Enkayaar, Bollywood Trade News Network

While there may be views and counterviews whether QUICK GUN MURUGAN thrives on the notion of slang that define an identity, subtly enough it has emerged as the first film that brings into relief the classification of the identities into categories based on the kind of foods that one consumes. It is the Non-vegetarian vs. vegetarian theme that has been subtly used in QUICK GUN MURUGAN as the platform to emphasize that the Indian ideas and beliefs still continue to be defined by the wheat eaters and rice eaters. Ananat Mahadevan would be mightily pleased that he was the first person who brought out this distinction in a comical manner when he made his Television series / serial 'Ghar Jamai' more than 20 years ago.

Interestingly enough, QUICK GUN MURUGAN has one more first to its credit as being the first film in Indian history, where an idea that flourished on television finds being converted into a full-length feature film. It indeed is amazing that though we are nations of such big foodies we have not used it as a subject in serious manner in a story line. Whenever food has been used in the Indian context it is more to generate the idea of comedy which is not a fitting tribute to the importance of food in our real life. Still, QUICK GUN MURUGAN provides an opportunity to rewind and try to bring into relief the films which have used food as a subject in a subtle manner to generate moments of comic relief or otherwise.

CHANDNI CHOWK TO CHINA: Akshay Kumar as a cook in a restaurant in Chandni Chowk uses his skills of vegetable chopping to vanquish the villain when all his other skills fail. Portrayal of villain as a big potato that had to be shredded was an interesting innovation of the film.

DUPLICATE: Shah Rukh Khan as a cook chopping vegetables in a kitchen of a five star restaurant was probably the film where a song was written on the virtues of the vegetables.

HUM DIL DE CHUKE SANAM: This film that has been one of the landmarks of the Indian cinema was also one of the films was elaborate ritual of Gujarati food was laid out in exquisite details and there was all seriousness in presenting the cuisine without introduction of any comic element associated with the food.

NASEEB: Man Mohan Desai had experimented with generating laughter by using the different items of cuisine in a big way in this film and it was probably for the first time that a situation woven around the different items of food inside a five star restaurant was knitted into an elaborate comic situation. NASEEB also probably started the trend of throwing cakes upon one another and Charlie Chaplin must be thanked as he was the originator in all probability of bringing into vogue throwing of cake to generate comic situations.

BOMBAY TO GOA: This madcap had underlined how the food inside an eating joint can be used to generate a comic situation as a laugh riot was created build around food and could have been the precursor for transporting this situation into a five star hotel as was done by Man Mohan Desai in NASEEB.

ROTI: Man Mohan Desai used the generic nomenclature of food to underline the importance that ROTI has in real life and to the extents that an individual has to go to earn the same. Manoj Kumar also tried to do the same with ROTI KAPDA AUR MAKAAN.

LOVE KHICHDI: As the name suggests this Randeep Hooda film is also the latest addition on looking at the business of food making, and it would be interesting to find whether the staple diet of the country - Khichdi - finds its representation through LOVE KHICHDI in an impacted manner.