Director R Balki, PG, 145 mins

Stars: Amitabh Bachchan, Tabu, Paresh Rawal, Zohra Seghal.

“This is London’s finest Indian restaurant, not some fraud shit!” chef Buddha (Amitabh Bachchan) yells, Gordon Ramsay style, at his terrified staff in the opening scene of this latest attempt to push the Bollywood envelope.

Buddha is 64, a bachelor and lives with his feisty mom (Zohra Seghal). With the exception of cooking which he describes as ‘the world’s biggest art’ and his devotion to Sexy (Swini Khara), his neighbour’s nine-year-old daughter who is dying of leukaemia, Buddha has very little time for love in his life.

When Nina Varma (Tabu), an Indian tourist from Delhi, returns her ‘Hyderabadi Zufrani Pulao’ rice dish for being too sweet, the perfectionist Buddha is enraged. It turns out that she’s right: the dish should contain ‘cheeni kum’ (less sugar) and more salt.

From this initial misunderstanding, Buddha and the much younger Nina, 34, develop an awkward friendship which gradually turns to love. They decide to get married but in keeping with Indian tradition, decide to seek their parents’ blessings. Buddha’s mother readily agrees but will the couple manage to convince Nina’s conservative dad (Paresh Rawal) back home in the Indian capital?

Age disparity in relationships has been the theme of many Hollywood movies but this is the first major Bollywood film to address the subject. Male actors over 60 in Bollywood films tend to play the asexual caring patriarch of the extended family. Bachchan breaks this mould. This Buddha is arrogant, romantic and goes to the chemists to stock up on condoms.

Director R Balki adopts a diaphanous approach to the taboo proceedings, opting for deadpan humour to convey his ‘age is no barrier to love’ message. He is assisted in his task by his leads who add a certain dignity to the unusual romance. Bachchan dominates but it is Tabu, last seen in Mira Nair’s The Namesake, whose restrained interplay with the thespian who makes the relationship credible.

Balki also manages to question the respect some Indians have for the Gandhian practice of ‘Satyagraha’ or the achievement of one’s goal via self suffering. Nina’s disapproving dad goes on a hunger strike to prevent the marriage. Buddha, in the film’s slightly melodramatic climax, acts as the deus ex machina: he convinces the dying dad of the selfishness of his act.

Some ingredients are unsubtle: a running gag about a waiter’s buck teeth, a gora’s (white person) inability to pronounce curry dishes, the perpetual touristy shots of London and Delhi, the contrived ‘few months to live’ sexy subplot. But as a whole, this dish is delightful.

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