Last nights headliner, “Cooking with Stella” was a full house. I arrived early, as did many others who anxiously waited in the cool brisk weather hoping to get their hands on the limited seats available at the door.
Cooking with Stella is directed by Dilip Mehta, brother of Deepa Mehta, who co-wrote the story. You may remember Deepa Mehta from Fire, and Water, two stellar films that made a mark on the screen addressing taboo topics in the Indian community.
Cooking with Stella was a light hearted story about a diplomat played by Lisa Ray, and her husband Michael (Don McKellar) who is a chef. Maya’s position moves her and the family to Delhi. With the move come many perks, such as servants. Stella is the Cook, who we come to love, but question her strange loyalty. Michael talks Stella into being his Indian Cooking Guru. While Stella teaches Michael to cook she schemes up some interesting recipes to change her own life. The cast was full of talented people. Stella played by Seema Biswas, who we remember as Phoolan Devi in 1994’s Shekhar Kapur’s must see Bandit Queen. Don McKellar made us see the gentle yet frustrated character of Micheal. The Nanny, Shriya Saran is a well known Tamil/ Telugu actress from Tollywood (a close cousin of the Bollywood industry). Maya played by Lisa Ray who we know from Bollywood/Hollywood has worked with Deepa Mehta before in Water. Lisa Ray who has recently been diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma has been undergoing Chemotherapy. I wanted to share a few words from Lisa Ray’s blog http://lisaraniray.wordpress.com/ in response to the cancer recently discovered:
“For me, it was a relief to hear what was wrong. The plasma cells in my bone marrow were rampaging, multiplying, squeezing out the red blood cells and it was time to begin doing something about it. I was also tired of being tired all the time. And you just know when something is not kosher with your body. So when I sat there with Bobcat- my life partner and reservoir of Yellow- and got the news I didn’t react and I didn’t cry. I’m an actress, believe me, I can be dramatic. Not just then though."
