Saif Ali Khan’s last commercial success was Race 2, four years ago. Chef won’t change that – but it was probably never supposed to.
A remake of the Jon Favreau film of the same name, Chef is not a move that a statistician would have advised for Saif Ali Khan’s nose-diving career. But it could work wonders as a PR stroke, given that Saif’s son Taimur Ali Khan has been catching more eyeballs than all of his films in the past four years combined.
Saif plays a middle-aged father in the movie which, as the name suggests, is all about love for food – but also about food for love. It also has a rags to riches background, that evolves into a Galli-to-Rasta tale.
Renowned chef Roshan Kalra (Saif Ali Khan) is fired from his New York restaurant called Galli, after getting into a brawl with a customer who complained that his food “didn’t taste as good as it used to”. Initially taking it as a cleaver into his ego, exchanges with the owner and colleagues later show that Roshan had indeed lost his flavour, owing to a plunge in interest for a passion that defined his life.
Padmapriya Janakiraman arrives in Bollywood with 'Chef'
As a 15-year-old, Roshan had run away from his parent’s house in New Delhi’s Chandni Chowk after his father wouldn’t allow him to “follow his dreams”. 26 years later, he’s a divorced man whose ex-wife and son live in Kochi, after having achieved a lot in the career of his choice.
After being fired, Roshan goes to Kochi to spend time with son Arman (Svar Kamble) and ex-wife Radha Menon (Padmapriya Janakiraman), a danseuse who has moved on from the failed marriage in every way possible and, refreshingly, isn’t a stereotypical South Asian ex-wife.
One thing leads to another and Roshan ends up running a food truck with Arman and his sous-chef (Chandan Roy Sanyal) from Galli. The venture is called ‘Rasta’, and is supposed to be Roshan’s temporary project allowing him to spend some time with his son, till he can find something bigger and better in the US.
The juxtaposition of North and South Indian food and cultures is done tastefully and Lahoris would be especially pleased with chholay bhatooray starring in the lead role
Chef is as predictable as fast food, but tastes every bit like a home-cooked meal. Never mouthwatering, the film does have all the ingredients, flavours and emotions to drive home the desired taste.
Most crucially Chef is deliciously undercooked. It is neither too heavy, nor overplays on the emotions, as family dramas in our neck of the woods are supposed to.
While the film is supposed to entice the foodies – and it will – it is neither a 133-minute cookbook, nor a cooking show. It definitely doesn’t have anywhere near as much drama as any of the Masterchef shows. And so, despite food being at the heart of Chef,the writing isn’t too technical, and it is likelier to push procrastinators into finally wearing that apron than it is to teach the regulars anything new.
For the carnivorous in Pakistan,Chef only has one non-vegetarian dish in the entire film, the keema rottza –a merger between roti and pizza, as might be evident, that comes in at least three flavours and is Rasta’s signature dish.
The juxtaposition of North and South Indian food and cultures is done tastefully and Lahoris would be especially pleased with chholay bhatooray starring in the lead role.
Amidst all the food, what the filmmakers really cook are relationships – even if individual characters haven’t been given sufficient construction time. The bonds – and lack thereof – between two father-son pairs are the theme of the movie, but it also depicts a healthy relationship between two ex-spouses.
Svar Kamble as Saif Ali Khan’s son does a formidable job in perhaps what was the performance of the film. Padmapriya Janakiraman, a Telugu star who has given Bollywood a glimpse of her acting talent in Striker, also does a fine job as the ex-wife and mother who balances her responsibilities with independence and freedom for a life of her own.
Saif Ali Khan has clearly worked on his culinary skills for the movie, without – again – overdoing it. But his depiction of the Roshan, and the character itself, remains inconsistent. For someone, who started off as a dhaba waiter and became a self-made Michelin star chef, his portrayal as an often bratty and evidently snobbish man doesn’t quite cut it – neither does the lack of a convincing explanation as to where that ambitious teenaged Roshan went, or indeed what happened between the 15- and 41-year-old Roshans.
However, Chef is a simple movie that achieves most of what it sets out to. It might not be worth a cinema ticket, but is definitely a one-time DVD watch – especially if you’re a foodie, or someone who has been failing to get into the kitchen for a while.
