
(Padampriya Janakiraman) and realises his priorities and centres his career as a
chef around them, is actually the rasion d'etre of the film.
The film dives straight into his present life as a chef in the US and merely
skims through his early life, including his failed marriage and divorce, without
really delving too much into it. While the first half has a wee bit of emotional
drama, the second half is clearly a series of road trips showcasing his new
found meaning in life as a chef and how he makes a success of it.
Director Raja Menon extracts natural performances from his actors and that
perhaps is the strength of the film as the story is staid and the treatment
simple. There is no element of drama or any interesting twists and the narrative
flows on an even keel. Humour comes in the form of Saif's comic timing and some
witty one liners.
Saif as Chef Roshan Kalra is endearing. He portrays the character in his
inimitable style with his attitude and swag to boot. He tries earnestly to look
and behave like a chef when in the kitchen. Save some attempts at chopping, or
perhaps frying, one does not really get a peek into his cooking skills. His
relationship with his son Armaan aka Ari is easily one of the highlights of the
film.
Swar Kamble as the young Armaan is confident and essays his character
realistically. Padampriya as Radha Menon, his ex-wife, is every inch the
independent working professional who has put her past behind her and is yet a
friend and well-wisher of her husband.
Milind Soman as Biju, Radha's friend and anchor is competent, while Chandan Roy
Sanyal as Nazrul, a junior Chef and devoted to his "guru" Chef Roshan has
nothing much to offer, but is sincere.
The music by Raghu Dixit and Amaal Malik is melodious and meshes well with the
narrative. "Tere Mere" by Armaan Malik is particularly pleasant.
Cinematographer Priya Seth captures all the places through her lens with utmost
candour and sincerity, especially Cochin.
Overall, Chef is a feel-good film about the importance of relationships and the
message comes across smoothly albeit garbed in a long-drawn plot.
Film director Raja Krishna Menon finds Ranbir Kapoor to be an "interesting actor", but says he hasn't signed him or anyone yet for his next thriller drama.Read More
Actors, directors must have naked relationship: Raja Krishna Menon"I don't cast stars, I cast actors," says "Airlift" fame director Raja Krishna Menon, who has worked with big names like Naseeruddin Shah, Akshay Kumar and Saif Ali Khan. He feels a director and an actor need to have a "naked relationship" to give life to a character on screen.Read More
Gulshan Kumar in association with Abundantia, A Bandra West Pictures Production presents the official movie trailer of the upcoming Bollywood movie "Chef", Directed By Raja Krishna Menon, Produced By Bhushan Kumar, Krishan Kumar, Vikram Malhotra, Janani Ravichandran & Raja Krishna Menon. Based upon the 2014 Hollywood hit by the same name, which was directed by Jon Favreau, Chef stars - Saif Ali Khan, Svar Kamble, Padmapriya and Chandan Roy Sanyal.
The film is a unique tale of a journey that Roshan Kalra (played by Saif Ali Khan) undertakes to find out his true priorities and source of happiness. It's a story of food and love and family and togetherness. And that of a father's rediscovery of the bond with his son
