Celebrity MasterChef Tamil contestants leave Samantha in tears

In an upcoming episode of Celebrity MasterChef Tamil, the contestants put the cooking aside and make Samantha the one being celebrated. The Sony VIZHA show’s tribute to her ends with her in tears.

It starts with an audiovisual of her time on the show, which gets to her before the gifts even arrive. Then come the presents: baby clothes, toys, artwork and chocolates, each with its own message.

The moment that lands hardest comes from contestant Janani. Her sister, she tells Samantha, went through a difficult phase, and it was watching Samantha’s own journey that helped her rebuild her confidence. The sister has since become a fitness coach and yoga instructor. Samantha had no idea.

The gifts send her back to her childhood in Pallavaram, and to a hill near her home there. It holds her school successes and her moments of grief alike, she says; it has quietly watched most chapters of her life.

The show, she says, has given her something a film set does not. On a set, even one like Engal Thangam earlier this year, she is always playing someone. In the MasterChef kitchen she gets to be Samantha, and to get to know the contestants and what they want from their lives.

She also talks about her pregnancy. For the first seven months she kept to a strict diet, she says, before finally giving in to the foods she loved as a child. RJ Vijay’s verdict: the baby has already tasted more variety than most people do before they are born.

What she is taking away, she says, is the people. She tells the contestants the friendships will outlast the show.

Celebrity MasterChef Tamil airs Monday to Friday at 8 PM on Sony VIZHA and streams on Sony LIV.