Salt N Pepper...... movie review

For a foodie like me this new malayalam movie was appetising indeed .

I sincerely wish more such malayalam films catering to a discerning audience are created .

The creator of the movie has blended a story of love for food bringing together two older persons who had missed the boat in thier younger days .

Food is always in the background ,be it in the steamy dough that magically turns into Kuttiyil thatu dosa (Pais dosa is a well known eating spot in Ernakulam where one gets more than 100 varieties of dosa at a jiffy....probably Pai gave the inspiration for the film ) or in the soft and succulent unniappams which makes the hero Lal whisk away the male cook of the house instead of the girl he had gone to see for possible marriage in his younger days .

The cook excellently enacted by Baburaj ( I had seen him as a stuntman and a villain in several movies ) showing great potential in a character role here ,he not only becomes the long term cook but also a conscience keeper for bachelor Lal who is an archeologist happy with rummaging in the past while living a sumptous presence in good food and essential Kerala Brews ( smalls ) to fill his soul and flesh.

Lal who has proved his mettle in acting in earlier movies never diasappoints us and is well paired with Swetha Menon who reminds me of Shabana Azmi with her prowess .

Swetha too is a natural in histrionics and a good looker too .

Lal has a nephew in the film enacted by Asif Ali ,he is an yuppie always seen with a speaker glued to his ears ,he begins all the mischief by presenting Lal a mobile phone by which Lal comes into contact by accident with another foodie Maya ( Swetha Menon ) who is a dubbing artiste

The phone romance almost fructifies on the day they are scheduled to meet each other but both wary of thier age and deficiencies in looks get one proxy to represent them and send them instead of going themselves .

Asif acts as a proxy to his uncle and meenakshi the young roomamte of maya turns up as her proxy and naturally the young ones promptly fall into love .

The older now lovelorn couple who never see each other till the time the film ends are strongly discouraged by thier proxies who tell them that the other person is too young for them.

A lot of frustration creeps up into Lal and Swetha who by now lose all thier hopes for a late age romance which to them was almost a final swing in thier lives

Vijayaraghavan acting as a senior archeologist who manages to position his digs near his former romantic intrests present house and the silent Moopan a tribal elder are the other lively characters that fill the film but above all it is food that takes the prima donna role and romance slowly but surely enriches it .
In the end all turns well when Lal and Swetha meet up in the Trivandrum museum after some twists and turns and bury thier past for a rich future .

The film reminded me of Cheeni Khum a hindi movie with Amithabh Bhachan as a chef in a London restaurant ,here too Amitabh is an older person involved with food and falls in love .

Read my review on this film http://hariwrite.blogspot.com/2007/11/cheeni-kum.html

So friends remember that love for food and love for hearts go along together

Dont we all know that foodies have big hearts and can take a lot of love as much as they can take a lot of food !!!