Food For Film

Of spaghetti meatballs, chicken tikka masala, and General Tso's: How independent films have depicted 'immigrant food'

Many immigrants brought with them their cultures and memories of the foods they cooked back home. They set up restaurants, first to serve their immigrant brothers and sisters, but later to bring their cuisines to the rest of the American population.

How Shoojit Sircar's Piku, Satyajit Ray's Aranyer Din Ratri transport me back to dining table, food escapades of my Bengali home

"Interestingly, Piku is obsessed with food in a way that's familiar to all upper-class Bengalis, but the obsession manifests through the constant talk of shit and diseases, which also, very honestly, is quite familiar to this group of people."

How Sheldon from The Big Bang Theory helped me add structure and meaning to my relationship with food

My eating habits have always been confused, influenced sometimes by cravings and other times by what’s available at home. So it was a refreshing change to see Sheldon plan every meal with absolute precision.

Crash landing on food: Primal and perennial connect to food in K-Dramas is gateway to indulgence like none other

The abundance of food (rivalled only by innumerable coy and/or sloppy kisses, the other hallmark of K-Dramas) has fed one’s own appetite in more ways than one.

Raja Rasoi aur Anya Kahaniyan: How a food show that mixes politics and poetry gave me lifelong travel goals

"I write and produce a food show myself, so it’s hard for me to watch something in the same genre without feeling an aftertaste of jealousy and the sort of mild anger that someone out there is doing something you want to do better than you are."

Pasta experiments: Learning to be mindful and indulgent from Italian nonnas and Stanley Tucci

My foray into Italian cooking somewhat resembles – at least on a visual level – the kind of pasta I saw on TV as a child, when I spent hours watching cooking and travel shows with my mother.

How extending my palette to beyond Bollywood helped me undo my stomach's inherent patriotism and vegetarianism

It took me years to realise I never took to meat because I barely saw it on the big screen. It wasn’t until I moved to Mumbai that I discovered a world outside Bollywood – and vengeful vegetarianism.

Films as diverse as Aamis and Moonlight use food as a tool to express intimacy, than just an exercise in sustenance

At its heart, Aamis is a film about the different ways we express intimacy: the ways we discover little nuggets about ourselves and others through the food we choose to put in our mouths and on our plates.

In Marathi film Gulabjaam, a delectable journey of local cuisine explores the ties between food and memory

Somewhere in between perfecting the subtle flavours of the suralichi vadi and the generous sweetness of besan ladoos, the film also becomes a narrative of coming home and simultaneously moving on, all the while food being the common ingredient that ties the past to the present.

Cannibalism on screen: From performative shock of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre to Hannibal Lecter's way of life

The credit for the transformation of cannibalism on screen must go to Thomas Harris’ landmark creation, Hannibal Lecter, a human flesh connoisseur possessing the urban etiquette of an artist.