Curry Munchers: Movie Review

Curry Munchers: Movie Review

Curry Munchers

Rating: 4/10

Cast: Anand Naidu, Alison Titulaer, Ajay Vasisht, Leela Patel, Ben Mitchell, Rajeev Varma, Tarun Mohanbhai

Director: Cristobal Araus Lobos

A New Zealand film about love, hope and some curry is how those behind Curry Munchers are advertising it.

Anand Naidu (who wrote) stars as Sid, who's forced (along with his sister and mother) to follow his father to Auckland and ditch his life in Delhi.

But when Sid gets there, he finds the house they're living in is a disappointment - and life's not what he'd expected for the promised new country.

Sid ends up working at Sargeet, the local curry house - where he forms a friendship with maitre d' Mary (Titulaer) and the kitchen workers (Varma and Mohanbhai). Sid doesn't want his parents to know about the job - and he's not the only one hiding a secret. Sid's dad isn't actually working as an accountant - he's a forecourt attendant.
The problem is all of these secrets threaten to come to light when Sargeet enters into Cook Off New Zealand and suddenly Sid finds his loyalties torn in many directions.
Curry Munchers has an admirable heart and a nice idea about how migration actually affects those involved.
But the execution is fudged and the end result is bitterly disappointing and slightly amateur in places. Every twist is signposted early on and plays out as predictably as you'd expect. This is also the kind of script where people get hit by a door opening and end up knocked out - the, at times, over the top antics mean that the script heads more to the puerile and silly which would alienate a certain section of the audience.

It's a shame because Anand Naidu actually offers up an engagaing and affable performance as Sid - and the story is earnest in places but it can't quite decide whether to break away from its Indian roots and occasional silliness and because of that, it's likely to not find the wide audience it craves.