Adapting a proven storyline to make sense for the Tamil ethos has always been a challenge even for successful directors. Though I’ve not seen the Malayalam superhit ‘Salt and Pepper’ from which it’s Tamil remake has been dished out, I can clearly make out that ‘director’ Prakash Raj has failed to do justice to not only the story but also to the ‘ethos translation’ part of it as well!
A connoisseur of delicious food, Kalidas (Prakash Raj), right from his childhood believes and lives by the philosophy of George Bernard Shaw, “There is no sincerer love than the love of food”! An archaeologist by profession and a self sustainable cook by passion, he leads his life as a quaint bachelor with his sidekicks without much qualms. In comes Gowri (Sneha), in the form of a wrong number, thanks to Kalidas’s nephew Naveen (Tejus). Kalidas transforms and tries to kindle the romance. But due to some mistaken identity and false play, Kalidas and Gowri’s romance takes a beating. Did Kalidas and Gowri unite at the end?
The plot was interesting enough for a great sitcom. Food being established as a motif and coming all through the course of the movie was also appreciable, but it’s relevance was not what it should have been. It just allowed the audience to salivate during the opening portions and then somewhere in the middle, but otherwise, I felt it was not a worthy enough motif to leverage upon for a nifty screenplay.
Also what was the drama with the tribal leader about? Is it some sort of a social responsibility message which the director was intending to send out and why would someone order vada pav at an Italian restaurant?
The slowness of the movie was inherent - this is where there was a major lag. So many songs packed within a time span of 120 minutes. At least a couple of them could have easily been chopped.
Acting from the two debutants - Tejus and Samyukhta was atrocious - thanks to an awry lip sync because of the trilingual factor, it looked much worse.
Certain impactful moments like the identity fiasco between the pairs, a garrulous chef trying to save his job (Thambi Ramaiah) and the emotional agony of a spinster were brought out pretty well.
Maestro’s music was atypical and the BGM sounded familiar of his so many yesteryear tunes.
I would prefer to watch the original and dump it’s remake!
Verdict: Avoidable
Rating: 1.5 / 5
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