Rotzza- The combination of Roti and Pizza. This is what a three Michelin star chef Roshna Kalra, Saif’s character, chooses to make on his food truck. And this pretty much sums up the case of this movie. Take an already present popular international cuisine and make it Indian by adding some Indian flavours to it. The official remake of Jon Favreau’s fairly popular 2014 film of the same name is highly Indian in every sense. It is high on drama and emotions and low on the heat while reheating last night’s leftover dish.
It’s not that Chef is a bad movie but at no point it remains unpredictable (yes, even if it wasn’t a remake). During the entire runtime of the movie, you know that how it is going to end and unlike the original one it remains a confused crossover of a father-son relationship movie, a food movie, and a feel-good slice of life drama. It explores none of them in its full potential.
Roshan Kalra is a top chef in an uptown New York restaurant, who loses his job after not being able to take criticism from a patron dining at his restaurant. He comes down to India and explores his relationship with his divorced wife, Naina, and his love for his son, Armaan. But it never makes it evident that he is passionate about following his dream or probably opening a food truck was never his dream at first place, all he wanted was to cook at a big well-paying restaurant.
In a post credit scene of Jon Favreau’s Chef, we see him learning how to make a sandwich and the impact of that scene is visible there in the movie. Saif’s Chef lacks that passion. All we see him cooking is Pasta and Rotzza. The art of culinary delight is missing from the film.
The use of technology in original film is hugely replaced with playing cards of nostalgia and reminding stories from the past and taking lessons out of it. It becomes melodramatic by the time it reaches its climax and that is the sad part of it.
But the point where the movie does good is about handling a seemingly complex relationship of Roshan and his divorced wife, it is quite unusual for Indian cinema. And the treatment of father-son story remains charming at most part. Svar Kamble played the role quite well; his little shifts of emotions are quite good on the screen and his chemistry with Saif works really well. Together they give us some awe-worthy moments. Padmapriya Jayaraman is a treat for the eyes and remains graceful on screen. She plays her part quite well. Saif, on the other hand, looks forced in the first half but slowly gains momentum but by that time the story loses itself. Milind Soman does well in his part but it could have been enough if he would have got the same time as Robert Downy Jr. got in original chef, he was solely used in the movie to build on the relation of Roshan and Naina. Two characters which work for me are of Nazrul played by Chandan Roy Sanyal and Alex played by Dinesh Nair. Both of them got lesser screen time but they did effortlessly good. Dinesh Nair, in particular, looked like a forced insertion but he overcame it with his acting and wit.
Priya Seth for me worked as the best element in the film. She captured the beauty of Kochi and other parts in the road trip beautifully and made the color palette of the movie very soft for the eyes. I just wish there were more mouth-watering scenes of food in the movie, which Priya Seth could have captured with great detailing but unfortunately there were very few.
Overall, Chef has all the ingredients of top quality with it but it somehow is an undercooked dish.
If the name of your movie is Chef, it should satisfy both a foodie and a movie lover in you but unfortunately, this is not the case here. Raja Krishna Menon’s Chef leaves you hungry, asking for more, both cinematically and gastronomically.
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