Weekend Cooking: Maacher Jhol (Movie)

As you know, I love a good foodie movie, especially one that has some depth. Maacher Jhol (2017; written and directed by Pratim D. Gupta) hit all my buttons.

A famous Paris chef is called back to his native India when his mother falls ill. Dev hasn't been back home for over a decade, when he left his engineering job and arranged marriage--without his father's blessing--to enter the Cordon Bleu to learn to cook.

After years of hard work, Dev (played by Ritwick Chakraborty) owns several restaurants and is a celebrity chef. His success in France, however, came at the expense of lots of unfinished business back home, which he must face upon his return.

On one level Maacher Jhol is a light family drama, but on other levels it's a commentary on Bengali culture, feminist issues, and marriage. Oh and there are some incredible scenes of Dev making several variations of fish curry.

The movie also stars Paoli Dam, Mamata Shankar, and Arjun Chakraborty. I thought the acting was believable, and I loved the street scenes in Paris and the open market in India.

One thing to know is that the movie is subtitled. You'll hear French, English, and Bengali and perhaps other Indian languages as well. I'm not always a fan of subtitles, but I had no issues with this movie. All in all I liked the food references and the empowering message.

Here's the trailer.

Maacher Jhol is currently streaming on Netflix.

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