It was nice, I liked it. The tragic background at the beginning of the film I honestly could have done without, or maybe it could have been put in a different way (it gave the wrong impression), but the rest was nice. Funny thing is, the young couple falls in the background because it had hard competition. The best of the film is found with the complicated relationship between M.me Mallory (Helen Mirren) and papa Kadam (Om Puri).
The story: The Kadam family lived in India where they had a restaurant, until it was burned down and Hassan's (Manish Dayal) mother died. She was the cook, and taught him a lot. Because of the violence in their country, papa Kadam takes his family and runs away to Europe. It is said that they stayed a while in England, but the food there had no soul, so they kept driving south until the car broke down in France. A kind girl, Marguerite (Charlotte LeBon) helped them. Papa Kadam saw a property for sale and bought it against his family's will, and decided to open a restaurant there. Across the street, though, there is another restaurant run by Madame Mallory. That restaurant has one Michelen star. It seems like madness, and yet she's worried enough to boycott them by buying all the fish at the local market. Papa accepts the war, they keep fighting, involving the city mayor (Michel Blanc) in their dispute. One of the chef is strongly against them: she says he'd be a good soldier, but when he finds two men to burn their restaurant she fires him : he's a chef, he should not burn things, she says. She wanted to beat them, not to burn their place down.
She says he did indeed bring peace, because now she changes. She personally cleans the wall where someone had written 'France to the French' (well, in French) and she accepts Hassan's offer of an omelette. That is how she usually tries them out, she asks for an omelette and she understands from that is they've got the gift or not.
She confesses he has the touch of the great chef and wants him in her restaurant at all costs: he accepts and gets even better and she has her second star. She and papa are allied now that they both believe in Hassan. Marguerite is jealous because she also was working at M.me Mallory's restaurant hoping to become a senior chef, but she doesn't become bad because of it, she's still a good girl.
Mallory and papa spend a lot of time together now, and after the second star Hassan is hired in the big city, and works in a big restaurant where he can experiment as much as he likes. Happy at first, slowly he loses the joy of it and doesn't care for stars at all. He cries when another Indian working in that place shares with him the food his wife prepared for him, food that tastes like home.
He decides to go back and I guess what happens is: he'll run the restaurant with Marguerite now. Mallory's restaurant, that is.
It was nice, but does this mean they'll close the Indian restaurant and keep only one together? Will it be Mallory's or Kadam's? Or both? *winkwink*
Anyway, a nice film, funny at moments, touching in others. Not bad.
ITA amore cucina e curry
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