Salt N' Pepper: Difference between revisions

Salt N' Pepper is a 2011

The film's score and soundtrack were composed by Bijibal. The soundtrack also features the song "Aana Kallan" by Malayalee rock band Avial. Shyju Kahild, who debuted through Traffic (2011), handles the camera. The film was produced by Lucsam Cinema and released by Lal release. Principal production for the film started on 3 January 2011. It released in theatres on 8 July 2011 to positive reviews and good initials.^[1]

The film narrates the love tale of two couples. The main characters are Kalidasan (Lal), an archaeologist, Maya (Shwetha Menon), a dubbing artiste, Meenakshi (Mythili), an IELTS student, Manu (Asif Ali), a happy-go-lucky management graduate, and Babu, Kalidasan's chef. Food plays an important role in the story and the tagline of the film is Oru Dosa Undakkiya Katha (The story made by a dosa).

Plot

Kalidasan (Lal) is a chronic bachelor working in the state Archaeological department and is a foodie. His only companion is his cook cum confidant Babu (Baburaj). Manu Raghav (Asif Ali) is Kalidasan's nephew and he comes to his uncle's place, while searching for a job.

Kalidasan's boring life gets an altogether different twist with a wrong call from Maya (

• Lal as Kathali Parambil Kalidasan: The role he plays has some unique peculiarities. He is professionally an archeologist. At the same time, he is a foodie, a Semi cook and a good food critic. The role appears to be really different from all the roles he played till date.^[2]
• Shweta Menon
  as Maya: The role she plays is a spinster who is working as a dubbing artiste. She is also a foodie and is interested in cooking.
• Mythili as Meenakshi: Mythili presents the role of a bubbly and glamorous girl in the film. Her role is very beauty conscious and loves to take care herself.^[3]
• Asif Ali as Manu Raghav: Manu is a carefree youngster character who often puts himself into awkward situations trying to be over friendly.^[4] Asif Ali says, "It's the one character among all that I have essayed that's closest to my real-life persona."^[5]
• Baburaj as Babu: Apart from usual villain roles, Baburaj does a entirely different role of a brahmachary (bachelor), hanuman devotee, and an excellent cook in the film.^[6] He had already done a minor comedy role in Aashiq Abu's debut venture Daddy Cool.^[7]
• Vijayaraghavan
  as Balakrishnan, Kalidasan's friend
• Ahmed as K. T. Mirash, Manu's friend
• Kalpana as Mary, the house owner
• Ambika Mohan as Itha
• Archana Kavi as Pooja Nair (guest appearance)
• Nandu as Bhaskaran Nair (guest appearance)

Themes and analysis

References to food

The film has many clippings and mentions about authentic Kerala cuisine. The title song "Chembavu", which features visuals of famous eateries across Kerala such as Hotels Zain, Sagar, Paragon, and Bombay in Kozhikode, Hotel Buhari in Thiruvananthapuram, Kayikka's biriyani in Kochi, 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 song, written by Rafeeque Ahammed, has 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!^[8]

It was a type of dosa called Thattil Kutty Dosa which builds up the situation for the protagonist (Kalidasan; played by Lal) of the film and the heroine (Maya; played by Swetha Menon) to meet.^[9] And, an intimate relationship develops between Kalidasan and Maya only after the former proceeds to let the latter into the secrets of baking a Joan's Rainbow Cake. The legend of Joan's Rainbow 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.^[8]

Genre

The film is too heavy to be tagged as a romantic comedy. Food provides the backdrop for the film. Aashiq Abu says: "For a society that is so fond of food, this genre of cinema has not been really explored much in Mollywood [Malayalam cinema], 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." Although food has provided the backdrop to a few films such as Mr. Butler, Kalyanaraman and Pavithram, a film of this kind is perhaps for the first time.^[8]

According to the director, "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."^[8]

Production

Script

The film was scripted by first-time writers Syam Pushkaran and Dileesh Nair. While Syam is a fashion designer-turned- visual media person who hails from Thuravur in Alappuzha district, Dileesh, a native of Thodupuzha, is a 2D animator. The screenwriter duo says, "We had a one-liner ready and had approached a few directors. Although most of them liked what they heard, no one was willing to turn it into a movie. Then along came director Aashiq Abu of

Salt N' Pepper is Aashiq Abu's second directorial venture. Technicians such as music director Bijibal, costume designer Sameera Saneesh and V. Saajan had already collaborated with Aashiq in his first film, Daddy Cool. Shyju Kahlid, who cinematographed the film, had previously worked as an assisant cameraman with Sameer Thahir in Daddy Cool.^[7] The film was produced by Mumbai-based Lucsam Creations. Salt N' Pepper is their first project in Malayalam film industry.^[11]

Filming

The film started rolling eight months after the script was submitted.^[10] It was launched on 5 Jan 2011 with a pre-release blessing held at BTH Sarovaram, Kochi. The function was entirely different than usual. It was done by making a dosa on the stage by film producer Naushad.^[12][13] Principal production for the film started on 3 January 2011. It was shot completely from Thiruvananthapuram.^[14]

Soundtrack

The soundtrack to the film features three songs composed by Bijibal and a song writen by Malayalee rock band Avial. Considering the emotions handled by the film, Bijibal composed two romantic melodies and a folk song for the film.^[15] Avial wrote and performed the song "Aanakkallan" for the film. It is the band's first release since its self-titled debut album which released in 2008. Avial singer Tony says that this song is more or less like a teaser for their second album. A music video was filmed which was included after the climax of the film. Tony says: "We had loads of fun shooting the video, which is very kind of like what you would see in a music video rather than a filmy number".^[16]

References