Stella Elizabeth Matthews has been a cook in the Canadian High Commission in New Delhi for 30 years. She is brilliant as a cook, and brilliant at creatively padding her salary - with a few pilfered items, some minor overcharging, and a special phone-order duty free business.
A newly posted Canadian diplomatic couple Michael and Maya arrive with their baby and, after an initial jolt when she learns that Michael will be staying home as "diplomatic housewife" while Maya goes off to work, everything goes swimmingly for Stella.
Michael was a chef in Ottawa and he is longing to learn authentic Indian cooking. Stella agrees to be his "cooking guru". But Stella's cozy domestic set-up implodes when Tannu, an honest nanny, joins the household, and threatens to expose Stella's deceptions.
This unlikely partnership embarks on a much grander, riskier scam, which seems to bring disaster. An unexpected kind of justice is found, but not until the guru-student relationship between Stella and Michael has been sorely tested. Michael has learned many important lessons from his teacher ...including glorious traditional South Indian cooking. And Stella? Well.... let's just say dreams sometimes come true in unexpected ways.
Review 1
By Guneet Wadera
Cooking with Stella is a social satire intricately wound around the film’s central character Stella, a witty and sharp cook and her fascinating and intriguing mischief. On the surface the story seems simple enough, a Canadian diplomat couple by played Maya (Lisa Ray), her Chef husband (David McKeller) and Zara (Alexiane Perreault) who reallocate to unfamiliar terrain, the capital city of India-New Delhi. Stella comes into their life as an aide to smoothen their transition and amalgamation into this new world. Progressing swiftly from servant to Cooking Guru, Stella wounds her web of deception around the rather naive, Michael until a twist in the tale brings into the story, Tannu (Shriya Sharan) as Zara’s Nanny. Director, Dilip Mehta infuses the flavour and aroma from the streets of Delhi onto the screen with such finesse that the viewer merrily journeys into Stella’s world.
The subtleties and nuances in the narration of the film add the essential mirch and masala, making the film an enchanting, insightful and scrumptious watch!
The performances by the entire cast are impressive however special mention must be made of the perfect casting and outstanding performance of Seema Biswas in the role of Stella. Her witty one-liners will definitely have the audiences in splits. Although Stella is a shrewd conniver devising schemes to get rich quick, she’s also shown to have a caring and sharing side making her extremely loveable and therein lies the quintessence of the film. As the opening credits of film states, 'A story that is true...Almost.' A dash of reality, a sprinkle of humour are the key ingredients for this recipe and this dish definitely delivers! B+
Review 2
By Erin Oke
Directed by Dilip Mehta and co-written with filmmaker sister Deepa, Cooking with Stella tells the cross-cultural tale of a Canadian diplomatic family's post at the consulate in New Delhi.
Diplomat Maya (Lisa Ray), her husband Michael (Don McKellar) and baby arrive in India to find their gated residence being run by long-time servant Stella (Seema Biswas). The couple try to adjust to their new surroundings, with Maya struggling with the new job and her disconnection from her Indian heritage, while ex-chef Michael resents his new role as househusband.
The enterprising Stella resumes her black market business, selling things stolen from her employers and their household, while finding herself bonding with Michael over their love of cooking. When new nanny Tannu (Shriya Saran) is brought into the house, her honest nature threatens to derail Stella's side business, until Tannu runs into some financial troubles of her own.
The film does well portraying the complex dynamics between the foreign family and their indigenous employees, pointing out the exploitation happening on both sides. Michael and Maya's bourgeois problems are placed in sharp contrast to the poverty surrounding them, and their oblivious nature makes it difficult to judge Stella's actions too harshly.
The script by the Mehta siblings is a bit overwritten and stilted, making it difficult for the actors to naturally embody their characters. The film suffers from a lack of likeable characters, with the couple's self-involvement and seeming lack of interest in their child being quite off-putting, while the duplicitous behaviour of Stella and ultimately Tannu isn't much better.
As well, there are also some fantastical elements and larger-than-life plot twists thrown in that don't quite gel with the film's overall tone.