Dark comedy Chef Chidambara sets theatrical release date

Kannada actor Aniruddha Jatkar’s next, Chef Chidambara, has zeroed in on its date with audiences. The film directed by M Anandraj, which also stars Rachel David and Nidhi Subbaiah, will be in theatres on June 14. It will join Dhananjaya’s Kotee at the box office that week . The team announced the release date earlier today.

Eagle-eyed netizens were quick to find out that the film’s been censored and posted the plot as mentioned in the certificate on social media. According to the synopsis provided to the Censor Board, Chef Chidambara follows a 30-something unmarried chef, who runs a cloud kitchen out of his apartment. When a man visits Chidambara at his flat and then dies, it puts the former in a bizarre situation, complicated further by a corrupt cop who demands money to settle the issue.

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Interestingly, the first bit of the plot is almost as if the story of the recent Kannada thriller Shakhahaari had been rewritten for an urban audience. While Rangayana Raghu played a chef Subbanna, who runs a modest eatery that serves a staple menu of 3-4 items only in his home village, Aniruddha’s Chidambaram is an urban chef. In Shakhahaari’s Subbanna gave refuge to a fugitive on the run from the police, after his proclamations of innocence. However, he ends up dead while under Subbanna’s care. What happens thereafter was the crux of that film.

In Chef Chidambaram too, there is a death, but the plot appears different thereon. Still, at first read, the plot of the film does sound like ‘Shakhahaari lite’, with Aniruddha stating that it is a crime thriller with dark comedy. Chef Chidambaram also stars Shivamani, Sharath Lohithashwa, KS Sridhar, Raghu Ramanakoppa, Kari Subbu, Mahantesh and Shwetha. The film has music by Ritwik Muralidhar and cinematography by Uday Leela.