Chef movie review: A mouth-watering ride

Directed By: Raja Krishna Menon
Produced By: Bhushan Kumar, Krishan Kumar, Raja Krishna Menon, Vikram Malhotra, Janani Ravichandran
Cast: Saif Ali Khan, Padmapriya, Svar Kamble
Duration: 2 hours 13 minutes
Bollywood Bubble Rating: 3/5

“Kaam, kaam se pyaar, aur pyaar se kaam mein, kahi pyaar toh reh hie gaya.”

As Saif Ali Khan mouthed this dialogue, the first thing that came to our mind is how work and money take a toll on our lives and family takes a backseat. Today writing ‘Chef’ movie review is not an easy task as after watching this we are damn hungry. Like, really hungry!

So, ‘Chef’ is about a cook named Roshan Kalra (Saif Ali Khan) who works at a restaurant in the US. But, he loses his job due an incident and comes back to India (Kerala) to his son Ary (Svar Kamble) and his ex-wife, Radha (the gorgeous Padmapriya). Well, here he gets an offer by a businessman, Biju (the hottie Milind Soman) to start a meals on wheels business. How Roshan sets the business, rediscovers himself, and how family becomes important for him, forms the rest of the story.

Well, ‘Chef’ is not an extraordinary flick or a film where you need to think much on what will happen next. It just goes with the flow. The movie is an official remake of a Hollywood film with the same name, but of course for Indian audiences it has been changed a lot. Screenplay written by Raja Krishna Menon, Suresh Nair and Ritesh Shah is smooth. There are not many ups and downs in the film. However, the only weak point here is that in the first half, the movie jumps from one place to another, a proper continuity is not there. Here we would also like to point out that at many places the editing is poor. Some scenes are badly edited, especially a very important scene in the climax.

After a decent ‘Airlift’, we had a lot of expectations from Raja Krishna Menon and he lives up to it. If you are making a movie that revolves around food and if you make your audience hungry while watching the film, then you have surely narrated the film very well. (By the way, we are craving for Chole Bhature.) The director also manages to establish the beautiful relationship between a father and a son, and also makes us feel that we should not forget our family.

‘Chef’ manages to get full marks in one department and that is cinematography. Priya Seth’s camera work is outstandingly brilliant. She has captured the true essence of India, beautifully. One more element that impresses us a lot about ‘Chef’ is its music. Raghu Dixit has done a great job and the songs are very refreshing.

When it comes to actors, Saif Ali Khan is at his best in the movie. He is back with a kind of a role in which people have always loved him. Padmapriya looks beautiful and has acted well. Svar Kamble is good in his part and Chandan Roy Sanyal is also impressive. Unfortunately Sobhita Dhulipala, doesn’t get much scope here. Talking about Milind Soman, he steals the show with his charming looks whenever on the screen.

Overall, ‘Chef’ is a mouth-watering ride that is surely worth a meal (read worth a watch).

P.S. Get ready to have food cravings while and after watching the film.

Watch Trailer: