Madame Mallory und der Duft von Curry

I enjoyed this movie. I thought it was well-done. But the movie seems to completely change into another movie when the son moves away. Perhaps they could have done it better as a parallel story, or just dropped it altogether, and just tried to expand the small town part instead. Overall, still an enjoyable, feel good movie.

This movie is filled with the joys and sorrows that accompany a full life. The acting is excellent. I could not fault a single actor. Even those delivering one liners seemed divested in the story. The photography and music are spectacular. A. R. Rahman showed even more depth and diversity than usual in his deep and varied score, and I kept wishing that I could freeze frame some of the amazing shots from the film so that I could take them home to use as inspiration for a painting. Plus, food has never looked more yummy! The story is touching and kept my interest from beginning to end. The messages contained within are subtle but definitely there, and they are positive and uplifting, which is a welcome change in today's challenging world. I fell in love with it all! Kudos! Kudos! Kudos to all!

The hundred foot journey

  A fabulous meal is incomplete without a word of compliment to the chef.   The fine dining etiquettes might not mention anything about the compliments to the chef. But a fabulous meal is the one which serves the correct amount of flavors satisfying your soul. And when a soul is satisfied you praise..  

Such a meal is served when you see the movie, 'the hundred foot journey'. And so is the flavor correctly served at all times throughout the movie that it binds you through all five courses of your meal. The actors Om puri and Helen  do a fabulous job by providing that correct masala to the french cheesy love story of Hassan and Marguerite.  

The film is beautifully shot with good writing. Overall the movie is a good watch for audience willing to watch something different than normal tadka films being served to them.

The movie is titled "A Hundred Foot Journey", and it's not just the protagonists in the movie who will embark on a journey, but so will you, the moviegoer. You will laugh, you will smile, you will wonder, and you will be immersed in the surroundings of a picturesque small town in the mountains of France where two beautiful (and delicious!) cultures clash, mingle, and eventually harmonize. In short, you will view a Hollywood – Bollywood fusion that is done so well that you will ask for more.

The movie weaves in light-hearted humor throughout, yet honestly depicts the awkwardness and tension between the newly arrived Indian family and the local French townspeople. The struggles faced by the Indian diaspora, so prevalent in Bollywood today, is explored with sincerity and comedy. Helen Mirren was great, but for me the star was Om Puri, who pulled off the role of an immigrant father to perfection. Having grown up with an Indian father abroad, I know that the struggle of adjusting to a new country while holding dearly to your values and culture is not an easy one, and often results in a complicated mix of motives, values and ideals in those individuals. Yet Om Puri strikes a perfect note. His lines are probably the most memorable in the movie.

To summarize, the movie is a must watch!

It's a well made movie. It really brings that warm romantic flair that fits the movie. But the dialogs and characters are quite uninspiring and the story line is quite predictable. It's all laid on too thick in terms of romantic, fuzzy, warm feeling and it's overloaded with clichés. There's no subtlety or layers in the characters and their dialogues. Which really is a shame, because the potential was there to be a great movie. Also I felt that Hassan had trouble carrying the movie. Yes he has puppy eyes, but his acting was quite mediocre.

So all in all it sound like a lot of critique, but it's only because the rest was so well done it deserved more. It's just that very simple but warm and cosy romantic movie for on a lazy Sunday but it just lacks any complexity to be more than that. So, just a 6.5 which on imdb. I'll go for 7 then, because after a few 'oh yeah, really?' cliché annoyances it somewhere halfway did bring me to France and their situation. It's enough to give me a warm and somewhat satisfying feeling.