Food that binds!
The Hindu : Sudhir Mishra is quite the king of nostalgia. First there was the homage to the swinging Seventies with its angst-ridden students, “Hazaaron Khwashien Aisi”.And now there is his tribute to the feisty Fifties, “Khoya Khoya Chand”. The film traces a tumultuous relationship between a reigning movie star and a poet writer played by Soha Ali Khan and Shiney Ahuja respectively. “Every one discouraged me when I decided to cast Soha Ali in this film. But now they say, you made the ‘perfect’ choice,” Mishra says with a chuckle.Mishra says that the film is also a take on the sexual harassment of a woman in filmdom.“But I believe it is more in academics than in films. I know that because I have seen both worlds very closely.”Chef secretsConversation shifts to food and Mishra admits that he has never been a good cook.“I would always end up making a mess of it. So, I when was living in Delhi and Mumbai with a few friends during my days of struggle, they would never ‘allow’ me to cook.“They would assign me jobs like buying vegetables, bringing water and so on,” laughs Mishra.Mishra who hails from Lucknow cannot but help talking about his hometown that made him “eat only good food”.But he adds that he is not an adventurous food eater.“I can’t eat octopus, monkeys, dogs or whale when I visit other nations.“I think one must eat only fish and mutton and leave the rest of the animals in peace. I love mutton kebab and pulao.“In Lucknow, today’s elite ‘biryani’ was considered ‘substandard’ in olden times. The standard rice meal was pulao and nawabi kheer.”Talking about food in films Mishra says: “On film sets, if a producer doesn’t arrange for oily food, people think that he is a kanjoos.“So, to keep all workers happy, it has to be made sure that the food is rich in masalas and oil….More
