Chef

When I saw Airlift, I saw brilliance in Raja Menon. He took a true story, added some fiction, and heart, and made the movie great. Then he got his hands on an already great screenplay of Jon Favreau, and instead of adding heart to it, he did a complete bypass surgery.

The movie was so sluggish, almost fell asleep in the middle. Songs made the movie unnecessarily lengthy. When yous see Jon Favreau as a Chef, you get the feeling of a burning premise about the love for cooking and food, and family as the accelerant. When Saif cooks, he looks like me when I'm attempting to make a decent omelette. At some point of the movie, you are actually going to forget what the movie is about. It's like Saif was forced to do the film. He had no chemistry with the cast whatsoever specially with his boy, except for with Chandan.

After seeing the real Chef, you will feel a refreshing passion about being a Chef, reconciliation premise and family bond. And the remake will come to one conclusion, Saif needs an anger management class.

5/10 for the quirky sidekick and the amusing bus driver.

In my mind Raja Krishna Menon's 'Chef' will be remembered as the movie that helped Saif Ali Khan get his mojo back. Mr. Khan's acting career has been suffering for the last few years. Some bad luck and some worse decisions have led to some awful films. While his last release 'Rangoon' was decent it didn't help his prospects at the movies. With Chef he finds himself again…much like his character does.

Chef, a remake of Jon Favreau's 2014 movie by the same name, is about Roshan, a chef in New York City going through a midlife crisis. After finally achieving his dreams of running a kitchen he is now in a slump. His work doesn't excite him, he has lost his passion for cooking, and his emotions are out of control. An impulsive decision takes him to Kochi, India where he reunites with his ex-wife and son. While trying to make up for lost time and bonding with his son Roshan gets a new lease on life.

Director Raja Krishna Menon has weaved a simple tale about family, fighting for your dreams, and what it means to find contentment. The tone, throughout the movie, is mellow and soft. While this does make you restless at times it's also why the film works to a certain extent. Moments such as the North Indian father being shocked that his son had never eaten chole bhature bring a smile to your face. I also enjoyed the relationships in the movie. The father-son bond as well as the exes' dynamic was rather refreshing and stayed away from dramatic clichés.

The biggest takeaway from the movie is Saif Ali Khan. He sinks his teeth into the role and delivers a fully realized character complete with faults and dad humor. It's his most restrained and real performance in years. Padmapriya Janakiraman, who plays Roshan's estranged wife Radha, is quite good as well as is the young actor who plays their son. The music is soothing in the moment but not particularly memorable. The camera captures some beautiful shots of Kochi, a place you don't normally see in North Indian films.

This is a slow movie, no two words on that. Solutions to problems are convenient and relationships are mended too easily. But if you enjoy gentle stories about characters finding themselves chances are this will satisfy that craving.

In my opinion this movie is not giving any priority to the food than the family bondage and all. Of course, the backdrop of the movie is 'Food' and it is the direct adaptation of the English movie 'Chef' released in 2017, but this movie disappointed in a way. The crew tried to impart Indian culture in the script and narration, which is good in an angle, but they really failed to place Food in the first place. The attempt should be appreciated, the casting is god and also the BGM and the songs too. Saif Ali Khan and Padmapriya played their role well.

Kerala is one of the rare locations for famous food. Even if they shot the movie at Kochi, they have not even tried to explore the food varieties of Kerala.

I liked the movie personally, in a sense, which portrayed the sweetness of Father-son, Husband-Wife, Chef-customer, and friends' relationships.

Its a nice movie and shows bond and love of father who is confuse so they are on way to find something good

The story is about the beauty and simplicity of life made unnecessarily complicated by our own choice of joining the rat race. The story is about priorities in life. I loved watching this movie, even the second time. One of the best in the recent times. The narration is intelligent, even paced and I thought the cast was well thought through, especially the Bangladeshi and the various Mallu characters, each one playing their part to perfection. Milind Soman plays his part but I cant help objectifying him a small bit. He really is a balm to sore eyes.

The script, screenplay, the direction and the actors have come together in a rare synergy to bring out the various issues in modern day life in a realistic way. The characterisation is brilliant. The underlying or should I say the overlying quirky humour throughout deserves its own mention. But it is also to be said that maybe being aware of the typical types of behaviour of people from Bangladesh and more specifically Malyalees prompted my bursts of laughter throughout the movie.

Watch out for the detailing of characters 'Nazrul' and 'Alex'. Actually it is difficult to find any flaw or loopholes in the detailing in any frame. The director has managed to bring out the nuances of a Kerala town life well enough for even a non-mallu to enjoy it.

It is a wonderful movie and initially the movie bombing perplexed me, but now I am just disappointed. I know there is a sizable portion of intelligent audience in India, where are they? How can this movie bomb? I don't know if it was the marketing or the lack of it. Did the actors miss going to stupid chat shows and prance around to promote their movie or did they miss making multiple mini trailers? Or was it just the naming of the movie? Whatever it was, it is just sad that such a wonderful movie is not reaching the right audience, whereas a brainless crass remake of an absolute dud original is a hit. I pity the standard of our audience. I really wish it rises up one tiny notch. The whole thing feels like sabotage.

Anyway I loved 'Chef', nothing underplayed and nothing overdone, everything just perfect. Is that not what a great chef is supposed to do!