RSVP and Earthsky Pictures’ Tarla is the biopic of cooking expert Tarla Dalal.
Tarla (Huma Qureshi) is a phenomenal cook. She has always wanted to do something in life. Nalin (Sharib Hashmi) promises to support her in whatever she wants to do, which is why she agrees to marry him. After marriage, she settles in domesticity with three kids.
Later, Tarla starts out by helping young ladies learn cooking, so essential to find good life partners and to keep their families happy. Soon, she becomes so well-known that she puts together all her popular recipes in a book which is published by her supportive husband. The book hardly sells but by a quirk of fate, Tara Dalal soon hits pay dirt. One book leads to another and yet another and then many more. Finally, Tarla is asked to host a cookery show on television.
Piyush Gupta and Gautam Ved have penned a story based on Tarla Dalal’s real life. Their story and screenplay are slow-paced rather than fast-moving. Also, in today’s times when recipes are available on YouTube, other social media and all over, the relevance of cookery books may not be appreciated by the youngsters. In other words, although the subject is inspirational, the lack of relevance robs it of its fullest impact. A biopic of this kind should’ve been replete with emotional moments, but they are completely missing. Also, several scenes are lengthy and, therefore, boring. The duo’s dialogues are natural.
Huma Qureshi is okay in the title role. Sharib Hashmi is very natural as Nalin. Bharti Achrekar is pretty good as Jaishree aunty. Hardik Thakkar (as Tarla’s brother), Kukul Tarmaster (as Tarla’s father), Morli Patel (as Tarla’s mother), Mona Mokha (as Tarla’s friend), Premal Yagnik (as Nalin’s father), Harish Joshi (as Nalin’s maternal uncle), Anjum Ara (as Nalin’s maternal aunt), Tasmia (as baby Renu), Manan Parmar (as little Deepak), Hridansh Parekh (as little Sanju), Vedaansh Jaju (as Deepak), Aashriya Mishra (as Renu), Akshara Kulkarni (as Gangubai), Amarjeet Singh (as Gafur), Rajeev Pandey (as Makrand), Laxmi Rawat (as Kavya), Kalpesh Rajgor (as Kavya’s husband), Sheeba Azhar (as the dancer student), Nitin Pol (as the watchman), Akshat Dixit (as the Haryanvi chef), Purnendu Bhattacharya (as Paragon Textiles CEO), Bhawana Somaaya (as Prof. Gauri) and the others lend good support.
Piyush Gupta’s direction is average. The biopic ought to have been far more inspirational and emotional. Music (Nilotpal Bora, Suhit Abhyankar and Rohan Vinayak) is weak. Lyrics (Hussain Haidry, Suhit Abhyankar, Shreyas Jain and Manoj Yadav) are ordinary. Background music (Nilotpal Bora, Anubhav Gogoi, Rahul Gajjal and Gauri Shankar Lahon) is ordinary. Salu K. Thomas’ cinematography is alright. Rakesh Yadav’s production designing and Siddhesh Karambale’s art direction are good. Gaurav Aggrawal’s editing ought to have been sharper.
On the whole, Tarla is an ordinary fare.
Released on 7-7-’23 on Zee5.