The idea sounds promising: take some set pieces from Bollywood cinema, transport them to the Swiss mountains and mix the whole thing with the local traditions to create an unusual romantic comedy. With these ingredients, "Tandoori Love" could have become something really special. But unfortunately, the finished dish leaves a somewhat bland aftertaste.
Life in a small village in the Bernese Oberland is close to perfection. At least that's what the residents think, especially Markus (Martin Schick), young owner of the inn "Zum Hirschen". And to make sure everything stays that way, he surprises his girlfriend Sonja (Lavinia Wilson) with a marriage proposal, to which the young woman can't say no either. But Sonja is not really happy. The mother-in-law-to-be still dominates her son's life too much, which Sonja doesn't like at all. In addition, she has the feeling that her life lacks that certain fire that would make her really happy. When an Indian film crew invades the idyll, this could change very quickly. For Rajah (Vijay Raaz), the crew's chef, falls head over heels in love with Sonja - and, in order to be as close as possible to his beloved, becomes the new chef at the "Hirschen". And that's just the beginning of the chaotic entanglements...
Swiss traditions paired with colorful dance and song interludes - it sounds quirky and, above all, funny. And at the beginning this whimsical mixture works very well. The humor here is still coherent, the characters amusingly drawn (especially the regulars of the "Hirschen" provide some very good laughs with their surprising cosmopolitanism) and the camera captures very nice images of the mountain landscape, but also of Rajah's cooking skills, so that the viewer's mouth waters many a time.
There's hardly anything to fault with the actors either, though with Lavinia Wilson you get the impression that the actress is a little underwhelming here. Compared to her great performance in the drama "Allein" this role is just too pale drawn, so even her good acting can do little against that.
What really hurts the film in the end though is the last third. Here director Oliver Paulus just seems to be overwhelmed with the different storylines and levels of humor and loses control of his staging. The whole thing just becomes cluttered, silly here, and at the end it also becomes completely unnecessarily cheesy. Had the whole finale been staged a little more restrained or perhaps a little more nasty, "Tandoori Love" would have left a thoroughly positive overall impression. As it is, however, the film offers good entertainment, but towards the end it reveals too many weaknesses to really be considered a success. Nice, no more, but also no less!
Ein Artikel von Frankfurt-Tipp
