Un Samayal Arayil

About the film

Un Samayal Arayil in Tamil (transl. In your kitchen), Oggarane in Kannada (transl. Tempering) and Ulavacharu Biryani in Telugu, is a 2014 Indian romantic comedy film directed by Prakash Raj. A remake of Aashiq Abu's 2011 Malayalam film Salt N' Pepper, the film is simultaneously shot in three languages. It stars Prakash Raj alongside Sneha, Urvashi, Tejus and Samyukta Hornad. The film features the original score and soundtrack by Ilaiyaraja. The regular shoot commenced from 26 September at Mysore. The film's Tamil title is based on a song from Dhill (2001).

The film was released on 6 June 2014 to mixed reviews in Telugu and Tamil while the Kannada version received positive reviews. The Tamil and the Telugu versions were unsuccessful at the box office, while the Kannada version became a major success.

Plot

Kalidas works in the state archaeological department and is a food lover, he is 45 years old and remains unmarried. His only companion is his cook, Krishna. Naveen is Kalidas's nephew who comes to stay with him while looking for a job. Kalidas has a normal life until he gets a misdialed phone call from Gowri, a dubbing artiste living with her friend Meghana. Gowri rings to order a dosa from a restaurant but gets Kalidas instead. Their conversations do not go well at first, but a long-distance romance develops due to their common interest—cooking and food. Kalidas is a born gourmet while Gowri is indulging in culinary activities in memory of her deceased mother. Kalidas starts to let Gowri into the secrets of baking with a multi-layered cake called "Joan's Rainbow".

Kalidas and Gowri both get the jitters before their first face-to-face meeting, as each becomes conscious of their own physical appearances, and both decide to send younger and better-looking substitutes instead, Naveen and Meghana. When they meet, neither Naveen nor Meghana realizes that the other person is a substitute, since they introduce themselves as Kalidas and Gowri respectively. Naveen thinks that Kalidas is actually in love with Meghana while Meghana thinks that Gowri is in love with Naveen. They attempt to sabotage their older counterpart's relationship by telling Kalidas and Gowri respectively that the person they met would be unsuitable for them due to huge age differences and personality types. Kalidas and Gowri try to forget each other and end up feeling sad for a long duration of the movie. Finally, Kalidas gives in to his loneliness and calls up Gowri and they both decide to meet face-to-face. Both of them decide to meet each other honestly to get it over with. Naveen and Meghana, who by this time had started to develop feelings for each other, are confused and worried upon hearing this as they are afraid their true identity will be revealed to the other person. Naveen finally admits to Meghana that he is not the real Kalidas and Meghana too explains her side of the story. They both realize the confusion and call Kalidas to apologize and narrate all the inciden…

Production

Prakash bought the remake rights of the film Salt N' Pepper. It is a romantic story between two couples who accidentally get to know each other through their common love for food. Besides directing the film, Prakash Raj has also acted in and produced the film. Tabu was initially roped in to play the lead female role, but was dropped out. Sneha signed the film later as a leading lady, playing Shwetha Menon's role from the original. In May 2013, Prakash acknowledged that he would be directing Sneha in his upcoming venture on an episode of Neengalum Vellalam Oru Kodi that featured her and her husband Prasanna. Saymukta Hornad, daughter of popular Kannada actor Sudha Belawadi was cast for a role in the film and said that she was taking Telugu and Tamil lessons as she would be part of all three versions too. A newcomer, Tejus, was selected by Prakash to play the role of Naveen, the love interest of Samyukta Hornad's character. All the songs in the film are choreographed by Bollywood's popular choreographer and Prakash's wife Pony Verma Prakash Rai, who also debuted as an associate director with this film.

Critical reception

Baradwaj Rangan from The Hindu wrote, "The problem, primarily, is one of tone. It becomes increasingly hard to figure out whether the film is a light comedy of errors or a more serious meditation on what Kalidasa eventually calls an “inferiority complex”... There's no sense of consequence, nothing at stake. As a result, Un Samayalarayil ends up half-baked". The Times of India gave it 3 stars out of 5 and wrote, "this film is like a nutritious meal that not only fills your stomach but also leaves your taste buds tingling". Deccan Chronicle gave 2.5 stars out of 5 and wrote, "Despite a wafer thin story, while the first half is engaging, post interval it drags as it deviates from the main story to uninteresting extraneous subplots...In spite of its shortcoming, the movie is fairly engaging". Rediff gave the film 3 out of 5 stars and wrote, "Un Samayal Arayil a thoroughly enjoyable light romantic comedy", calling it "refreshingly different and definitely worth watching". Hindustan Times wrote, "Somehow, food begins to fade out of the plot, rendering the title a trifle imprecise, and the escapades of the younger couple hog much of the screen time post intermission. This is a classic pitfall of Indian movies which get too ambitious filling their plates with more than what they can digest". Sify wrote, "It tries to weaves together taste, flavour and love but due to a wafer thin script…

Key details