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Recently I happened to watch Tarla - The new movie?? on ZEE5 and time travelled the life of my mother’s ?? ?? cooking guru - TARLA DALAL.?? I had always admired Tarla Dalal for making cooking?? ?? in the kitchen respectable for Indian women. I had admired her for her ability to think far ahead of time during her time.? Admired her for putting India on the world map…But wait I now admire her for utilizing small opportunities that life presented to her and making them big.?? ♀? It’s not a movie about a cook and her passion. It’s a movie about perseverance and about finding oneself.?? ♀? As simple as it sounds, often we find ourselves mostly in those moments or points where we are at the darkest hour of our life and at points of no return.?? So in that sense each of us must watch this movie and take back some learnings.

Now a little about the movie…

The movie starts off in a regular Gujrati household and like any other women in her community Tarla (played by Huma Qureshi) is supposed to get married and settle into a domesticated life - which she does with Sharib ,her onscreen husband named Nalin.?? However 12 yrs into her happy marriage and 3 kids later she does realize that she is not living her dream.?? ♀? Around the same time Tarla happens to help a neighbour to learn cooking which not only cements her marriage proposal but helps that neighbour to get a green flag to work post marriage.?? Inspired by this Tarla starts to teach other women in her vicinity on request at her humble abode. But as fate has it one day the building committee decides to shut her cooking classes forcing her to look for alternatives to pursue her cooking skills.??

Around the same time Nalin’s textile factory closes and he loses his job leaving both the husband and wife at crossroads.?? Nalin decides to use his time to type out all Tarlas recipes and make this into a cookbook to spread her cooking skills in the absence of a physical cooking class.?? Upon insistence from Nalin, Tarla starts to document her recipes and he ensures that until and unless each recipe does not score 10/10 it would not become a part of the book. All his leading to Tara fine tuning her culinary skills.?? Nalin in the meantime becomes a publisher for her books (unable to find a publisher who would give her a launchpad)??

All seems to go well for a bit but then when the published books do not sell both husband and wife are forced to sell the books to a raddiwala to just get Rs.75 and move ahead. And that’s exactly the point the movie takes a turn.?? That night at the restaurant Tarla and her family come to know that the restaurant chef has used her recipe in the restaurant. On quizzing the chef and knowing the truth she rushes back to the Raddi guy and cements a deal with him for selling her books to the neighbours….

The rest you must watch and find out…..??

Now honestly for me the journey of Tarla was simple and powerful.?? Her character was well written and her onscreen husband played her life partner beautifully. The other characters in the movie were also relatable but what disappointed me was the food bit.?? Food is the soul of the movie BUT very little attention was paid to the cooking scenes. There was not even one moment in the movie which was an Ahaa moment for me ?? ♀?as far as food is concerned. The romance between Tarla and food WAS NOT VISIBLE.?? The chemistry did not exist. I wonder why? This absence of this makes the film weak and instead of going back home with a tummy full with visually appealing food one goes back home emotionally fulfilled being inspired by a woman who made things happen for her in the realm of cooking.

Personally I am disappointed ?? with the movie simply because all I know today is because of my mother who in turn learnt from all Tarla Dalal books. I remember her treating those books like bible??, grinning from teeth to teeth and getting cooking compliments. My mom hails from a village in Bihar and she wanted to get accepted by my dad’s city family in Kolkata post marriage.?? ?? ?? Unable to find any other way she used food as a secret weapon to puncture the heart and soul of all food lovers in the family.?? Must say that she succeeded full on!!!! Tarla Dalal’s cooking cemented my mom’s place in my fathers family. It gave her an identity. It gave her love and respect. So going by this part I do feel a sense of loss in watching everything BUT beautiful food on screen.??

Here's hoping that the makers do justice to another food biopic next time.??