Tarla Review: Decent attempt to celebrate the legacy of late Tarla Dalal ji despite few minor quibbles
Tarla Movie Rating: 3 Stars
Just watched Tarla movie on Zee5 Premium. Let’s focus on the complete details, story, positive/negatives and at last my personal view on this movie.
Cast: Huma Qureshi, Sharib Hashmi, Bharati Achrekar, Amarjeet Singh, Rajeev Pandey, Purnendu Bhattacharya and Veenah Naair
Director: Piyush Gupta
Release Date: 7th July 2023 on Zee5
Story: Movie begins when Tarla (Huma Qureshi) is a college student. She wants to make something of herself, but she’s not sure what. Her parents’ insistence that she get married threatens to close the door on her undefined ambitions, but her groom-to-be Nalin (Sharib Hashmi) promises to support her whenever she finds her passion.
Twelve happily married years and three kids later, Tarla remembers the dreams she once had for herself though she’s no closer to figuring out how to make her mark on the world. Inspiration finally comes when pure vegetarian Tarla drops off lunch for Nalin at work only to spot him in the company canteen gorging on the mutton another coworker brought from home.
Tarla decides to cook vegetables in the sauces traditionally reserved for meat dishes. Chicken 65 becomes Gobi 65, a cauliflower dish. Nalin is suitably impressed and gives up his secret carnivorous ways. Her neighbour Jayshree (Bharti Achrekar) asks Tarla to teach cooking to her daughter Kavya (Laxmi Rawat) before she gets married.
Kavya uses her newly learnt cooking skills to persuade her to-be in-laws to let her work after marriage. Soon, word spreads and several parents approach Tarla for cooking tuition. After Nalin motivation she starts out by helping young ladies learn cooking, so essential to find good life partners and to keep their families happy.
Soon, she becomes so well-known that she puts together all her popular recipes in a book which is published by her supportive husband. The book hardly sells but by a quirk of fate, Tara Dalal soon hits pay dirt. One book leads to another and yet another and then many more. Finally, Tarla is asked to host a cookery show on television.
Positives
1. Performances
2. Climax
3. Some moments
Negatives
1. Length
2. Screenplay
3. Direction
4. Music
Durgesh Tiwary’s View: When I watched the trailer of this film planned to watch this movie on premiere day as it is bases on the real-life story of Tarla Dalal.
Based on the life of the late Tarla Dalal, the film chronicles her journey from being a modest housewife to one of the most celebrated chefs of India, who spread her magic of vegetarian recipes all over the globe.
Tarla is a wholesome cinematic repast that does not lose sight of its primary purpose, but it would have been an infinitely more worthy of applause had it paid greater attention to exercise of bringing the period alive. Not that the detailing is entirely off, but a few of the crucial elements that go into the evocation of the time are a touch confusing. The film gives its characters dictions, attires and mannerisms that evoke the milieu and the period all right, but the home and the kitchen where much of the story unfolds does not have a lived-in look. A few of the other ingredients, too, do not quite fit in. From what unfolds on the screen, one can gather that the narrative spans several decades from the 1960s to the 1980s, but neither Tarla nor her husband shows any visible signs of ageing. Although the subject is inspirational, the lack of relevance robs it of its fullest impact. A biopic of this kind should’ve been replete with emotional moments, but they are completely missing. The overly melodramatic climax of the film is one such manufactured drama. Apart from leaving you rolling your eyes with the tropeyness of it all, it makes one wonder if it was the case in real life as well.
The narrative kicks off in right earnest only after Tarla, who is determined to do something with her life despite having wasted over a decade cooking for her family, looking after the house and getting her children ready for school, decides to take her culinary skills beyond the confines of her kitchen. It works especially well as an understated drama about a woman negotiating her space at home and in the world at a point in the nation’s evolution when a majority of homemakers were confined within gender roles defined by society maa, patni, bahu, model of womanhood. The simplicity of this film works wonders. It doesn’t try to be extravagant or doesn’t try to move mountains. At heart, it is the story of a woman, her aspirations and how important it is to support women who take charge. Despite these minor quibbles, the film leaves a sweet and engaging aftertaste. Like a wholesome Gujarati thali, it offers a little bit of everything, delivering a satisfying and convenient experience.
Overall, movie serves up a decent cinematic treat, reminding us of the power of pursuing our passions and breaking free from societal constraints. It is an engaging watch in a very basic kind of way, one that you forget about as soon as the credits start rolling. It gives out a strong message without trying to be too preachy. It’s a culinary adventure that celebrates the legacy of a remarkable woman whose perseverance was the secret ingredient for her success. My view on this movie Recommended with the entire family.
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