What Is the Story About?
ZEE5 original film ‘Tarla’ recounts the story of the late Tarla Dalal, doyen of vegetarian cooking, author of hundreds of cookbooks, cookery show host and more. The film narrates how celebrated chef Tarla Dalal (Huma Qureshi) went from being a traditional Gujarati housewife to the undisputed queen of cooking in India, and an entrepreneur par excellence.
Tarla is written and directed by Piyush Gupta, co-written by Gautam Ved, and produced by Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari and Nitesh Tiwari’s Earthsky Pictures and Ronnie Screwvala’s RSVP Movies.
Performances?
Huma Qureshi has delivered an earnest and engaging performance as Tarla Dalal. She’s put her heart and soul into the role, and it shows. Sharib Hashmi is simply superb as Tarla’s husband Nalin Dalal. He brings gravitas and nuance to the role, which would otherwise have become a tropey and insignificant turn in the hands of a lesser actor. Bharti Achrekar is as spunky as ever, in her role of Tarla Dalal’s spirited neighbour. The rest of the cast lends commendable support.
Analysis
Tarla Dalal’s life story, and her rise from a homemaker to one of the most recognisable faces in India is nothing short of awe-inspiring. However, the film made on her life is anything but. Granted, Piyush Gupta’s Tarla keeps us entertained and invested in the proceedings on screen throughout. But it’s hardly an inspiring or impactful watch, nor one that is particularly thought-provoking or memorable.
Full marks to the makers of Tarla for choosing this refreshing subject for their film. But it would have helped if the film was as spunky as its spirited subject. Those of us who’ve grown up watching Tarla Dalal’s cookery show on our screens remember her as an elegant, diminutive lady, with a plucky no-nonsense vibrancy about her, oodles of child-like enthusiasm, and a laugh to match. Huma Qureshi’s Tarla Dalal conveys none of those in the entire runtime of the movie.
The narrative of the film touches upon well-known facts of Tarla Dalal’s life, especially her singularly unique penchant for recreating popular non-vegetarian Indian dishes in pure vegetarian versions. We’ll never know whether the reason she embarks upon that endeavour in the film is true-to-life or just a figment of the writers’ imaginations, coz none of it is documented in popular commentary. Several other facets of Tarla Dalal’s life, as shown in the movie, seem manufactured purely for the sake of infusing a bit of cinematic drama and conflict into a real-life story that seems simple and clean-cut.
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. Another thing that is quite irritating about Tarla is the utterly distracting prosthetics used on Huma Qureshi, to replicate Tarla Dalal’s distinctive buck teeth. To put it bluntly, the prosthetic teeth are atrocious.
While Huma Qureshi and Sharib Hashmi’s honest performances lift the narrative from being a below-average one, the lack of spunk in the screenplay is a bit galling. Which brings us to the most unforgivable part of Tarla – a total lack of alluring sequences with food as their centerpiece. For a film with food as its central theme, there’s not a single memorable food scene that makes our mouth water or our stomach rumble. In today’s age when Instagram is full of inviting images of beautifully cooked and presented good, a film about food has none — not a single one! Heck, even a film like Stanley Ka Dabba has several stunning, mouth-watering food scenes. And it was a film that released much before posting food pics on Instagram was even a thing. So Tarla’s writers, director and cinematography completely ignoring this crucial ingredient that makes a film memorable is quite appalling, to say the least.
To sum it up, Tarla is a blandly told tale that needed more spice in its storytelling. It is an engaging watch in a very basic kind of way, one that you forget about as soon as the credits start rolling. Give it a watch, if only for Huma Qureshi and Sharib Hashmi’s honest performances.
Music and Other Departments?
Nilotpal Bora’s background score is fun and peppy, as also are the songs of the film, composed by him and Suhit Abhyankar. Cinematographer Salu K. Thomas has done the memory of Tarla Dalal a great disservice by not focusing on the food at all. Gaurav Aggarwal’s editing is efficient.
Highlights?
Huma Qureshi and Sharib Hashmi’s performances
It’s an easy watch
Drawbacks?
No memorable food or cooking images or sequences
Bland storytelling
Lack of spunk in the screenplay
Did I Enjoy It?
I found it average
Will You Recommend It?
Maybe as a one-time watch
Tarla Movie Review by Binged Bureau
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