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| Edited By: Yogesh Pawar |Source: DNA |Updated: Mar 18, 2018, 08:14 AM IST
Water for Chocolate; The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover; Chocolat; Delicatessen; Julie & Julia — in all these films, food offers the perfect backdrop for the plot to unfold. Hindi cinema too has done this with varying success with films like Bawarchi, Ramji Londonwaley, Cheeni Kum, Stanley ka Dabba, Lunchbox and Luv Shuv Tey Chicken Khurana. And now Marathi cinema takes the bar right up there with its first food film — Sachin Kundalkar's Gulabjaam. Cooking and celebrating food is at the heart of this film. Food often becomes a metaphor for life and living, evokes nostalgia and even awakens feelings you didn't even know existed.
A Londoner in Pune accidentally discovers a cook, who sends packed dabbas to people. How that meeting sets off a sequence for an entire story to unravel is to Kundalkar and Tejas Modak's (they've cooked up Gulabjaam together) credit. But one hardly expects any less from Kundalkar, who has in the past directed Nirop and written Gandha – both of which have fetched him national awards.
"The cook Radha Agarkar was the easiest to cast," says Kundalkar of Sonali Kulkarni whose power-packed performance stays with you. Kulkarni brings to her character an organic vulnerability and strength that sets the tone for its trajectory. "For as long as I've known her, Sonali has always expressed her fondness for people with food. I can't remember a time when she hasn't got something along that she has cooked herself, when she has come to meet me. One can almost sense the joy she gets in seeing people around savour the stuff she cooks."
Casting Siddharth Chandekar, the second lead, was not as easy. "I told him he'd have to roll out a perfect chapati for the part. He had obviously practised and was also able to get the boyish nuance of his character right."
The film also raises several issues related to gender stereotypes and food/cooking. "While my parents were supportive of my dabbling in the kitchen from early childhood, I know of several men who have faced a bullying/teasing even from their own family for showing an interest in what they see as feminine," says Kundalkar.
Chef (2014): When chef Carl (Jon Favreau) is frustrated by the limited repetitive menu his boss wants him to cook, an outburst costs him his job. He moves to selling Cuban sandwiches off a food truck with his estranged son.
The Lunchbox (2013): A young, unloved homemaker Ila (Nimrat Kaur) sends an extra-special lunch to her husband through a dabbawala hoping to re-ignite the passion. A mistaken delivery to a lonely widower (Irfan Khan), stirs a special culinary relation between the duo.
Luv Shuv Tey Chicken Khurana (2012): What is that one ingredient that makes his his daarji's chicken curry so good? As Omi Khurana (Kunal Kapoor) struggles to find out people bond over a hot kadhai full of freshly-cooked gravy in a joint run by an eccentric Punjabi family.
Stanley ka Dabba (2011): A little boy who works at a dhaba part-time struggles to find a way to carry a dabba to school. This one will make you hungry, nostalgic and also tug at heart strings.
Julie & Julia (2009): This drool-worthy retelling of one woman's attempt to cook through Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking is as much a must-watch for the recipes as it is for Meryl Streep. Keep lots of tissue handy as the boeuf bourguinion and raspberry Bavarian cream arrive on your screen.
Cheeni Kum (2007): Yes this one was an exceptional love story, but one infused with flavours from the kitchen. When a chef (Amitabh Bachchan) fails to impress a customer (Tabu) with his Hyderabadi zafrani pulao it marks the beginning of a chemistry punctuated with great food.
Ramji Londonwaley (2005): This film might not have a great premise for a plot but this is more than made up for with the way it handles food. A lot more than R Madhavan to drool over.
Chocolat (2000): When single mom Vianne (Juliette Binoche) and daughter move to small French village to start a chocolaterie across the local church, her concoctions draw the ire of the village mayor-priest, the Comte de Reynaud (Alfred Molina) who resents her tempting goodies at the beginning of Lent, the colours she wears and her closeness to the gypsy Roux (Johnny Depp).
Like Water for Chocolate: (1992) Erotica meets the culinary in this lovingly made food film. When tradition prevents a young Tita from marrying the stallion Pedro, she takes puts all her love and passion into her cooking. Must watch for the scene where she cooks quail in rose petal sauce.
Bawarchi (1972): This one still charms after all this years. Whether its just the morning chai or a the dishes he rustles up for the joint family he works for Rajesh Khanna's cook-turned-family confidante just bowls you over.
