Ustad Hotel is one such film that truly tells you the real importance of food. The film is a 2012 Malayalam film starring Dulquer Salmaan and Nitya Menon in the lead roles.
It is a great film that explores the finer aspects of young Faizal’s (aka Faizi) life. He studies chefs in Switzerland against his father’s wishes. His father comes to know this and takes away his passport so that he cannot work in England. After this, Faizi comes to Calicut and starts working as a chef in his grandfather’s restaurant.
This article was not written to review this film. I am in favour of actively contributing to the social development of films in public and private life. This desire of mine also allows me to step out of my area and due to this, I am able to find out the beauty of the cinema from different countries and languages. The film truly reflects the inequalities of society and apart from being in Malayalam, the film has the potential to move from Kerala to an international platform.
In a scene in the film when Narayanan Krishnan (a renowned chef from Madurai who is also a social worker), tells Faizi that an old man changed his life. He was going somewhere in his car in the year 2002 and on the way he saw that the man was eating his excreta. Seeing this, he felt very bad and he brought idlis from the nearby hotel and fed them.
Seeing this scene also brought tears to my eyes because food is a fundamental right of any common human being and that person had to eat his own faeces! I felt really bad seeing this and after looking at the information related to this film on the internet, I came to know about Akshay Trust, Krishnanji’s organization.
After this, the scene of Biryani with physically challenged children also captivated me and I was inspired to write this article. I think we have to pay more attention to this that in the midst of poverty and richness, we are forgetting those who are not able to get one meal at a day for themselves. The reality of capitalism is captivating the real needs of mass people. This movie has a very strong point to show the world that why no one should waste food.
This is an outstanding film from the perspective of humanity. It is our divine and sacred duty to do something special to help others who cannot help themselves. We need to get out of our known circle and explore the outside to seek the pain and loss of homeless people. We need to stand beside them from our capability and share our food with the hungry people. We can be successful in doing something that after a few years we will not have any such person who sleeps hungry at night.
This movie also talks about our dreams and goals. Faizi lost his mother after a few days after his birth and was brought up among her four sisters. He always dreamt to be a chef. He never gave up his dream and stopped learning. He learned about a new world and a new motive to move on.
It is shown at the end of the film that Faizi is going to work in the same restaurant forever and will arrange delicious and healthy food for those hungry.
Ustad Hotel is a 2012 Indian Malayalam-language drama film directed by Anwar Rasheed, written by Anjali Menon, and produced by Listin Stephen. The film stars Dulquer Salmaan, Thilakan and Nithya Menen, with Siddique, Mamukkoya, and Lena in supporting roles, along with Asif Ali and Jishnu in cameo roles. The film features music composed by Gopi Sundar, cinematography handled by Loganathan Srinivasan, and editing by Praveen Prabhakar respectively.
