So when it comes to comedies and dramedies revolving around the wonderful world of food and cooking there’s not much that immediately comes to mind. Though, that has been changing as of late. Nora Ephron’s “Julie & Julia” starring Meryl Streep (Who mesmerizes in every role she takes on. I agree with you Cam [Modern Family] She could totally play Batman and still be the right choice) & Amy Adams. Jon Favreau’s “Chef” starring himself, Sofia Vergara & Scarlett Johansson are the movies at the top of my ‘best movies for foodies’ list. Enter “The Hundred Foot Journey”.

“The Hundred Foot Journey” directed by Lasse Halstrom, based on the book of the same name by Richard C. Morais is beautiful, but not without its faults. The film stars, the eternally respected and always amazing Hellen Mirren as Madame Mallory the owner of restaurant which boasts a Michelin star, Manish Dayal as Hassan Kadam the son of Om Puri’s character Papa Kadam, who as part of a large family have just bought and moved into the abandoned restaurant opposite Madam Mallory’s restaurant “Le Saule Pleureur” And Charlotte Le Bon as Marguerite who serves as Hassan’s love interest and Madam Mallory’s sous chef. The story starts off with the rivalry between Madam Mallory’s restaurant and the Maison Mumbai, a little Indian restaurant put up by the Kadam family, and goes on to show the personal growth of all of its main characters to keep us entertained for its 2h 2min runtime.

The writing, taking you through this “Journey” has a ‘Been there, Seen that’ vibe to it, yet still manages to be entertaining throughout. As a self-proclaimed cook and baker myself, I loved the scenes involving food and related to the comfortable atmosphere the process brings. And the regular movie critic in me wouldn’t disagree either, which is well crafted. While Halstrom has directed flimsy, generic, catered movies like “Dear John” or ‘Safe Haven”, he has also directed brilliant movies like “Salmon Fishing in the Yemen”. Where does this movie fall? Probably in the middle leaning slightly more towards the “Salmon Fishing in the Yemen”.

The score, oh the wonderful score by A. R. Rahman is beautiful, it’s subtle, it’s appropriate, it’s comfortable, it’s mesmerizing and numbing as always. The movies location and costumes and colours all scream authenticity and vibrant beauty, from all the bright vivid colours of the food to the wonderful subtle hues of the greenery in the meadows and the comfortable palate of Paris, right there is an easy path to get lost in this movie.

Madam Mallory’s line in the movie "A cuisine is not an old tired marriage, it is a passionate affair" is what comes to mind on how I should explain this movie. I see the passion, but it still tends to be not an old but rather a happy marriage that needs a little counselling to bring back the excitement.

Reviewed by Aasif Faiz