Ustad Hotel

Faizal trained as a chef in Switzerland and is about to start at a good restaurant. When his father hears of it he refuses; he thought his son was studying hotel management and finds working in a kitchen demeaning. He takes his passport. Faizal stays with his grandfather in Kozhikode. Karim runs a small eating house by the shore and has done the same work for fifty years. While he waits, Faizal starts working there and sees that what his grandfather does in the kitchen has nothing to do with what he learned at school. Anwar Rasheed directs. Dulquer Salmaan plays Faizal and Thilakan plays Karim; Nithya Menen and Mamukkoya are also in the cast. It is in Malayalam. Thilakan was among the best known actors in Malayalam cinema and won a state award for the part; he died not long after the film. The food at the centre is real: the tea called sulaimani is part of Kerala's kitchen and is used as a measure throughout the narrative. The matter the narrative builds is the difference between a profession and service; the grandfather sees cooking not as a job but as feeding people, and the film defends that plainly. It was a large success in Kerala and belongs to the period in which a new generation came forward in Malayalam cinema. Its limit is the rise of the emotional register toward the end and the ease of the resolution. Who it is for: viewers who like family drama built around food and Malayalam cinema. Who it is not for: the running time is long, some side strands are unnecessary, and the ending is what you expect.