Food! Such a happy topic. And something we should all have opinions about, you hardly need to be an expert to know what you like and don’t like.
This is one of those lists where I know I am going to forget something important and suddenly remember it an hour later. Oh well, just assume it is incomplete.
A movie about food as a simple sustaining force in the world, versus food as Art. Our hero thinks of cooking and food as something that requires training, skill, judgement. But he learns to understand that even the simplest dish has power if it is made with love.
In this one, our hero is too obsessed with food. He cuts out most humans from his world, preferring to focus on the simple pleasure of food. He values his cook over anyone else in his life. It’s not terrible, but he does need a bit of a wake up call before he can fall in love.
Something about Malayalam movies! They just make you hungry. Maybe it’s because I am non-veg and they are one guaranteed industry to have non-veg (or at least, eggs) as an option. Or maybe it is because it is such a tight knit audience, they can assume everyone will understand their specific food references. Anyway, this film! So many delicious little food touches, from putting chili powder on green mangoes right at the beginning, to ordering the food for a wedding at the end.
Ahhhh, Daawat-E-Ishq! My non-veg Hindi delight! In which our hero woos our heroine with greasy kabobs and we all find our mouths watering.
Food is used very carefully here. Our heroine is a professional cook, makes and sells sweets at home. And food is also her identity and comfort, drinking a cup of morning coffee is her special treat, struggling to order food in a new country is her first biggest barrier, and of course she bonds with her love interest by talking about food since he is a chef. It’s a bridge and a wall at the same time.
Very small food thing here, but done so well I have to include it! Our tiny little girl heroine loves chicken and is stuck in a vegetarian household, leading her to run away and seek out the food she wants. This could mean that she is thrown out of her household and sent to the “meat eaters”, but instead our loving hero finds a way to get her what she wants and not feel bad about it, even makes it into a joyful experience.
So, there’s a list if you want food movies to watch! And please, add on all the ones I have forgotten or may have missed!
dontcallitbollywood 
I’m in the middle of watching Angamaly Diaries and my god all of the food and drinks look so good.
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It’s a movie that needs to come with a warning of “be sure you have a dining plan in place, because by the end of the film you will be STARVING”.
On Tue, Jun 16, 2020 at 12:09 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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You missed LunchBox!!
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I still haven’t seen it! And now it is too sad.
On Tue, Jun 16, 2020 at 12:41 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Someone told me once that HAHK is basically a whole movie about food and now I can’t unsee it. It’s in every shot, a bowl of fruit on the counter, someone eating a laddoo in the background, there’s the whole Chocolate Lime Juice song… It’s everywhere!
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OMG Yes!! The whole movie is about food! The Halwa scene…the poppadum scene….tea scene…Joote Do and Didi Tera devar have a lot of food-related lyrics…and “loves chocolates” is Madhuri’s character trait! Its everywhere!
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Theater concession stands must have loved that movie. You can’t watch it and NOT want a snack.
On Tue, Jun 16, 2020 at 7:17 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Nina’s Heavenly Delights. It’s a Scottish movie, but by an NRI about her community, and the main character has just inherited an Indian restaurant. I always need to have eaten before I start the opening credits that are shown over the mouthwatering images of a curry cooking.
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I am trying to picture a Scottish NRI community, and the idea is so fascinating that I want to watch the movie for that reason alone.
On Tue, Jun 16, 2020 at 3:10 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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The accents are pretty fun.
Plus, she falls for the girl next door.
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The accents are pretty fun.
Plus, she falls for the girl next door.
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Heavenly Delights is on Amazon and now I will be watching it sometime this week/weekend. Thanks for the movie recommendation and most importantly the tip to make sure I have eaten before hand.
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Definitiely Daawat-E Ishq. I also enjoy Chef and Luv Shuv Tey Chicken Khurana for Indian movies, and 100-Foot Journey for an American movie with Indian people. Other movies that feature food scenes that I love but might not be exactly food-based and always make me hungry, Rab Ne and Veere Di Wedding gol-gappa scenes, Mujshe Dosti Karoge’s gobi ke parathe with dahi (cauliflower paratha with yogurt), Bajrangi Bhaijaan and Mulk’s meat stew cooking scenes/songs.
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I considered Chef, but the big thing they make is something pizza-like that actually sounded kind of gross to me, which makes it not a favorite food film. It comes so close though!
On Tue, Jun 16, 2020 at 3:22 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Cooking scene in Queen, too. Though I remember that as less about the food, more about the flirting.
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Both food scenes, there’s also Rajkummar tracking her down and flirting with her at her sweet shop.
On Tue, Jun 16, 2020 at 10:13 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I can’t think of any whole movies, but I love this scene from RNBDJ! And when SRK comes back as Suri and still eats Anushka’s dinner she prepared for him. Always so sweet.
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Yes! Always makes me want biryani.
On Tue, Jun 16, 2020 at 3:26 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I mean, is there is time anyone does NOT want biryani?!
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There is this gujarati movie I saw few weeks ago Luv Ni Love Storys (btw shouldn’t it be STORIES and not Storys? What is the correct plural form of story? I’m going crazy everytime I see this title). Even on the poster the hero has a cookbook. Unfortunately there is not much food in this film.
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I’m going to go with something a little bit different, but which I saw just a couple of weeks ago and fits your theme. Ang Lee’s Eat Drink Man Woman, which will immediately make you want Chinese food after about 3 minutes of watching it:
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Oh yes, I think I have seen this! And yes, it does immediately make you want food. Similar kind of movie, there’s also the Pakistani film Cake, but the food themes in that one are less pervasive.
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I would add Pelli Choopulu in Telugu and Amais an Assamese movie to the list. In Pelli Choopulu a food truck is central to the movie not food itself. Amais well you have to watch it. Telling anything more about the movie will be too much of a spoiler.
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I like Luv Shuv Tey Chicken Khurana. It is doubly delicious with Kunal Kapoor. Also Tandorri Love,where the food is described as “Swiss, Indian style. Rare combination. Spiceless but still very, very hot.”
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