Movie Review: The Hundred-Foot Journey

Food wars on menu get the tastebuds tingling

Movie Review: The Hundred-Foot Journey (Rated PG)

Review: Usman Azad

Rating 8/10

I have been known to curl up in bed with a piping hot beef vindaloo from time-to-time.

So this film, which is about the culture clash of an Indian family cooking traditional food in a conservative French village, already had me sold.

But by the time I came out of the cinema I didn’t need a curry to leave a warm and fuzzy feeling in my stomach. This film did that all by itself.

The film’s title is a bit oblique but it describes the distance between two rival restaurants in Saint-Antonin-Noble-Val, a small French village south of Paris.

The established restaurant is run by Madame Mallory (Helen Mirren) who is a disciplinarian desperately seeking to add to her solitary Michelin Star.

Her restaurant is known throughout the region and it is the place where dignitaries are seen to be eating the best of classical French cuisine.

The status-quo gets shaken up by the Kadam family who fled India as refugees and at the start of the film want to try their luck in Europe after living in England.

Papa (Om Puri) leads the family from Switzerland into the countryside looking for a place to settle down. It is not until the brakes of the family car fail and they crash that they find Saint-Antonin-Noble-Val.

They stay in the village to repair the car but the ever impulsive Papa finds and buys an abandoned restaurant to set up his own Indian eatery.

His secret weapon is his son Hassan (Manish Dayal) who has learnt all the secrets of Indian cooking from his mother and has refined his skills to point of mastery.

However, the opening of the restaurant begins a tense but hilarious war between Madame Mallory and Papa, who will use any trick to hurt the other restaurant.

This war goes a bit too far when the Kadams’ restaurant is fire-bombed because it opened on Bastille Day. The attack leaves Hassan with devastating burns to his hands but this doesn’t quench his ambition to become a top chef.

He is eventually taken on by Madame Mallory, whose rock-hard heart softens during the film, and is destined for greater things. On the side, Hassan falls in love with French girl Marguerite (Charlotte Le Bon), who turns out to be a chef at the French restaurant.

Their love is a bit unconventional but delightful at the same time.

The unheralded actors bring an authenticity to their performances which might not have been possible with established actors.

Overall, the plot is somewhat predictable but in this case it is the journey, which takes a bit of a dark turn towards the end, which is important. The film is not called The Hundred-Foot Journey for nothing, after all.

This is the sort of film which you can easily take the whole family to watch. All generations should find something to relate to.

Also, it is best to eat before you watch this film otherwise you will feel your stomach rumbling on the way home.

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