The movie will move forward the success we achieved during Airlift says Raja Krishna Menon. By Palak Sharma
Having churned out well-fleshed out characters for ace Bollywood celebrities like Akshay Kumar for Airlift and Naseeruddin Shah for Barah Aana, director Raja Krishna Menon is going all out with his upcoming movie, Chef with producer Vikram Malhotra and protagonist Saif Ali Khan.
Menon says that of all the movies that he has helmed, this one was probably the toughest to direct. “Even though Chef is an adaptation of an existing movie and is something that I haven’t ventured into before, it’s novice in creativity. It’s an emotional story, one that doesn’t encircle around mainstream action and thriller but narrates the journey of someone’s life — their thinking, interaction with people around them, relationships and the transition with time. The movie and its characters blend with the audacity that the script demands,” he apprises.
The movie is the Indian remake of an American film directed by Jon Favreau starring himself, based on how a chef restructures his relationships while chasing his passion for cooking.
What also made the movie possible was the shift that took place in the 90s — when for the first time Indians had a choice to pick a creative profession contrary to the mainstream ones like doctor, engineer and lawyer. Having this individualistic and free-spirited approach also happens to be the beginning of Roshan Kalra’s character in the movie, which is being played by Khan.
While being questioned about the casting of the movie, Menon recalls, “While shooting Airlifit in Jodhpur, Vikram Malhotra off the cuff approached me to discuss the Indian remake of Chef and its cast. I instantly suggested Saif’s name. That is when Vikram and I realised that we both wanted Saif to play the lead character and Padmapriya Janakiraman as Radha Menon and Svar Kamble as Kalra’s son in the movie.”
According to Menon, the father-son relationship has always been traced back to the traditional India, making it a paramount problem in today's context. “So it begins, the father is chasing financial success or success in his professional life, loosing out on the emotional factor – his family. That is when, Chef introduces you to that trail of emotions in which your success and relationships stand opposite each other leaving you to self introspect about how much one’s professional success is worth. That is another reason which intrigued me to take up this project,” he adds.
“As a filmmaker, I felt it was the right time for me to work on this story. More so, I was assertive to create something that would not trap me into producing repetitive art because that's not my definition of success. I want people to have a look at this film and say that this is how one should adapt a film. And create a benchmark.
“Friday has become less important now than it ever has been. The reliability in the movie comes from the essence of going through this journey in real life. It will be the forward of success, we achieved during Airlift,” he confirms.
In the movie, Kalra is a vulnerable character who is a star to the world but he knows the extent of hollowness that he feels inside. “Saif has this incredible approachability to him as a star and his strength is his vulnerability which during the previous years has been used as a charm. He completely submitted to the vulnerability and allowed me to surrender this character to him.”
Menon states that during Khan’s training for the movie, there were two aspects for him to completely submit to the character. First was the physical aspect of becoming a chef which demanded the body language of a chef aside from chopping and cooking. Secondly, being a chef inside his head for which he had to let the director expose Kalra’s struggles and aspirations to him.
“Kalra’s character has got estranged from his family in his zeal to become an ace chef. He has achieved it through several brainstorming workshops and script reading sessions. Saif and I worked together on the script and explored every nook and corner to comprehend the expression along with the intensity of his dialogues. More importantly, I brought Svar (the child actor who plays Kalra’ son) during these sessions to initiate positive synergies to flow between the two. Since Saif hasn’t worked with a kid of Svar’s age before, he was confused about how to treat him – as co-star, be friendly with him or act like a fatherly figure. And to our surprise, the bonding that took place between the two, mirrored some questions that are also there in the film. Therefore, for all the good reasons, this confusion elevated the chemistry between Saif and Svar,” adds Menon.
Giving his final call upon the movie that is to hit the silver screens on October 6, Menon concludes, “Through Chef, you can examine at your life, self introspect about success and what it’s not! If you leave the theatre thinking and need to sit back for a day and think over things you are currently doing I will count it as a success for me as a director.”
