Tarla Review: Huma Qureshi’s Lacklustre Performance, Dry Storytelling Makes This A Bland Serving
Film mein swaad nahi tha!
1.5 / 5
I find movies that revolve around the life story of well-known personalities quite intriguing. These films educate the audience about the inspiring life of such personalities and tell us more about their struggles. Huma Qureshi’s Tarla deals with such a lesser-known story about the famous OG female Indian chef Tarla Dalal. The film directed by Piyush Gupta and produced by Ronnie Screwvala was released on Zee 5. It also stars Sharib Hashmi in the lead role. Tarla is a film that highlights the important phases of Tarla Dalal’s life and also shows the events that led to her success. From the characters to the story’s pace, here are the impressions that the film left on us.
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Characters
Tarla was not heavy on the characters. It only showed the ones need for the plot. Huma Qureshi plays the role of Tarla and Sharib Hashmi plays her husband, Nalin Dalal. The list of other star cast includes Purnendu Bhattacharya, Veenah Naair, Bharati Achrekar and Rajeev Pandey. Bharti Achrekar is seen in a pivotal role who plays a supportive neighbour in Tarla’s life.
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Plot
Tarla’s plot is simple and is inspired by the events in Chef Tarla Dalal’s life. It begins by introducing the viewers to Tarla’s personality and her family members. Tarla is shown to be a woman who is very progressive in her thoughts but is confused as to how she wants to become successful in life. Whereas her family members are shown as conservative minds who just want to get her married. Sharib Hashmi, as Nalin Dalal is the supportive husband that Tarla needs in her life. The story moves ahead to show how years pass by but Tarla still hasn’t discovered her real self. As Tarla Dalal too achieved success in her middle age years, the film too progresses in a similar manner. It shows us the highlights of her career like the events that led her to be the first one to write cookbooks, have a cookery show and well, the beginning of it all, Tarla Cooking classes. Nalin Dalal’s role in Tarla’s life is also highlighted in the film. There are moments in the film that shed light on the struggles in Tarla’s life to manage her prospering career and family at the same time.
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Weak Points
I felt Huma Qureshi’s film turned out to be underwhelming due to many reasons. Even if the story was inspired by a real-life personality, it failed to come across as an inspiring one. The storytelling was not powerful enough to keep me engaged, also because I was not really invested in the emotional moments of the film. Huma Qureshi delivers a mediocre performance. She fails to emote the feelings of helplessness and struggles faced by Tarla Dalal, which disconnects the viewers from the plot. Also, many viewers may find her makeover as Tarla Dalal a little distracting.
Also Read: “Tarla Was Here”: Huma Qureshi, Sharib Hashmi Visit Her Father’s Delhi Restaurant, She Points Food Connection!
Good Points
Sharib Hashmi in the role of Tarla’s husband, Nalin Dalal, understood the assignment well. He comes across as a promising actor in the film and has done a great job expressing the emotions of the character in every phase of the film. I did not find the film to be unnecessarily stretched and it did not divert from its plot even once. Bharti Achrekar as the neighbour aunty was also a delight to watch.
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Verdict
Piyush Gupta’s Tarla starring Huma Qureshi and Sharib Hashmi is a below-average film that fails because of storytelling and the lead’s lacklustre performance. The film is bland and loses its grip at the beginning itself. However, Tarla should be watched only if you want to know the important phases of Chef Tarla Dalal’s life and how her husband became a driving force in it. The film releases on Zee 5 on July 7, and I recommend you give it a watch during the weekends. Thodi knowledge hi badh jaegi!
First Published: July 07, 2023 12:15 AM
