Filmfare Awards 2014 - Nominees

  Bollwood's prestigious awards- the 60th Filmfare Awards 2014 ceremony  will be held  on 31st, January, 2015  in Mumbai, India. Here are the Nominees 

BEST FILM

2 States

Haider

Mary Kom

PK

Queen

BEST DIRECTOR

Abhishek Varman - 2 States

Anurag Kashyap - Ugly

Rajkumar Hirani - PK

Vikas Bahl - Queen

Vishal Bhardwaj - Haider

BEST ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE (MALE)

Aamir Khan - PK

Akshay Kumar - Holiday

Hrithik Roshan - Bang Bang

Randeep Hooda - Rang Rasiya

Shahid Kapoor - Haider

BEST ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE (FEMALE)

Alia Bhatt - Highway

Kangana Ranaut - Queen

Madhuri Dixit - Dedh Ishqiya

Priyanka Chopra - Mary Kom

Rani Mukerji - Mardaani

Sonam Kapoor - Khoobsurat

BEST ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE (MALE)

Abhishek Bachchan - Happy New Year

Kay Kay Menon - Haider

Riteish Deshmukh - Ek Villain

Ronit Roy -2 States

Tahir Raj Bhasin - Mardaani

BEST ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE (FEMALE)

Amrita Singh - 2 States

Dimple Kapadia - Finding Fanny

Juhi Chawla - Gulaab Gang

Lisa Haydon - Queen

Tabu - Haider

BEST MUSIC

Amit Trivedi - Queen

Arko Pravo Mukherjee, Honey Singh, Mithoon and Pritam - Yariyaan

Himesh Reshammiya, Meet Bros Anjjan and Honey Singh – Kick

Mithoon, Ankit Tiwari and SOCH – Ek Villain

Shankar-Eshaan-Loy – 2  States

BEST LYRICS

Amitabh Bhattacharya – Zehnaseeb (Hasee Toh Phasee)

Gulzar – Bismil (Haider)

Irshad Kamil – Patakha guddi (Highway)

Kausar Munir – Suno na sangemarmar (Youngistaan)

Rashmi Singh – Muskurane ki wajah (CityLights)

BEST PLAYBACK SINGER (MALE)

Ankit Tiwari – Galliyan (Ek Villain)

Arijit Singh – Mast magan (2 States)

Arijit Singh – Suno na sangemarmar (Youngistaan)

Benny Dayal – Locha-E-Ulfat  (2 States)

Shekhar Ravjiani – Zehnaseeb (Hasee Toh Phasee)

BEST PLAYBACK SINGER (FEMALE)

Jyoti Nooran and Sultana Nooran – Patakha guddi (Highway)

Kanika Kapoor – Baby doll (Ragini MMS 2)

Rekha Bhardwaj – Humari atariya pe (Dedh Ishqiya)

Shreya Ghoshal – Manwa lage (Happy New Year)

Sona Mahapatra – Naina (Khoobsurat)

Oct, Nov, Dec 2014 Bollywood Movies

December

Ugly

Director: Anurag Kashyap

Producers:Arun Rangachari, Vivek Rangachari, Madhu Mantena, Vikas Bahl, Vikramaditya Motwane

Cast: Rahul Bhat, Ronit Roy, Girish Kulkarni, Siddhanth Kapoor, Tejaswini Kolhapure, Vineet Kumar Singh, Surveen Chawla, Anshikaa Shrivastava, Sandesh Jadhav

Music: G. V. Prakash Kumar, Brian McOmber

Release dates:Dec26, 2014

Genre:Thriller

P.K

Cast: Aamir Khan, Anushka Sharma, Sushant Singh Rajput, Sanjay Dutt, Rohitash Gaud, Boman Irani, Saurabh Shukhla, Parikshit Sahni

Director: Rajkumar Hirani

Producers: Rajkumar Hirani, Vidhu Vinod Chopra

Story & Screenplay: Rajkumar Hirani, Abhijit Joshi

Music: Shantanu Moitra, Ajay Gogavale, Atul Gogavale

Background score: Sanjay Wandrekar, Atul Raninga

Lyrics: Swananda Kirkire, Amitabh Varma

Genre:  comedy, social drama

Parental Guidance: couple of kisses and some talk about sex and condoms.

Release dates:    Dec 19 2014

Rating: **** (4/5)

Lingaa

Director: K.S. Ravikumar

Producer: Rockline Venkatesh

Cast: Rajinikanth, Anushka Shetty, Sonakshi Sinha, Santhanam, Jagapathi Babu, Dev Gill, Karunakaran, Brahmanandam, Radha Ravi, Vijayakumar, K Vishwanath, Manobala, Illavarasu

Music: A. R. Rahman

Release dates: December 12, 2014

Genre: Action

Language:Tamil/Hindi/Telegu

November

The Shoukeens

Director: Abhishek Sharma

Producers: Ashvin Varde, Murad Khetani, Akshay Kumar

Writers:  Tigmanshu Dhulia, Sai Kabir

Screenplay :       Tigmanshu Dhulia

Cast: Anupam Kher, Annu Kapoor, Piyush Mishra, Lisa Haydon, Akshay Kumar

Music :  Yo Yo Honey Singh, Hard Kaur, Vikram Nagi, Arko Mukherjee

Release date:    7 November 2014

Kill Dil

Director: Shaad Ali

Producer: Aditya Chopra

Cast:  Govinda, Ranveer Singh, Ali Zafar, Parineeti Chopra

Music :  Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy

Cinematography              Aveek Mukhopadhyay

Edited by             Ritesh Soni

Release date:    14 November 2014

Happy Ending

Director: Raj Nidimoru, Krishna D.K.

Producer: Saif Ali Khan, Dinesh Vijan, Sunil Lulla

Cast: Govinda, Saif Ali Khan, Ileana D'Cruz, Ranvir Shorey, Kalki Koechlin

Music by              Sachin-Jigar

Release dates:  21 November 2014

Ungli

Director: Rensil D'Silva

Producers: Hiroo Yash Johar, Karan Johar

Writer:  Milap Milan Zaveri, Rensil D'Silva

Cast:Emraan Hashmi, Kangana Ranaut, Sanjay Dutt, Randeep Hooda, Neil Bhoopalam, Angad Bedi

Music: Salim-Sulaiman, Sachin-Jigar, gulraj singh, aslamkeyi, Background Score: John Stewart Eduri

Release date:28 November 2014

 

October

Bang Bang   

       

Director: Siddharth Anand

Producer: Fox Star Studios

Writer:  Abbas Tyrewala (Dialogue)

Screenplay : Patrick O'Neill (Original Screenplay), Sujoy Ghosh, Suresh Nair (Adapted Screenplay)

Story :   Patrick O'Neill

Based on: Knight and Day by James Mangold & Patrick O'Neill

Cast:  Hrithik Roshan, Katrina Kaif, Danny Denzongpa, Jaaved Jaffrey, Pawan Malhotra, Jimmy Shergill

Music : Vishal-Shekhar

Background Score: Salim-Sulaiman

Release date:    2 October 2014

Haider 

Director: Vishal Bhardwaj

Producers :Vishal Bhardwaj, Siddharth Roy Kapur

Writers: Basharat Peer, Vishal Bhardwaj

Based on Hamlet  by William Shakespeare

Cast: Shahid Kapoor, Tabu, Shraddha Kapoor, Kay Kay Menon

Music :  Vishal Bhardwaj

Release date: 2 October 2014

Sonali Cable      

Director; Charudutt Acharya

Producer; Ramesh Sippy, Rohan Sippy, Kamia Mulhotra, Roopa De Chouodhury

Writer: Charudutt Acharya

Starring: Rhea Chakraborty, Ali Fazal, Raghav Juyal, Anupam Kher, Smita Jaykar

Music :  Daniel B. George, Mikey McCleary, Amjad Nadeem, Raghav Sachar

Release date:    17 October 2014

A friend was involved in playing the music for few of this movies’ numbers. wishing the best to this friend for bollywood success!

Happy New Year

Director:Farah Khan

Producer:Gauri Khan

Writer:Farah Khan,Althea Kaushal Mayur Puri

Story:Farah Khan

cast:Shahrukh Khan,Abhishek Bachchan,Deepika Padukone,Boman Irani,Sonu Sood,Vivaan Shah,Jackie Shroff

Narrator:Shahrukh Khan

Music:Vishal Shekhar,John Stewart Eduri

Release date:24 October 2014

               

Super Nani

Director: Indra Kumar

Producer: Indra Kumar, Ashok Thakeria

Writer:  Vipul Mehta

Based on Gujarati play, Baa Ae Maari Boundary

Cast: Rekha,  Sharman Joshi, Randhir Kapoor, Anupam Kher, Shweta Kumar

Music :  Harshit Saxena, Sanjeev-Darshan

Release date:    31 October 2014

P.K Movie Review

Cast: Aamir Khan, Anushka Sharma, Sushant Singh Rajput, Sanjay Dutt, Rohitash Gaud, Boman Irani, Saurabh Shukhla, Parikshit Sahni

Director: Rajkumar Hirani

Producers: Rajkumar Hirani, Vidhu Vinod Chopra

Story & Screenplay: Rajkumar Hirani, Abhijit Joshi

Music: Shantanu Moitra, Ajay Gogavale, Atul Gogavale

Background score: Sanjay Wandrekar, Atul Raninga

Lyrics: Swananda Kirkire, Amitabh Varma

Genre:  comedy, social drama

Parental Guidance: couple of kisses and some talk about sex and condoms.

Release dates:    Dec 19 2014

Rating: **** (4/5)

Review By: Birjis Adeni Rashed

(The aim and intention of my reviews is to critique and recommend while not revealing the whole story to enjoy the movie when seen. But minor details have been divulged for a proper review!)

“Naam kucho naahi hai humaar lekin pata nahi kaahey sab log humka PK-PK bulawat hai?” P.K  is not his name, nor is he tipsy, but he is the outsider, whose’s naïve exploration of religion enlightens his  perspective, in the process exposing the duplicities of godmen who exploit religion and revealing the bigotry, racial divides and charades of  organized religion.

Director Rajkumar Hirani  with Aamir Khan in the lead brilliantly create a satiric comedy  tackling the sensitive issue of religious rituals without being sacrilegious and offensive to any one religion by the pure genius of having an ‘alien’ perspective.

Just like Hirani with his wit and satire artistically exposed the flaws in education systems through 3 Idiots, and shared the Gandhian philosophies through Munna Bhai, in P.K he bravely challenges one more real world issue with his creative artistry.

Though Paresh Rawal starring ‘Oh My God’ handled a similar subject, the simplicity of the story in P.K, and  the ingeniously  crafted scenes, with classic yet cheeky dialogs, rich with  comic wit and ironic humor with the obvious out of this world outlook makes P.K an excellent movie.

Aamir Khan excels as always in his performace. He  enthralls  us with his innocent charm and makes ‘tingga tingga nanga punga’ P.K endearing in spite of his  unblinking, jutting eyes, protruding ears, red pan stained lips, and Bhojpuri accent. Anouska Sharma  portraying a  spirited, ‘bindaas’ bold, and spontaneous  character fits in well.  Sanjay Dutt, Boman Irani and Sushant Rajput in their roles have sweet and pleasant performances. Suarabh Shukla holds fine in the negative role.

The songs and lyrics are fresh and refreshing. The folk song with Rajastani fervor in ‘tharki chokro’ is entertaining, ‘chaar kadam’ is a nice romantic number, ‘Love is a baste of time’ is peppy and  ‘mohabat bare kaam ki cheez hai’ Bhojpuri style. ‘tinga tinga nanga punga’  is rhythmic and fun watch, ‘bhagwaan hai kahan’ has poignant lyrics which strikes an emotional  cord.

I give 4 stars to this movie for Aamir Khan’s magnificent performance, Rajkumar Hirani’s pure genius of story and direction and challenging another real world issue and its all-round entertaining factor.

It’s absolutely worth watching, I already saw it twice in a span of few days ;)

Haider- A Movie Review

Haider- A Review
 

Cast: Shahid Kapoor, Shraddha Kapoor, Tabu, Kay Kay Menon, Irrfan Khan, Narendra Jha
Director: Vishal Bhardwaj
Producers: Vishal Bhardwaj, Siddharth Roy Kapur
Writers: Basharat Peer,Vishal Bhardwaj
Music :  Vishal Bhardwaj
Genre: Drama
Based on Hamlet  by William Shakespeare
 Release dates:    2 October 2014
Rating: ***.75 (3.75/5)
Review By: Birjis Adeni Rashed



 Hamlet, Kashmir and Chutzpah, it’s a complex combination to handle and Haider does it brilliantly. The movie adapted on Shakespeare’s Hamlet   weaves the story in socio political and cultural milieu of Kashmir. The movie evokes strong emotions, depicts powerful narrative, poetic violence and brilliant performances.

Vishal Bhardwaj who has earlier made ‘Maqbool’ and ‘Omkara’ based on Shakespeare’s tragedies Macbeth and Othello creates another masterpiece with Hamlets adaptation into Haider.   Haider has dark emotions of love, deceit and revenge weaved into the canvas of the unrest and upheaval in Kashmir. And of course not forgetting chutzpah ‘KHootspah’, meaning audacity or the nerve, ( though pronounced as 'chutspaa' in the movie)  which is   ironically  punned about to relate to the context of  power of the armed forces  and the turmoil in Kashmir. 

Bharadwaj’s Hamlet adaptation is set in 1995 Kashmir  which is in a state of  chaos and dispute between India and Pakistan with militancy, uprisings, army control, curfews, misery and hopelessness. The grey frozen Dal Lake with bodies and bloodshed provides a stark contrast from the old time heavenly Kashmir.   Haider, the namesake and the central character  played by Shahid  Kapoor returns home to Kashmir when his  doctor father Hilal Meer  ( Narendra Jha) gets imprisoned by the army for saving a militants life. On his return he discovers his mother Ghazala Meer (Tabu) has moved in with his  politician/lawyer uncle Khurram( Kay Kay Menon) and later learns of his uncles deceit and treachery.

 The characters in this movie all have a mosaic of personalities, conflicts of loyalties, and each are complex people.  The story connects these relationships artistically. Each characters love, passion, hate, revenge are all intense. And the audacious subject like oedipal feelings of Hamlet is hinted with subtlety and undertones in Haider.

The conflict question “to be or not to be” takes multiple meanings in Haider. “Hum hai ki nahin hain” is not just Haider’s conflict,  it’s played also as Kashmir’s existential dilemma, caught between India and Pakistan, army and militants, fight for freedom from what, who, why?   Here this embodiment of dialog is deep.

Hamlet is a tragedy, so don’t go expecting Bollywood style song and dance entertainment from Haider. Except for a few moments of light hearted humor including a spoof on Salman Khan and Haider making fun of the local Kashmiri accent( pronunciations like lovve-ed  for loved ), it is mainly  edgy sadness. It does not have an item song  like Beedi Jalaika in Omkara. The item song is replaced by the movie 'Karz' inspired story telling song in "Bismil Bismil" which is very emotive and haunting.

Shahid Kapoor as Haider exhibits acting prowess unlike his previous comic performances. His passion of love, hate and insanity handled excellently. Shraddha Kapoor carries her character of Arshi , Haider's love interest and connector of many dots in the movie well. Tabu is glorious as Ghazala. Her acting talent is flawless and incomparable; none in the industry could have done this complex role better than her. Kay Kay Menon as the deceitful uncle and Irfan Khan as the militant 'Roohdar' have outstanding performances too.

The writing team of Basharat Peer ( Kashmiri journalist  and author of “ Curfewed Night” about Kashmir conflict)  and Vishal Bhardwaj is excellent.  They bring out the despair and hopelessness of Kashmir beautifully showing the stark contrast to the paradisiacal Kashmir it used to be.
The direction of Vishal Bhardwaj is excellent to have adroitly handled Hamlet, Kashmir  and of course chutzpah ;)

 It’s a movie  worth watching.

Khoobsurat- A Movie Review

(The aim and intention of my reviews is to critique and recommend while not revealing the whole story to enjoy the movie when seen. But minor details have been divulged for a proper review!)

Director : Shashanka Ghosh

Producers : Rhea Kapoor, Anil Kapoor, Siddharth Roy Kapoor

Writer:  Indira Bisht

Cast: Sonam Kapoor, Fawad Afzal Khan, Ratna Pathak Shah, Kirron Kher, Prosenjit Chatterjee, Aamir Raza Hussain, Gargi Phule, Aditi Rao

Music:   Sneha Khanwalkar, Badshah, Amal Malik

Genre: Romance

Rating: ***

Review: Birjis Adeni Rashed

Khoobsurat is an artificially sweet Disney romance. It has a predictable and clichéd story; fluffy Mills and Boon/ undeveloped Jane Austin like characters; scattered charming and fun moments, extreme overacting by Sonam Kapoor; and debut in Bollywood by Pakistani dramas fame suave Fawaad Khan.

Loosely based on  1980’s Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s Khoobsurat  which was a hilarious comedy about a vivacious girl ( Rekha as Manju), who tries to make a strict household  with a matriarch ( Dina Pathak as Nirmala) in the family, have  more fun in life! 

The Director of 2014 Khoobsurat, Shashanka Ghosh  reworks the movie as a romance in royal settings where the Rathores of Sambhalgarh are led by the discipline loving Nimala Rathod ( Ratna Phatak/Dina Pathak's daughter), where Sonam Kapoor as Dr Mili Chakravarty, a physiotherapist with  crude and uncivilized manners and  hyper personality enters the rajmahal to help cure the wheel chair bound dad Shekar Rathod  while flirting with the uptight handsome prince Vikram Rathod-  Fawaad Khan.

 The story is clichéd and lacks warmth. It has few charming moments and funny dialogs but doesn’t flow through out.  The hero looks more distracted than attracted with the heroine, the chemistry is missing. The transformation of all characters in the progression of the movie is ill-defined and unreal and it obviously has a predictable climax. 

The director lacks in developing even the characters. Sonam Kapoor who is supposed to be a fun loving cool doctor, comes out  more as a  silly, annoying, childish, giddy  teenish, selfie loving, un-restrictive blabber mouth  with  whack dress sense ( was Sonam, an apparent fashionista blind to what she was wearing!)  and uncivilized manners ( since when did girls start putting the legs on the dashboard in front of the steering wheel,  mind it not just the dashboard ).  Of course overacting by Sonam Kapoor makes it more unreal and overkill.  Though Vikram Rathod's character  is not developed either  except for carrying about his business in formal attire and driving vintage cars and giving smoldering glares, the popular Pakistani  drama actor Fawaad khan with his  Bollywood debut  makes an interesting presence with his brooding handsome profiles and deep voice. 

Other performances which carry the movie are Kiron Kher as Mili’s Punjabi Skype and Facetime loving mom Manju, who goes by  Manju instead of mom! ( it may be the directors way of  emphasizing that  the old Khoobsurat had Rekha as Manju !). It may be Kiron Kher’s nth performance as Punjabi mom hence she does it naturally.  Ratna Pathak carries her roles as matriarch convincingly so does Amir Raza as the  wheelchair bound husband of the dominating queen. Prosenjit Chaterjee as Mili's dad also has his presence.

The music is a mix of good and bad.  The picturization of 'engine ki seeti' song was silly enough for me to walk off to refill our popcorn.  

Is it worth going to the theatres for a watch? No, unless you are a Pakistani actor Fawaad Khan fan who wants to catch him in his suave elegance after his success in dramas like 'Zindaji gulzar hai' and 'Humsafar' etc ;)  Did I get it right my dear Pakistani friends ;)

Bollywood Movie Releases - Aug/Sept 2014

September  Movie Releases

 

Mary Kom

Director: Omung Kumar

Producers: Viacom 18 Motion Pictures, Sanjay Leela Bhansali Writers:  Karan Singh Rathore, Ramendra Vasishth(dialogue)
Story & Screenplay : Saiwyn Quadras
Cast: Priyanka Chopra, Sunil Thapa, Darshan Kumaar, Rajni Basumatary, Zachary Coffin, Shishir Sharma
Music : Shashi-Shivamm
Release date: September 5, 2014
Genre: Sports drama/biographical

 

 

Finding Fanny 

Director: Homi Adajania Producer: Dinesh Vijan Writer:     Homi Adajania, Kersi Khambatta
Cast: Naseeruddin Shah, Arjun Kapoor, Deepika Padukone, Pankaj Kapur, Dimple Kapadia Music :    Mathias Duplessy, Sachin-Jigar Release date:  12 September 2014
Genre: Comedy/Satire

 

Creature

Director: Vikram Bhatt Producer: Bhushan Kumar, Krishan Kumar Screenplay: Vikram Bhatt, Sukhmani Sadana Cast: Bipasha Basu, Imran Abbas Naqvi Music : Mithoon, Tony Kakkar
Release dates:     12 September 2014
Genre:  science fiction thriller

 

Daawat-e-Ishq

Director:  Habib Faisal Producer: Aditya Chopra Writer: Habib Faisal
Cast:  Aditya Roy Kapur, Parineeti Chopra Music :    Sajid-Wajid Release dates: 19 September 2014
Genre:  romantic comedy

 

Khoobsurat

Director: Shashanka Ghosh
Producers: Rhea Kapoor, Anil Kapoor, Siddharth Roy Kapoor Writer:Indira Bisht
Cast: Sonam Kapoor, Fawad Afzal Khan( Pakistani drama Humsafar fame)

Music: Sneha Khanwalkar

 Release date: 19 September 2014
Genre: Romantic comedy
Inspired by Khoobsurat 1980 film (starring Rekha, Rakesh Roshan)

    

 

Chaarfutiya Chhokare     

Director and Story : Manish Harishankar
Producer: Sunill Khosla & Vibha Dutta Khosla
Starring:  Soha Ali Khan, Harsh Mayar, Seema Biswas, Mukesh Tiwari, Zakir Hussain, Suhas Sirsat, Lekh Tandon, Umesh Jagtap
Music :    Abhijeet-Sameer & Sudeep Banerjee
Release date: sept 26th
Genre: Social
   
   
   
   
   
   

August  Movie Releases

 

Entertainement

Director: Sajid-Farhad
Producers: Ramesh S. Taurani, Jayantilal Gada
 Screenplay and dialog writers:     Sajid-Farhad
Story : K. Subhash cast: Akshay Kumar, Tamannaah Bhatia, Johnny Lever, Sonu Sood, Prakash Raj Music :Sachin - Jigar Release date:    August 8, 2014
Genre: Comedy       

 

Singam Returns

Director: Rohit Shetty Producers: Ajay Devgan,Rohit Shetty writers:    Sajid-Farhad Screenplay: Yunus Sajawal
Story :Rohit Shetty
Cast: Ajay Devgan, Kareena Kapoor Khan, Amole Gupte,     Anupam Kher Music :Jeet Gannguli, Ankit Tiwari, Meet Bros Anjjan Release date: 15 August 2014
Genre: Action, Drama       

 

Mardani

Director: Pradeep Sarkar Producer: Aditya Chopra Writer: Gopi Puthran
Cast: Rani Mukerji, Tahir Raj Bhasin, Jisshu Sengupta Music : Shantanu Moitra, Background Score: Karthik Raja Release date: 22 August 2014
Genre:  social /action/ drama

The Hundred Foot Journey – A Review

Director: Lasse Hallström

Producers: Steven Spielberg, Oprah Winfrey, Juliet Blake

Writer: Steven Knight

Based on: The Hundred-Foot Journey by Richard C. Morais

Cast: Helen Mirren, Om Puri, Manish Dayal, Charlotte Le Bon, Amit Shah, Farzanana Dua Elahe, Dillon Mitra, Aria Pandya, Michel Blanc

Music: A. R. Rahman

Cinematography: Linus Sandgren

Release date: August 8, 2014

Rating: ***
Review: Birjis Adeni Rashed

(The aim and intention of my reviews is to critique and recommend while not revealing the whole story to enjoy the movie when seen. But minor details have been divulged for a proper review!)

Mouthwatering & Delicious, Picturesque & Quaint, Haute & Hot, Classic & Colorful, French & Indian, Feast for the Senses,…. these are the words which promptly pop up when I reflect back on the Hundred Foot Journey. 

 

The Hundred Foot Journey, the movie is carried on big shoulders, directed by Lasse Hallstrom, who made the exceptional foodie movie- ‘Chocolat’ ; produced by the bigwigs of Hollywood Steven Spielberg and Oprah Winfrey. Has acting legends like Oscar winning actress Helen Mirren and accomplished Indian actor Om Puri. This movie is also based on a best seller novel by Richard C. Morais. 

 

That said, don’t go with expectations of a Spielberg movie, this is a story of food, cuisines, cultures, dreams and desires. The 100 foot journey is the distance Hassan Kadam( Manish Dayal) crosses to become a fusion chef of Indian and French Cuisines. 

 

The story begins in Mumbai and travels to the picturesque and lush French village where the Kadam family set their ‘Maison Mumbai’ right in front of the madam Mallory's Michelen star winning haute French restaurant, Le Saule Pleureur; and how Hassan progresses into a journey of his own, seeking success and then happiness! 

 

The jousting interplay between two contrasting rivals, the prudent and driven Madame Mallory (Helen Mirren) and high- spirited, optimistic Papa Kadam(Om Puri), and the flirtatious chemistry and culinary tête-à-tête of handsome and talented Indian Chef Hassan(Manish) with the sweet and charming French sous chef Marguerite(Charlotte) builds the movie with some visually appetizing gourmet with epicurean savor, exotic spices, sauces and food porn making the viewers hungry and salivating. 

 

Picturesque cinamatogrophy of the quaint French villages, lush hills and cobble stone streets, the open air restaurants, the colorful farmers markets with fresh produce, mosaic of exotic food, the fine details in the culinary process, the romanticizing the making of food like Boeuf Bourguignon a la Hassan, Pigeon and Truffles, Sea Urchins, Murgh Masala, or even an Omlette, or the French sauces, mesmerizes and is feast for the senses. 

 

A.R. Rehman’s music additionally creates a fusion of the French and Indian cuisines and adds additional flavor to the movie. His weaving the instrumental music of old bollywood songs (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hundred-Foot_Journey_%28soundtrack%29) in background of some scenes gives more meaning to the scenes than it states. 

 

The movie has its negatives and glitches too with slower pace, predictable parts and some clichéd philosophies and pithy one liner’s which run deep in its own sense. ‘Brakes break for a reason’ is what Papa Kadam insists as positive sign from his late wife to see things in optimistic light to settle in the French village when the brakes fail. “Every bite takes you home.” creates nostalgic food inspired memories to the successful Parisian chef Hassan when he eats from an Indian colleague’s lunch box, triggering him to a reality check of what he wants from life! “The sea urchins taste of life” is something I didn’t get, probably because I have not tasted a sea urchin! Though the sea urchin is threaded in the movie as an ingredient in both Indian and French cuisines, it is not popularly available in India. 

 

Irrespectively I enjoyed the movie but I may be clinically biased towards the movie being passionate about food, a food writer, and feel that ‘cooking is a passionate affair’ like Madame Mallory! But some people with no interest in food and cooking may not be so enamored. The movie parts in French and Hindi may also get lost in translation and understanding since they didn’t come with subtitles.

Lastly will have to say, if you are a foodie you will love it, but if you are not, it may make you fall in love with food;)