Midnight in Paris

For once, it was not Woody Allen who wrote my template for a city even though his urban scapes have imbued every other city I lived in with his curious charm. So what if my cities were thousands of miles away from the black and white Manhattan montage unfolding to George Gershwin's music? Despite loving my favourite neurotic American director's quirky tribute to Hemingway's A Moveable Feast in his Midnight in Paris, my inspiration for the city was a pastiche of books I had read, films I had watched and stories I had heard. From some of the most romantic moments in cinema captured in the lights of the Eiffel Tower's glitter and the chiaroscuro shades of the gas lamps lining the streets of this magical city of lights to the artists, writers and poets living in their consumptive freezing garrets in vertiginous old buildings producing some of their greatest masterpieces in the midst of squalor and poverty. From the bohemian cabarets of Boulevard de Clichy to the colourful parties and balls of Montmartre, Paris has occupied a pivotal point in my introduction to the world of art and culture.

Ever since I could remember, as an idealistic teen, an ambitious 20-year-old, a bit more worldly 30-year-old, every trip I ever planned whether as an imaginary itinerary or as a near-possibility — featured Paris. Time and again I would return to my worn-out globe, give it a spin and make it force stop on that same old dot circled with a red felt pen— Paris.

After all these years obfuscated by mundane matters and the daily business of life, when I finally did make this trip in the late summer of 2013, I was a bundle of nerves. Just like meeting a virtual love interest for the first time in the real world, I fretted whether my imagination had just built up this massive fantasy city unable to match anything that actually existed. And sure enough, it was a more frayed, edgy, dusty and older version of the imagined city pieced together from celluloid and poetic representations — and yet, it was more perfect than anything I had ever dreamed up. While I could write reams about Paris... it is Woody Allen again who has the perfect context for the city for Paris at midnight is when it is the most beautiful. It is the bewitching hour when the city draws you into herself and holds you in her thrall forever.

Like many others who have come before me, I too discovered and fell in love with the city by night Walking the banks of the Seine, with a view of the flying buttresses and the jaw-dropping magnificence that is the Notre Dame Cathedral, crossing the iconic green facade of the marvellously quaint and characterful Shakespeare & Co bookshop, walking cobbled streets of the artsy and fashionable 3rd and 4th Arrondissement, stopping at the first cafe that was yet to down its shutters and downing glasses of its cheapest house red to the sounds of a city not yet asleep and not yet awake.

Paris turned me into a wide-eyed girl, looking for the familiar indices of my growing up years as I read copiously and found the world in the pages of the books. I imagined yesteryear movie stars doing a little hop down these ancient avenues, bathed in the same neon lights reflecting off the restaurant signs that coloured my face...

It was the city that Remy, a tiny rat in the film Ratatouille, stared at from a rooftop window and felt the desire to overreach himself and his humble origins. It made you forget you were watching an animated film... all that filled your heart at that moment in time was the vast city and its myriad twinkling lights.

Paris by night allowed me to belong even if for those fleeting moments. My temporary home was truly mine and I was a Parisian till morning dawned and the harsh light of day stripped me of that illusion and left me a behatted tourist with a map, queuing up in lines to visit the nth museum and art gallery.

(First published in The New Indian Express Bangalore on 23 April, 2015)

The Travelling Bioscope Part II

I recently watched The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies and soaked in the beauty of Middle Earth aka New Zealand for the last time—from Turoa, Ohakune, North Island or the mythical and imposing Erebor to the idyllic Lake Pukaki which provides the stunning backdrop to the waterside village of Lake Town, the character of the films has been intrinsically tied together with the landscape of New Zealand, bringing this island nation alive in all its virgin splendour. The Hobbit: There and Back Again, the original title of the film marked the perfect journey of discovery and homecoming across this country, capturing its natural epic grandeur and preserving it on film for all time. This is the power of real and mythical journeys on screen. They imbue a land with an imagined history and drama, thus drawing you into viewing even a humble rock from a whole new perspective. A case in point would be travelling through Ramanagara, a small town about 50 km from Bengaluru on the Bengaluru-Mysuru highway, a completely nondescript sort of a place that you only pass through. Its only claim to fame are the ancient granite outcrops on its outskirts, another sight I would have bypassed for greener climes, had it not been for Sholay. The Ramadevarabetta formed the backdrop for iconic scenes from the film including the introduction of Gabbar, Hema Malini's memorable dance on broken beer bottles and key chase and fight sequences. For me these rocks resound with the sounds of Gabbar's classic dialogues and Hema Malini's ghungroos. This is but one of many points on a journey through various points on the celluloid map of the world.  

The Sideways Wine Tour (California)
This quirky and humorous story about two middle-aged men, Miles and Jack (played by Paul Giamatti and Thomas Haden Church) is all about wine, great food, inebriated conversations, naked cuckolded husbands and fleeting holiday romances. Laden with high spirits and lubricated with good wine, this film brings to life the Santa Ynez Valley in Santa Barbara County with its mountains, lush rolling meadows, its expansive vineyards and quaint tasting rooms. The film piqued the interest of travellers and actually contributed to an increase in the tourism of the area. The famous Hitching Post II restaurant (Miles’ favourite restaurant where he meets Maya) actually exists and is a pitstop for most undertaking this tour. Apart from their excellent collection of wines, they also have quality meat, poultry and seafood grills. This apart, who can forget the celeb ostriches which show up in the film. The quirky Ostrich Land is home to these feathered bipeds and you can feed, meet and hang out with them just like our onscreen duo.

The Highway trip (J&K, Punjab and Rajasthan)
This film offers a fresh view of some of the lesser travelled paths on screen. Imtiaz Ali’s beautifully shot Highway, captures the sometimes pristine, sometimes chaotic and always colourful scenery as Alia Bhatt and her captors travel across North India in a truck. Far from the urban setting, this film dwells on the journey, the silences and often lets the backdrop emerge as the central metaphor in the film. As Alia Bhatt’s character breathes in deeply of the fresh air outside of her constrictive city life, she finds her personal freedom in the midst of her captivity. One of the most powerful scenes in the film include the nighttime shot in the monochromatic Sambhar salt pans in the Rann of Kutch where while attempting to escape, Alia Bhatt is overwhelmed by the futility of the exercise as well as the infinite night sky teeming with its stars overload. Then there are the stark snow-clad peaks of Kaza as well as the fairy tale setting at Aru Valley in Kashmir. The film makes us want to hitch a ride on the first truck leaving the city.

The Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara trip (Spain)
This film brought to life this Mediterranean country with its sun-kissed beaches, its plethora of churches, historical towns, cobblestoned paths, age-old traditions and colourful music and dance while showcasing some equally beautiful people (special note must be made of Hrithik Roshan and Katrina Kaif whose tanned and toned bodies made them perfect poster children for Spanish tourism). This slice of life film ushered in a very modern and urban Bollywood ethos spearheaded by Zoya Akhtar and also introduced a countrywide audience to obscure rituals like the La Tomatina as well as the Bull Run at Pamplona. With a great soundtrack and an easy vibe, the film did for Spain tourism among the urban youth what Yash Chopra had done for Switzerland back in the day. So much so that there was a reported 32 per cent hike in the number of Indian tourists to Spain in the first year following the film. Suddenly everyone was interested in the Flamenco and everyone wanted to visit Spain. Designed for the young and sporty, this trip traverses the coastal towns of Costa Brava and includes all the elements for a real life bachelor party/trip which mimics the one on screen.

This appeared in The New Indian Express Bangalore on 25 December, 2014

The Travelling Bioscope

While Raj Kapoor might have been the first Indian director to take his audience to foreign locales with Sangam in 1964, it was Yash Chopra who reinvented romance creating an everlasting association with chiffons, Swiss dales and meadows in full bloom. Ever since Rekha and Amitabh Bachchan immortalized the famous Kuekenhof tulip gardens in The Netherlands with the riot of colours and the magic of Kishore-Lata in Dekha Ek Khwaab from Silsila, this garden has been a highlight on the itinerary of a large number of Bollywood loving honeymooning couples from India. Apart from these gardens, this legendary onscreen pair also brought Switzerland home to the Indian viewer, beginning a trend which was faithfully followed by blockbusters like Chandni and Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge among a host of many other films. And thus began the Yashraj formula for sureshot success which fused the hero of the day singing hit romantic songs, actresses in chiffons cavorting on green meadows and the snowcapped Alps in the backdrop. So much so that that Swiss tourism tied up with Yashraj Films and Kuoni Travel Group in 2010 to create a customized tour called the YRF Enchanted Journey which takes travellers to different locales from the various films produced under the banner. While this one is perfect for couples, we take a look at a few other cinema-based tours that continue to fuel our imagination long after their last scenes have unspooled on screen.

Middle Earth  (New Zealand)
Peter Jackson’s award-winning trilogy brought Middle Earth to life in all its magnificence and glory. Great credit goes to the director for choosing New Zealand as the backdrop for the LOTR films as its natural beauty is quite unsurpassed. The film catapulted the country’s sights and sounds into the public imagination across the world as Lord of the Rings series went on to become one of  the highest grossing films of all time. Almost all parts of the country have different LOTR tours and can be customized to suit your interests. Some of the most breathtaking sights include the Tongariro National Park providing the stark landscape for Mordor with its central peak Mount Ngauruhoe as Mount Doom which is the figurative beginning and end of the ring. For those who want only the Middle Earth experience, there are the Hobbiton movie set tours which recreate the green splendour that is the shire, complete with the little hobbit holes, the Green Dragon Inn and the Party Tree where Bilbo does his disappearing act!

Amelie’s Montmartre (Paris, France)  
Amelie, the wonderfully quirky 2001 film, follows the travails of a dreamy young waitress through the charming cobblestoned paths of Montmartre. This erstwhile artist’s village is one of the most charming parts of the city, associated with the music of the Jazz Age, the impressionism of Monet, the genius of Picasso, the madness of Dali and the never-ending dances of Moulin Rouge. It is also the MontMartre of Amelie Poulain. From the metro station she used to take to the local grocer and butcher shops that she visits, this is one inexpensive tour that you could craft for yourself with help from the numerous online sites. A good place to end your tour is at Café des Deux Moulins on 15 Rue Lepic, the lovely, quaint and now legendary little cafe where Amelie is shown working in the film. Wrangle a terrace (outdoor seat) and treat yourself to a glass of wine and watch the laidback life unfold on the gorgeous Montmartre Hill.

The Feluda tour (Jaipur, Jodhpur, Jaisalmer and Varanasi) 
This one is quite the personal favourite. While following Feluda’s complete adventures could very well turn into a Bharat Darshan, a fan of the two Satyajit Ray’s films, Sonar Kella and Joy Baba Felunath, could follow this super smart private detective’s adventurous trail across four cities in North India.
Every Bengali’s much-loved sleuth from 21 Rajani Sen Road, Ballygunge, Kolkata, Feluda is Satyajit Ray’s immortal creation whom he brought to life with finesse in his films Sonar Kella and Joy Baba Felunath. While the films were continued by his son, Sandip Ray, it is Ray senior’s mastery over the craft that brought this Charminar-smoking detective to life with all the sharpness of his intellect. Soumitra as Feluda turned in a stellar performance which was equally matched by his young assistant Topshe, essayed by Siddhartha Chatterjee and the unassailable writer of thrillers Jatayu, played by Santosh Dutta. Together, they travel to various cities, encounter oddball characters from those places, find themselves in humorous situations brought about by the clash of different cultures and languages and solve great mysteries plaguing the people and police force alike. Follow the Sonar Kella route as envisioned in the dreams of the young boy Mukul and journey across the often surreal landscape of Rajasthan. A traveller can visit destinations including the Nahargarh Fort in Jaipur, the lesser-known Circuit House in Jodhpur and finally wind up at the marvellous golden-yellow sandstone fort—the Jaisalmer Fort. Travel by train all through and hope to meet characters as diverse as Lalmohan Ganguly, the writer of popular detective fiction and collector of antiques. For those attempting to get lost in the bylanes of Varanasi as depicted in Joy Baba Felunath, the film is the perfect map for the same and will no doubt take you to interesting sights and bring the city alive in a whole new way.

(This was published in the New Indian Express Bangalore on 27 November 2014)

Forgettable fare with a wrong mix of ingredients

Despite the innovative campaign where lead pair Aditya Roy Kapur and Parineeti go on
a food yatra across the country in order to promote their film and a trailer that promises a
spicy love story, Daawat e Ishq is a much diluted and bland offering.

The romance in this apparent feast of love is lacklustre and characterized by a complete
lack of chemistry between the lead pair. But the the greatest disappointment is the fact
that what is touted a film which celebrates food, barely offers a hat tip to the culinary
heritage of the food capitals of Hyderabad and Lucknow with plates of seekh kababs,
oily biryanis and greasy kormas inserted at random points in the film providing an
unappetizing window into a gastronomy that is believed to be unmatched. A closeup of
a half-finished kebab, mutilated mutton sticking to a few grains of rice and a quickly
congealing bowl of salan at the famous Naaz hotel near Charminar at Hyderabad does
little justice to the food or the place. Similarly a bizarre shot in Lucknow focussing on a
closeup of the grease on a bowl of nihari is neither appetizing nor aesthetically appealing.

The complete lack of reference to the biryani rivalry between the two cities apart from a
passing comment by Kapur's Haider based on a few bites of food court fare, will leave
foodie members of the audience deeply unsatisfied.

Director and writer Habib Faisal's previous outings in films like Band Baaja Baraat, Do 
Dooni Chaar proved his mettle as a scriptwriter who had his finger on a certain suburban
middle class ethos and brought the local voices to the fore in all their loudmouthed and
honest splendour. However, with Daawat e Ishq, Faisal's writing fails to impress on all
counts proving to be one of the weakest links in the film.

The script starts off on a strong note establishing Gullu as an English medium-educated
shoe salesgirl of marriageable age who is trying to simultaneously find a good husband
and fulfill her dreams. However, in both cases her dreams take a beating
as her suitors all demand a sizeable dowry or "help" in furthering their own prospects
in foreign climes and are far from suitable. They even include a 'blue film' watching
CV faker who is taken down a peg or two by the feisty heroine. Parineeti's relationship
with her bumbling and meek widower father played by Anupam Kher is etched with
with tenderness and a wry sense of humour. As an honest legal clerk, he is as much of
an anomaly as his his well-educated daughter who has to tolerate insufferable customers
who walk into the swanky shoe store in an upscale mall with a "thank you madam"
and unwavering smile. Credit must be given to Parineeti who plays Hyderabad ki tez
Gulrez with great spunk, essaying her part of a disillusioned shoe salesgirl who dreams of
making it big and having her own line of footwear with conviction. She invests as much
in her nuanced Hyderabadi dialect as she does in the body language of the Dubai-returned
designer kurta-wearing Sania Habibullah.

The first hour of the film is full of promise and potential. Set in Hyderabad, an ancient-
modern city, straddling the spires of Charminar and the glitzy chrome and glass IT offices
with ease, it reveals snippets of lower-middle class India with sub-30k salaries and living
in the older parts of modern cities as seen in the lives of Gulrez Quader, her father and
their curious and often irate neighbours like Bilquis. One of the film's strong points in the
first half is its clever handling of its social message. The practice of dowry is obviously
condemned but in a humorous manner, turning the dowry demanders into comical stock
characters who perform as per their stereotype.

However, the plot begins to unravel from the moment the father-daughter duo arrive
in Lucknow as newly christened con artists out to exploit dowry hunters as well as the
legal system. The story takes absurd twists and turns and from a fairly realist framework
enters the realm of ill placed platters of orange kebabs and choreographed Bollywood
routines. This is unfortunately also the point where Aditya Roy Kapur is introduced as the
effervescent and over the top Lucknow ka ashiq Tariq, who flips his sheermals, greases
his kebab skewers and bedazzles female tourists with his easy charm and generosity.
He is ready with a smile or a kebab as the occasion might demand. The usually posh,
brooding and soft-spoken Kapur clad in ridiculous shirts is fairly convincing as "Taru"
Haider. His only flaw is that he is the victim of an ill-conceived script that goes nowhere
and delivers little by virtue of a romance or a feast. The three day "tuning-setting"
formula between the lead pair is an endless and boring song and dance routine set to
music by Sajid-Wajid. Although the Qawwali influences might have been good in a small
dose, its repetitive nature leaves the soundtrack lacking the punch and recall value of
Habib Faisal's earlier films.

Although there are glimpses of Faisal's trademark humour like the scene where there is a
sudden brake in Gullu and Amju's (TV star Karan Wahi's big screen debut) burgeoning
romance as he mentions that he is a vegetarian and Parineeti's kebab and nihari-eating
character pales, putting her halim before her heart, similarly the nikaah setpiece in front
of the Haider restaurant's focuses on the neon board displaying kakoris as much as the
resplendent bride and groom, these are few and far in between. Most plot points are put
together, complicated and resolved for no particular reason or logic. Daawat-e-Ishq is
like that culinary potpourri that just went wrong due to a whole bunch of too many wrong
ingredients put together.

It would be better advised to spend your time indulging in a real daawat of biryani and
kebab rather than indulging in this forgettable fare.

This was published in the New Indian Express, Bangalore on 20 September 2014

Truck of Treats

                                           (This was published in BLink on 5 July, 2014)

A gleaming knife cuts effortlessly through a charred brisket to reveal a juicy and glistening pink interior. The meat is quickly sliced up, piled on to fluffy white bread slathered in rich butter, laden with pickles, topped with stretchy, melty cheese and toasted gently, a sandwich fit for the gods. 

While some could call this a slice of heaven, I had friends watching this scene with expressions of misery on their faces for this was extreme food porn designed to torture all those who love to eat. Even as the gorgeous Scarlett Johansson and Sofia Vergara slurp up fresh-from-the-stove herby pasta or dig into a melty-cheesy Cuban sandwich, strangely enough, your attention is drawn away from these beautiful women — to what they are eating. In Jon Favreau’s Chef, the screen is set ablaze by the food that is in turns sexy, playful, nostalgic, homely, sophisticated and always delicious. While the film itself is not without its flaws, the food that Jon Favreau pays homage to, is most definitely flawless. From the exquisite farm-fresh, and inspirational dishes crafted in his tiny home kitchen and presented on rustic wooden platters — the meal that could have impressed Internet millionaire and food critic, Ramsay Michel, once and for all, to a simple buttery, three cheese grilled sandwich that Chef Carl Casper makes for his son, every dish is honest and intends to please the person it is created for. His journey from Chef de Cuisine at a celebrated L.A. restaurant, to an out-of-work Internet joke, to a food truck hero, is one of discovery and love — of both the culinary and the human sort.

Jon Favreau’s Chef celebrates food and there is a beating heart at the squishy centre of this indie offering that is bound to leave you feeling warm and very, very hungry. This little film from the director renowned for his big ticket outings like Iron Man follows in the tradition of Chocolat (directed by Lasse Halstrom, 2000), Julie and Julia (directed by Nora Ephron, 2009), Woman on Top (directed by Fina Torres, 2000), Eat Drink Man Woman (directed by Ang Lee, 1994), Like Water for Chocolate (directed by Alfonso Arau, 1992), Babette’s Feast (directed by Gabriel Axel, 1987), and the delightful animated classic Ratatouille (directed by Brad Bird and Jan Pinkava, 2007), among others. 

This mix of big studio Hollywood films as well as indie and foreign cinema has a common thread. All of them capture the interplay between the cultural, emotional, sensual and extremely visual aspects of films food. Cooking and eating remain at the centre of the narrative while cultural mores, myths, stories, love, loss, sex and humour are stirred in as the secondary ingredients in food films, which can tickle the appetite like no other. 

Just like Chef Carl Casper, other underdogs of the culinary world include Remy the rat from Ratatouille whose biggest dream is to cook and Julie Powell from Julie and Julia who wants to transform her life through the magic of Julia Child’s recipes. These characters overcome great odds through determination, spirit, a little love from food critics, an occasional friendly chef spirit and some Internet hits and trends. Their stories are ones that leave the cockles of your heart toasty as well as inspire you to take that step, even if it be only off the edge of a first floor sublet above a grimy pizza parlour in Queens.

Cinematic representations of food intertwine myth, storytelling, culture and community. In Chocolat Juliet Binoche’s Vianna Rocher mixes together her decadent chocolate filled confections in a little French town under the disapproving aegis of its stern mayor, stirring up emotions and unraveling the true nature of people who live together in this apparently tightly knit community. Sometimes food takes on magic realist proportions and is used as symbolic representations of the protagonist’s emotions, be it love, lust, betrayal or sadness. The food that Tita cooks at her lover’s wedding feast causes sickness as well as great longing in the hearts of all those who eat it in Like Water for Chocolate. It is as much a reflection of her Mexican heritage as it is of her own personal dilemma. An enchanted crab and a stunning Penelope Cruz all clad in tomato red dresses (probably the only saving grace of the film) cook up a sensual repast that make strangers fall in love in Woman on Top. Food can be the connection and the bridge between estranged lovers, family members and members of a community. There is nothing more comforting than the warmth of a large family meal and it is this idea that forms the central tenets of Babette’s Feast and Eat Drink Man Woman. From lives and worlds as far apart as a small village on the Jutland coast in Denmark to Taipei, Taiwan, food plays the common role of a healing salve as well as the glue that holds families together. Thus Babette’s marvellous feast costing 10,000 francs and featuring quail with foie gras and truffle sauce, a blue cheese, fig, papaya, grape and pineapple platter, turtle soup, endive and walnut salad and rum cake with glaceed fruits is hardly all that different from Mr. Chu’s extravagant dinners for his daughters where he whips up delicacies like steamed chicken with black mushroom, shrimp and water chestnut croquettes and San Pei chicken from the fish he has raised and chickens he has bred to ensure his extremely high standards. 

Chef is in most parts a worthy successor to these films. It draws on many of their tropes and whips them together with a dollop of New Orleans jazz, Latin dance music, Facebook updates and Twitter feeds, making it a delectable all-American concoction about the indomitable human spirit. And as Chef Carl, his sous chef Martin and his son lip sync through the brass band version of Marvin Gaye’s ‘Sexual Healing’ in their food truck, riding across America selling their food dream, we realize that we have bought into it as well.