Director: Piyush Gupta
Cast: Huma Qureshi, Sharib Hashmi
Where to watch: Zee5
Rating: 3 stars
As far as biopics in Bollywood go, there are two broad categories – the overly dramatic and the subtle. Tarla, Piyush Gupta’s film telling the rise of chef and TV personality Tarla Dalal, falls into the second category, albeit a little too much on the extreme end. The film is, no doubt, heartwarming and does engage your emotional core, but at times, the plot’s progression is too simple and predictable making it less engaging than it ought to be. But good performances from the leads and a no-frills approach still saves the day, making Tarla quite a yummy watch.
Tarla is set in the Bombay of 1960s and 70s. It shows how a young Tarla (Huma Qureshi and her dentures) marries Nalin (Sharib Hashmi) an moves to Mumbai. Aimless about what her calling is, Tarla spends the next decade being the perfect wife, mother, and housewife but realises that she never did find her calling. Fate introduces it to her, as she begins teaching cooking to young girls in the locality. One thing leads to another and Tarla soon embarks on a journey that will one day see her face on the cover of bestselling cookbooks and TV shows.
Tarla is a simple take, told quite simply. There are no melodramatic moments, no grand monologues, and even the obstacles faced by our protagonist are not of the life-threatening nature. From opposition from RWA members to scarcity of funds, these are everyday problems. And that is because the film firmly wants to establish that it is a relatable tale, of the rise of a middle-class hero. There are two ways to look at this choice. It grounds the film into reality, making it all the more real. But it also makes the stakes somewhat lower. The drama in biographical drama is missing and that rankles.
The performance of the leads is one of the highlights of the film. Although I am not a fan of Huma Qureshi’s dentures, the physical transformation does help in distancing the actor from the character. Even if she is a foot taller, Huma slips into Tarla Dalal’s shoes quite effortlessly and delivers a measured and engaging performance. Her chemistry with Sharib saves the day in many scenes that would otherwise fall flat. Sharib Hashmi has broken through in the last few years and in Tarla, he shows that he has the capability to lead projects too. In Nalin Dalal, he gets an author-backed layered role of a husband who is supportive and nice to a fault but also gets insecure and annoyed when his wife gives more time to her work than at home. The actor portrays these complex emotions quite subtly.
More than the storytelling, Tarla’s strength lies in the issues it takes up – the loneliness and aimlessness of housewives across India, how the onus of ‘keeping the family together’ is always on the woman, and why supportive husbands are always tagged as ‘joru ka ghulam’. Tarla questions this patriarchal set up and age-old established norms but never in a preachy manner. Everything is said in a very subtle, no-nonsense manner that befits this simple tale.
Tarla does have other faults too. It does not do as much research as was needed to set the film in the time period it was aiming at. Small factual errors like the presence of a digital phone, fancy door bells, and mention of a film song that came out in 1988 do annoy, but they can be dismissed as trivial. To be honest, Tarla never explicitly states that it is set in the 60s and 70s. But if it is trying to be ‘timeless’, then it does not do a convincing job of that as well. With a film as smartly written and neatly acted, this oversight does leave a bad aftertaste.
The ingredients were all there, the recipe was set too, and at hand were some of the finest kitchen appliances for director Piyush Gupta to whip up a delicacy. However, in a bid to not disappoint (or maybe not offend), he chooses to play it safe. The end result is a tasty dish that you will surely praise and maybe even recommend to a few friends, but not one that you will remember for ages.
