Chef (Movie Review)

'Chef' Serves Delicacies of Life!

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Director Raja Krishna Menon's film 'Chef' is an official remake of Jon Favreau's 2014 film by the same name. Menon's film Chef explores life and its nuances in regard to changing relationships in personal and professional life. It takes cooking as a metaphor to understand life. We too need to be like a chef who pays utmost attention to what he prepares and is creative in presenting it before his clients as well as never hesitates to wait for their feedback. If so, life becomes too blissful. Unfortunately, often we fail to do so.  

Saif Ali Khan as Chef Roshan Kalra woos you by his culinary skills and passion to cook. Roshan as a 10 year-old boy only cherished to be a cook like  his neighborhood Chole Baturewala Chacha. He grows up into a celebrity Chef after running away from home and landing up one day in US after many hardships early in his life. But all these experiences had made him a hard nut to crack. Roshan knows his work very well and therefore, cannot take a 'No' easily. He desist anyone who criticize his dish because he feels he seldom fails. One such incident turns his life upside down because he punches a customer in his restaurant and lands up in prison.

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Left with no option after he loses his job, he decides to fly back to Kochi (Kerala) to meet his only son Armaan (Swar Kamble) who lives with his ex-wife Radha (Padmapriya Janakiraman). Menon without dwelling much into what went wrong between him and his wife transports us to Kochi where he is greeted happily by his son and his wife who in all ways  looks mature and a friend t`o him. The story picks up from there, the film beautifully portrays the emotional bonding between a father and a son and focuses on the embers of love that is still alive between Roshan and his ex wife. Love doesn't end if it is true love because it just manifests into different forms but it never allow it to die. Chef is one such movie that showcases the power of love and care for each other.

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Roshan Kalra's life changes after his coming back to Kochi where he realizes where, when and what went wrong in his life. His interactions with Armaan, Radha and her close friend Biju (Milind Soman) a business man leads one after to another. To his surprise, he embarks on a journey with a food bus christened as Raasta Cafe from Kochi to Delhi along with his son Armaan and his ex colleague and mentee in US Nazrul (Chandan Roy) who came back to his guru after being left out in US. The journey of all the three guys with the Malayali bus driver Alex is hilarious, touching and a learning experience for them as well as for the viewers.

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Padmapriya as Radha is elegant, expressive and is successful in portraying a very mature ex wife and a true friend. All these aspects comes so naturally to her on screen that it is difficult to believe that she is acting. Swar Kamble wins your heart by his innocence and his love for his father and mother. Milind Soman as a Keralite in a white dhoti impresses you by his subtle acting, though he doesn't have much to do but is able to leave a positive impact on you. Chandan Roy as a loyal chella plays his role as Nazrul with great conviction. He reminds you that there are friends who are always there for you in good times as well as bad times and therefore, treasure them. Saif Ali Khan looks different after a series flop for the last few years like Happy Ending, Humshakals, Bullet Raja, and then his last film Rangoon. Hope this outing fetches him the same response he got for his 2013 hit film Race. Amaal Malik and Raghu Dixit do render beautiful music and songs which add value to the story.

Raja Krishna Menon's film 'Chef' reminds me of the old adage - "Just when the caterpillar thought the world was over, it became a  butterfly". In short, cooking food is an art so is living life happily without letting yourself down. Go and watch Chef along with your family, if possible don't resist the idea if anyone of you want to call your ex to accompany you; I am sure this film will give you a new perspective to handle relationships in life.

Life Connoisseur Movie Rating: 3.5/5

Cast: Saif Ali Khan (Roshan Kalra), Padmapriya Janakiraman (Radha Menon), Chandan Roy Sanyal (Nazrul), Svar Kamble (Armaan), Pawan Chopra (Sunil Manohri), Raghu Dixit 9Special Appearance), Shaurya Chopra (Young Roshan), Sobhita Dhulipala (Vinnie), Ramgopal Bajaj (Roshan's Father), Milind Soman (Biju)

Genre: Drama

Director: Raja Krishna Menon

Producers: Bhushan Kumar, Raja Krishna Menon, Vikram Malhotra, Janani Ravichandran

Written by: Ritesh Shah, Suresh Nair, Raja Krishna Menon

Based on: 'Chef' by Jon Favreau

Music by: Raghu Dixit, Amaal Mallik

Cinematography: Priya Seth

Edited by: Shivkumar V Panicker

Production: T - Series, Abundantia Entertainment, Bandra West Pictures

Release Date: 6th October, 2017

Duration: 133 Minutes

Language: Hindi