Wah Ustaad wah!!

 

SPOILER ALERT : LOT OF BRAGGING INSIDE

For the non-keralites - This is a review about a sweet, simple, delicious story filmed by the screen name Ustaad Hotel.

After the sweet N tasty "Salt N Pepper", here comes another extravaganza for the mallu tastebuds " Ustaad Hotel". For details, the god mother has already presented the story to you - http://vini4u.blogspot.in/2012/07/usthad-hotel-my-take.html#more.

First things that comes to the mind... Salt N pepper and now another hit Usthad Hotel from the mallu industry both with the underlying theme of Food. If dosas did the trick for SnP, it was biriyani and sulaimani for UH. Mallus are known to their pot bellies and the films are also taking advantage of this innate crave of malayalis to deliver the movie that they feel, they taste.

A basic malayali's taste of movie is completely different from that of the rest of India. If it is romance, colour and overseas locations which does the trick for Bollywood movies and fights and super human acts doing the trick for kannada, telugu and tamil movies, then mallus are here for movies that they can relate to in daily routine. What is the daily routine for a mallu? Dosa and chutney for a tranvancore person and Biriyani for a Malabari. Not quite routine eh??...well, let's generalise it. As images of warm brown unniyappams, crisp banana chips, sinful Kozhikode halwa, Kerala meen curry, piping hot puttu and kadala, mouth watering sadhya and spicy Malabar biriyani filled the screen, the Malayali audience was mesmerised by the extravaganza.

So, let's attempt to understand this mouth-watering experiences

Neither of the movies had a big superstars. UH completely relied on the Master actor Thilakan whereas SnP relied on Lal. The performances of these actors were outstanding to say the least. I would rate Actor Thilakan a full 10/10 for his performance in this movie. He was several leagues ahead of the others.

Both movies left a mouth watering feel for its viewers. The movies take the audience slowly into the movie that at the end of it, one either comes out of the theater stomach full or they run directly to the nearest restaurant. I could feel the aroma of the dishes while the actors had their food in the movie. While the love of dosas brings together two strangers who then fall in love in Salt n Pepper, it catalyses the persona change in Usthad Hotel.

Both the movies had a western fusion band in it. While aanakallan rocked the stage for Salt N Pepper, while "Kallumekkaya" did the honours with its "Appangalembadum" for UH. Both rocked the roost for the audience. That simple lyrics did its trick.

Ustaad Hotel talks of "“Every Sulaimani needs a little bit of Mohabbat in it", while salt N Pepper potrays the same with the Juan’s Rainbow cake, made by a doting wife as she waits for her husband to return from the battlefield. 

Whatever we say... these are few of the trademark movies of the malayalam industry that can never be copied to other languages with the taste, charm and cuteness it has offered to the mallu audience. Let Mr. Priyadarshan try his luck on this too.
At the end of the day, these trend can be summed up saying "food is the recipe for success in Malayalam cinema now".