Masala film

Masala films of Indian cinema are those that mix genres in one work. Typically these films freely mix action, comedy, romance, and drama or melodrama. They tend to be musicals that include songs filmed in picturesque locations. The genre is named after the masala, a mixture of spices in Indian cuisine. According to The Hindu, masala is the most popular genre of Indian cinema.

History

The origin of this genre is generally credited to the filmmaker Manmohan Desai and screenwriter duo Salim-Javed who very successfully exploited the genre in the 1970s and 1980s. It helped establish many leading actors as superstars such as Dharmendra, Amitabh Bachchan, Mithun Chakrabarty, Rajnikanth, Chiranjeevi, Vishnuvardhan, Ambareesh. Actress Sridevi received stardom in her early Bollywood career with Masala movies. More recently, Salman Khan, Akshay Kumar, Mahesh Babu, Pawan Kalyan, Allu Arjun, Ajith Kumar, Joseph Vijay, Darshan, Dev and Jeet have all tasted success in this format.

This style is used very often in Hindi and South Indian films as it helps make them appeal to a broad variety of viewers. Famous masala filmmakers include David Dhawan, Anees Bazmee, Prabhu Deva and Farah Khan in Hindi cinema; Raja Chanda,Raj Chakraborty,Rabi Kinagi in Bengali cinema;S.S. Rajamouli, Puri Jagannath and Srinu Vaitla in Telugu cinema; S. Shankar, Hari, AR Murugadoss and K. S. Ravikumar in Tamil cinema and in Kannada cinema it was V. Somashekhar and K. S. R. Das in 70's; K.V.Raju, A. T. Raghu and Joe Simon in the 80's; Om Prakash Rao and Shivamani in the 90's and Mahesh Babu, K.Madesha and A.Harsha in the 2000s . The "Curry Western" trend that began with Sholay (1975) also falls under the masala genre. Curry Western is a play on the term Spaghetti Western.

Masala

A masala is any of the many spice mixes used in Indian cuisine. The name comes from the Hindi word for spice.

Masala may also refer to:

In media

Other uses

See also

Kalakalappu

Kalakalappu is a 2012 Indian Tamil comedy film co-written co-produced and directed by Sundar C. and produced by his wife Kushboo Sundar. It features Vimal, Shiva, Anjali, Oviya and Santhanam in lead roles and music composed by Vijay Ebenezer. It was originally titled Masala Cafe, but was later renamed to Kalakalappu. This movie is a Tamil adaptation of German comedy Soul Kitchen. The film released on 11 May 2012. The film is being remade in Telugu as Jump Jilani with Allari Naresh.

Plot

The setting is Kumbakonam, where Seenu (Vimal), tries to keep the fire burning in the kitchen of his famous ancestral restaurant Masala Café. It is tough job for Seenu to keep the place running, but with the help of the old chef and granddaughter, Maya (Oviya), he somehow manages it.

Seenu also borrows liberally from Anjuvatti Alagesan (Ilavarasu), and is in no position even to pay back his interest. Soon enough, there is Madhavi (Anjali), the new Health Inspector who wants the place to be sealed, but soon ends up falling in love with Seenu. Meanwhile, Seenu's brother Raghu (Shiva) a smooth talking con man enters the scene and creates more complications. He falls for Maya.