Food is a core part of human civilisation. At a base level, it provides sustenance and energy for us to keep going, but it’s so much more than that. In all cultures around the world, food plays a crucial role in creating bonds and experiences, links back to our pasts, as well as providing a link to neighbouring cultures. Within South Asian cultures, food is part of the heart of relationships as mothers, fathers, aunts, uncles, brothers, sisters, cousins, and friends all cook together while strengthening personal relationships. Venba explores one such relationship with a mother, father, and son from a Tamil background with themes and situations that would be familiar to all children of immigrants, especially those from South Asian backgrounds.
This game tells the story of Venba, a woman who has left India along with her husband, Paavalan, to start a new life in Canada in the 1980s. It is a tough start, with both characters struggling to understand the new world they are in and to find work. Early on they consider returning to India, but once they have a son called Kavin they decide to stay. The story revolves around the struggles the family face, such as the clash of cultures as the child of immigrants is trying to navigate two worlds, while the parents find it difficult to understand why their child will not embrace their cultural roots more.
Venba highlights issues immigrants and their children face, such as actions that other them or show a lack of care. What is in a name? Everything. Your name is your identity, a link to your family, and your roots. Venba shows a situation many will be familiar with, such as having their names spelt incorrectly on ID cards because it is unfamiliar to the person making the card, and they simply don’t ask how it is spelt. Another is South Asian names being anglicised to make it more convenient for others to address someone, instead those people learning a name, spelling and pronunciation properly. Kavin is called Kevin by his friends, while Paavalan’s name tag reads Pavluhn.
Venba is more of a visual novel with some interactive parts than a full on cooking experience. Each of the seven chapters has dishes to prepare, all of them inspired by Tamil and wider Indian cuisine. Each cooking section is essentially a puzzle where you decipher the clues to put the ingredients together in the correct order. They start simple with idlis and eventually move onto more complex dishes like biryani. The gameplay is simple – you simply select the ingredient and move it to the correct place – but you will occasionally need to mix or spread an ingredient, which is about as complex and interactive as it gets.
Venba has a lovely hand-drawn art style to it that evokes imagery from South Asia, from the way the locations are designed to how the characters are styled. It is full of colour too and the soundtrack, which has Tamil tracks, goes great with the cooking sections. The sound design choices are excellent too, both with the use of sound and absence of it too. Venba does only take a couple of hours to complete.
