''Chef'' is a 2017 Indian

Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been de ...

-language

comedy-drama Comedy drama, also known by the portmanteau ''dramedy'', is a genre of dramatic works that combines elements of comedy and drama. The modern, scripted-television examples tend to have more humorous bits than simple comic relief seen in a typical ...

film co-produced and directed by

Raja Krishna Menon Raja Krishna Menon is an Indian film writer, director and producer. He started as an advertisement director and later moved to feature films. He has directed three Bollywood films. His most recent film Chef was released on 7 October 2017. Ea ...

. It is an official remake of the 2014 American film with the same name. The film stars

Saif Ali Khan Saif Ali Khan (; born Sajid Ali Khan Pataudi; 16 August 1970) is an Indian actor and film producer who works in Hindi films. Part of the Pataudi family, he is the son of actress Sharmila Tagore and cricketer Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi. Khan ma ...

in the title role. The film's

principal photography Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production. Personnel Besides the main film personnel, such as actor ...

began in October 2016 in

Kochi Kochi (), also known as Cochin ( ) ( the official name until 1996) is a major port city on the Malabar Coast of India bordering the Laccadive Sea, which is a part of the Arabian Sea. It is part of the district of Ernakulam in the state of K ...

. ''Chef'' was released on 6 October 2017. The film under-performed at the box office.

Plot

Roshan Kalra (Saif Ali Khan) is a chef by profession, and for him, food, love, and work all go together. His passion towards his career supersedes everything in his life, even his family. He lives away from his wife Radha Menon (Padmapriya) and son Aari (Svar Kamble). After a long time, he decides to visit his son in Cochin and they have a good time together. But soon a realization sinks in him when it is time to go back to work. He feels amidst chasing his passion and ambition, he has lost out on a lot of time with Aari. Thus, Roshan decides to stay back with him and open a food truck which serves both his purposes in life- cooking food and being with his son.

Cast

as Roshan Kalra *

Padmapriya Janakiraman Padmapriya Janakiraman, (born 1983) better known mononymously as Padmapriya, is an Indian actress and model. She has acted in over 50 feature films and in 7 different languages: Bengali, Malayalam, Hindi, Tamil, Kannada, English, and Telugu. ...

as Radha Menon *Svar Kamble as Armaan Karla (Ary) * Chandan Roy Sanyal as Nuzrool *

Dinesh Prabhakar Dinesh Prabhakar, also known by his birth name Dinesh Nair, is an Indian actor who predominantly appears in Malayalam films. Early life Dinesh was born as the second child of Prabhakaran Nair and Sarojini Amma at Pulluvazhi, Perumbavoor, Ern ...

as Alex Oomen *

Milind Soman Milind Soman (born 4 November 1965) is an Indian actor, supermodel, film producer, and fitness enthusiast. He was a contestant on '' Fear Factor: Khatron Ke Khiladi 3''. Early and personal life Soman was born on 4 November 1965 in Glasgow, ...

as Biju * Sobhita Dhulipala as Vinnie *Ramgopal Bajaj as Mr. Kalra, Roshan's Father *

Pawan Chopra Pawan Chopra is an Indian actor An actor or actress is a person who portrays a character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and televisio ...

as Sunil Manohari *

Shayan Munshi Shayan Munshi is an Indian actor and model. He made his debut in the 2003 Bollywood film Jhankaar Beats and has performed in award-winning films such as ''The Bong Connection'' and ''Carnival''. Shayan has hosted Television series like ''Cook Na ...

as Prateek *

Raghu Dixit Raghupati Dwarakanath Dixit (born 11 November 1974) is an Indian singer-composer, producer, and film score composer who is the frontman for the Raghu Dixit Project, a multilingual folk music band. Dixit's music is an amalgamation of Indian et ...

as himself * Neha Saxena as Neha (cameo) *Abhishek Kumar as Dhaba Waiter *Lokesh Mittal as Son of Dhaba Owner *Ramachandran P. P. as Anillettan *M. Gopalakrishnan as Union Leader *Nishad Raj Rana as Chaudhary (Delhi Cop) * Rajat Ajay Bose

Soundtrack

The original songs and background score of the film were composed by

. The song ''Tere Mere'' and its reprise were composed by guest composer

Amaal Mallik Amaal Mallik (born 16 June 1990) is an Indian music director, composer, singer, music producer, arranger, background scorer, performer and lyricist. He is the elder son of Daboo Malik and Jyothi Malik, and grandson of Sardar Malik. He debuted ...

. The lyrics have been penned by Ankur Tewari and

Rashmi Virag Rashmi Virag is the screen name of Rashmi Singh and Virag Mishra, an Indian lyricist duo active in Bollywood. At first, Singh and Mishra wrote lyrics themselves; in 2015, they began working as a duo. Singh won the Best Lyricist award at the 6 ...

. The first song of the film titled as "Shugal Laga Le" composed and sung by Raghu Dixit was released 6 September 2017. The second song "Tere Mere" sung by Armaan Malik was released on 11 September 2017. The third song titled as "Banjara" which is sung by

Vishal Dadlani Vishal Dadlani (born 28 June 1973) is an Indian singer, songwriter and music composer. He is one half of the duo Vishal–Shekhar, Front Man and vocalist of one of India's leading rock bands called Pentagram. As a singer he has sung various h ...

was released on 18 September 2017. The soundtrack was released on 26 September 2017 by T-Series.

Critical reception

Raja Sen of ''

NDTV New Delhi Television Ltd is an Indian news media company focusing on broadcast and digital news publication. The company is considered to be a legacy brand that pioneered independent news broadcasting in India, and is credited for launching t ...

'' gave the film a rating of 2 out of 5 saying that, "Saif Ali Khan and the actors try hard, but lazy writing and direction make Chef a flavourless and bland meal". Meena Iyer of ''

The Times of India ''The Times of India'', also known by its abbreviation ''TOI'', is an Indian English-language daily newspaper and digital news media owned and managed by The Times Group. It is the third-largest newspaper in India by circulation and largest ...

'' praised the performance of

, the leading actor of the film and gave the film a rating of 3.5 out of 5 saying that, "Chef is predictable in parts, the journey is an enjoyable one." Sweta Kaushal of ''

Hindustan Times ''Hindustan Times'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper based in Delhi. It is the flagship publication of HT Media, an entity controlled by the KK Birla family, and is owned by Shobhana Bhartia. It was founded by Sunder Singh Lyall ...

'' gave the film a rating of 1.5 out of 5 and said that, "Saif Ali Khan's Chef offers moments of brilliance which, if weaved in a more organised manner, may have given us a light, affable film. But a lazy and rather uninterested narrative takes away the pleasure." Sukanya Verma of ''

Rediff Rediff.com (stylized as ''rediff.com'') is an Indian news, information, entertainment and shopping web portal. It was founded in 1996. It is headquartered in Mumbai, with offices in Bangalore, New Delhi and New York City. , it had more than 300 e ...

'' gave the film a rating of 2.5 out of 5 and said that, "In a premise begging for food porn, there's a shocking scarcity of sensory pleasure or vision. Chef is too dull to be delicious." Shubhra Gupta of ''

The Indian Express ''The Indian Express'' is an English-language Indian daily newspaper founded in 1932. It is published in Mumbai by the Indian Express Group. In 1999, eight years after the group's founder Ramnath Goenka's death in 1991, the group was split betw ...

'' gave the film a rating of 2 out of 5 and said that, "Saif Ali Khan's film has some interesting flavours. But 'Chef' feels derivative, and is a late coming of age tale of Peter-Pan-like adults. And that's got to do with the uneven writing. It is a good-looking film, with good-looking people only."

Rajeev Masand Rajeev Masand is an Indian film critic and journalist. He has worked for Noida based English language news channel CNN-Indian Broadcasting Network (CNN-IBN). He usually reviews Bollywood films and major Hollywood films released in India in hi ...

gave the film a rating of 2.5 out of 5 saying that, "Chef isn't perfect; it lags in places, offers quick-fix solutions to characters’ problems, and feels wholly familiar. But at a little over two hours, it doesn't ask much of you, and offers some pleasure in Saif Ali Khan's return to form as an actor hard to look away from."

References

External links

* * {{Raja Krishna Menon 2017 films 2010s Hindi-language films Indian comedy-drama films Indian remakes of American films Films about food and drink Films about chefs Cooking films Films scored by Raghu Dixit Hindi remakes of English films Films shot in Kochi Films with screenplays by Ritesh Shah T-Series (company) films