Director Aashiq Abu dishes up a
platter full of fun and romance in
his film ‘Salt n' Pepper.'
Youth and youthfulness appear
to be the flavour of the season,
with many young directors (and
a few veterans too) catering to
popular demand with fresh,
tasteful, and meaningful themes that celebrate the ordinary. And
nothing is so in touch with life
than food. Young director Aashiq
Abu of ‘Daddy Cool' fame dishes
up a platter full of fun in his new
film ‘Salt n' Pepper,' which released.
‘Salt n' Pepper' is Aashiq's ode
to food and, of course, foodies.
“For a society that is so fond of
food, this genre of cinema has
not been really explored much in
Mollywood, save for a few films. As a foodie, I was inspired to
make a film centred on food
when I came across this
interesting script by Syam
Pushkaran and Dileesh Nair,
"says Aashiq.
Although food has provided the
backdrop to a few films such as
‘Mr. Butler,' ‘Kalayanaraman'
and ‘Pavithram,' to name a few,
‘ Salt n' Pepper' is perhaps the
first time in Mollywood that characters (literally) bond over
the stove. The film narrates the
tale of a mature couple, two
foodies, who fall in love while
making a dessert, a multi-
layered cake called Joan's Rainbow.
Joan's Rainbow
“The story goes that at the
end of the Second World War, a
French soldier's wife started
baking a strawberry cake to
give her husband when he
returned from the War. He didn't turn up that day, nor did he the
next day when she had added a
pistachio-flavoured layer to the
cake. On the third day she baked
a third layer, one in orange
flavour, but he didn't come that day either. On the fourth day
when she was about to lose
hope, her husband arrived
bearing a box of chocolates! The
woman is said to have melted
the chocolates and made a fourth layer, and served the
rainbow of layers to her
husband, sealing their bond of
love forever.
“In ‘Salt n' Pepper' the main
characters Kalidasan (Lal), an
archaeologist, and Maya
(Shwetha Menon), a dubbing
artiste, set out to make Joan's
Rainbow. They encourage each other on the phone and through
their conversations over the
four days, they fall in love,”
says the director. An integral
part of this recipe of love is the
story of a young couple, the happy-go-lucky management
graduate called Manu (played by
Asif Ali) and an IELTS teacher
called Meenakshi (Mythili), who
dreams of immigrating to Canada.
Likewise, the story of a chef named Babu (played by Baburaj).
However, Joan's Rainbow is not
the only reference to food in
the film. It really is a celebration
of all things food, peppered as it
is with many clippings and
mentions about authentic Kerala cuisine. And that's right from the
title song ‘Chembavul...,' which
features visuals of famous
eateries across Kerala such as
Hotel Buhari in
Thiruvananthapuram, Kayikka's biriyani in Kochi, Hotels Zain,
Sagar, and Paragon in Kozhikode,
Paris hotel in Kannur, and the
unique three-metre tea at a
stall in Kumbalangi, to name a
few, besides some Kerala specialities such as Malabar
Erachi pathiri. Even the lyrics of
the rustic song, written by
Rafeeq Ahmed, has some
interesting allusions to romance
and food, such as equating the sentiment to palada prathaman
sliding off a banana leaf and
slippery slices of mango in a
mampazha pulisheri!
Light-hearted entertainer
“‘Salt n' Pepper' is meant to be
a light-hearted entertainer; it's
nothing serious – no big plots,
no big twists – but plain old
common sense, and dollops of
good ol' fun,” says the 32-year- old Aashiq, who credits his young
team, all in their late 20's and
early 30's, for rising up to the
challenge to make a different
kind of cinema. And that's
including ‘ alternative Malayalam rock' band Avial's anthem
‘Aanakallan…,' which is said to
bring the film to a rocking end.
“After all, if we youngsters
don't take up the challenge, who
will? The very survival of
Malayalam cinema depends on
fresh inputs across the
spectrum. Not that it was or is going to be an easy task. It's
hard to change the existing
mindset, right from the actors
to the distributors. For instance,
we had a tough time convincing
the industry to accept our flamboyant posters (designed by
Papaya), instead of the usual
run-of-the-mill cut-outs in a
white background. It's really
these little things that make a
difference,” feels Aashiq.
“The industry is going through a
transition period with the likes
of Rajesh Pillai's ‘Traffic' proving
that sensible cinema works. We
need more films like that.” The
cast and crew of ‘Salt n' Pepper' must be hoping this is
the recipe for success