Curry Munchers
Rating: 4/10
Cast:
Anand Naidu, Alison Titulaer, Ajay Vasisht, Leela
Patel, Ben Mitchell, Rajeev Varma, Tarun Mohanbhai
Director: Cristobal Araus Lobos
A New Zealand film about love, hope and some curry is how those
behind Curry Munchers are advertising it.
Anand Naidu (who wrote) stars as Sid, who's forced (along with his
sister and mother) to follow his father to Auckland and ditch his
life in Delhi.
But when Sid gets there, he finds the house they're living in is a
disappointment - and life's not what he'd expected for the
promised new country.
Sid ends up working at Sargeet, the local curry house - where he
forms a friendship with maitre d' Mary (Titulaer) and the kitchen
workers (Varma and Mohanbhai). Sid doesn't want his parents to know
about the job - and he's not the only one hiding a secret. Sid's
dad isn't actually working as an accountant - he's a forecourt
attendant.
The problem is all of these secrets threaten to come to light when Sargeet enters into Cook Off New Zealand (a sort of MasterChef New Zealand show but for teams) and suddenly Sid finds his loyalties torn in many directions.
Curry Munchers has an admirable heart and a nice idea about how migration actually affects those involved.
But the execution is fudged and the end result is bitterly disappointing and slightly amateur in places. Every twist is signposted early on and plays out as predictably as you'd expect. This is also the kind of script where people get hit by a door opening and end up knocked out - the, at times, over the top antics mean that the script heads more to the puerile and silly which would alienate a certain section of the audience.
It's a shame because Anand Naidu actually offers up an engagaing
and affable performance as Sid - and the story is earnest in places
but it can't quite decide whether to break away from its Indian
roots and occasional silliness and because of that, it's likely to
not find the wide audience it craves.
