Monday, June 9, 2014

'Food' for thought...


I have of late become a foodie and hence I spend a lot of time reading and writing food reviews. I went a step further from reading and writing to watching a foodie Kannada movie called ‘Oggarne’ (tadka in Kannada), what with it being directed by Prakash Rai and getting good reviews too...

So, with the best cook in town (read mother), the foodie went to watch the foodie movie. The first song was awesome, just awesome! Food porn literally killed me!

And then the movie began.. A mid 40's unmarried man who is an archaeologist, is happy and content with having just one love in life-FOOD, both eating and cooking (brownie point for showing how much a man can enjoy cooking)! A call from a wrong number (thanks to, what else but food) and he ends up talking to a mid 30's dubbing artiste who gives voice over for all the leading actresses (another brownie point-she has a job, earns her money and is not someone who is dependent). She is unmarried because of some fault in her astrology charts (sigh! minus 1 point). 

They spend hours on phone together discussing, what else but food (brownie point again-love can happen at any age). They even bake a cake together... on phone!! The cake tastes yumm and so they realise that they need to meet. Apprehensive of the meeting, they come up with the same idea (of impersonation) and how they finally meet each other despite the confusion forms the rest of the movie.. With the subject as 'love is cooking', I was expecting their love to grow and bond over cooking. I was expecting an unique recipe, but was fairly disappointed!

What actually happened was that they stopped talking due to the confusion of impersonation. The archaeologist who was till now content with love for food, after 'tasting' companionship is all hurt and depressed (he continues to work though). The lady on the other side is unable to do her dubbing and gives takes after takes (minus point for showing the woman weaker). She hates the word marriage even more than before, what with everyone saying things about her beauty fading away before marriageable age (really?!? Olay should probably close down now. Minus point again!). Well, the lady succumbs to societal pressure and keeps cribbing about no man ready to marry her. RIDICULOUS! Here is a pretty lady, having a job of her own but is threatened in the society because she lacks a man in life (how medieval can you get! Minus minus minus!). A senior colleague makes a pass on her to which she fittingly replies but continues to crib about how she cannot take it any longer (I have lost count of minus points...). The message put across is that marriage is a necessity, otherwise men will make passes on you, consider you 'open', and worse, it does not matter if you are earning or not cause if you dont share life with a person of the opposite gender, then your earnings are worth nothing! (RaGa, see no one cares about women empowerment). And what ever happened to the caption 'love is cooking'??? They focused only on marriage, not love; and not even cooking! 

I expected Prakash Rai (who is greatly appreciated here and elsewhere too for his acting) to deliver a coming of age movie. He instead sticks to the much revered stereotype of marriage is a necessity, and is infact a necessary social evil. In these days and times, it is important to teach our girls that she can rule the world with whatever she has, that she does not need a man who will marry her for her money or for her beauty (this is infact the man you need to avoid). Husband is no lucky charm to ward off social evils. You need to fight them yourself first. Sneha plays the part brilliantly, but I wish her character had broken free of her stereotyped boundaries and instead inspired women by not succumbing to pressure, like this article says or this or this.

The movie was about reaching a destination called Marriage and not about the journey called love.
I would have been happy if they had atleast stuck to their caption of 'love is cooking'! Thankfully, the other characters in the movie give some subtle essence to that line.

Watch the movie, but dont take home the message..

P.S – Could someone please tell me what was the tribal's role???

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