Today's Special

source: Today's Special

The character of the taxi driver will not soon be forgotten. Excellent, feel good film!

i love having recently discovered director David Kaplan and this movie only confirmed my belief that he is one of the best film directors in today's cinema. this film is as appealing and as fun as a visit to a trendy new Indian cuisine restaurant. it's one of those kind of low budget, feel good movies about overcoming obstacles much the way the original 'Rocky' was some thirty or more years ago. 'Rocky' was thought highly enough to be best picture material and i don't find this movie any less notable. it's definitely top ten, best film material and a must see for feeling good and thinking smart. David Kaplan is truly a "top chef" filmmaker with a real gift for traditions and folklore and he explores ethnic themes in America quite well as he did in this film and in his Asian American fantasy "Year of the Fish". i would recommend this culinary delight to everyone and couldn't imagine anyone not liking it, but then again there are always those with permanent indigestion. fun and smart movie.

"Today's Special" will be most appealing (appetizing?) to people who love to cook, but anyone who likes Indian food is bound to like it. Aasif Mandvi (the senior Asian correspondent on "The Daily Show") plays an Indian-American sous chef who starts taking an interest in his own culture's cuisine. The movie is half look at South Asian food, half look at Indian-American families (with pushy parents). Naseeruddin Shah's taxi driver/gourmet chef is the funniest character in the movie, the perfect contrast to Mandvi's nervous nice guy. It's a really fun movie. It was of course impressive to see Madhur Jaffrey - herself a doyenne of Indian cuisine - but another cast member who caught my eye was Kumar Pallana, who died last year. He owned an Indian restaurant in Dallas, and his customers included Wes Anderson and Owen Wilson, who cast him in "Bottle Rocket", "Rushmore", "The Royal Tenenbaums" and "The Darjeeling Limited". Steven Spielberg also gave him a supporting role in "The Terminal". Anyway, I recommend this movie.

This is a very good movie, although I do not understand why it is rated R. What I liked in this movie is that he shown himself to become a better chef through his culture. Towards the ending, I liked how his parents accepted his own sous chef because usually many Indian parents do not allow out of culture/race relationship with the opposite gender. I find this movie to be very inspirational because he has started off as a good chef, then things turned down with his job, fathers restaurant, parents relationship, and what else is troublesome, but he turned into a great business man, and made his fathers restaurant better. I would like to know what happens towards the end, because I want to find out if he got married and had more kids with his love.

ONE OF THE VERY UNDERRATED MOVIE / AND NOT FOR EVERYONE . Those who love food and the art of cooking just like music will love it. well written gem that will make you want to eat some great indian food--or any food! Sometimes you want a meal that tastes exactly like you expect it's going to taste. "Today's Special" is one of those meals.

Never heard of this movie but was looking thru Amazon Prime for something to watch, saw that it had Aasif Mandvi as the star, was also about food, and thought I'd give it a try. I was glad I did, very enjoyable movie after a bit of a slow start. I agree with pretty much all of the other reviews but I wanted to point a couple of other things I really liked - leaving out a couple of the usual clichés you see in movies like this. 1) Normally I would expect the lead character to say something stupid to lose the girl, then manage to get her back again. He did say something stupid, but she just laughed it off instead of stomping off. Nice. 2) Immigrant parents NEVER like the blond girlfriend in these kinds of movies, at least not at the beginning until they eventually come around. They mentioned it but didn't even come close, again they laughed it off. Also nice. Best part of the movie was any scene with Naseeruddin Shah, he really stole the movie. Anyone notice that he frequently talked like Tevye from Fiddler on the Roof? Both in cadence and in the things he said. Don't know if it was intentional or not but it added some enjoyment of the movie.

Diane and I saw this enjoyable film last night and equally enjoyed the entire movie meaning that there were no slow spots anywhere in the film. Neither one of us knew any more about what we were to see accept that which was written on the back of the box containing the CD; therefore, the development of the movie was paced very well thanks to the director's sure grip on the progression of the film. The cast universally played their roles extremely well. The film revolves around the failure of an Indian restaurant in New York and is saved, improbably, by an Indian raconteur. Those wiser in the ways of movie scripting will say, quite correctly, that "Today's Special" is made up of "cardboard characters" with an easily anticipated script moves and I totally agree with those commentators; however, Diane and I, she of the much wiser movie critique ability, enjoyed the layout of this film very much. The characters were so good and as Indian film notables, so believable that any criticism can be deflected. Although there were only two major female roles it would be a definite must see "chic flic."

I enjoy this movie immensely because it made me laugh, cry and appreciate the spices-favors of different types of food. The universal themes focus on this motion picture were palpable. I must admit, I felt going out to dinner to an Indian Joint after seeing this movie. I really wanted to have some of that golden spice. The character made this a great story because they were beautifully played because their vulnerabilities were easy to feel. You should watch this movie if you want to be moved. I recommend going to dinner after watching "Today Special", in order to enhance your viewing experience. I also, like the the fact that this motion picture has openly accepted the main stream view of inter-racial relationships with Westerners. Yet another reason to go see it!!!

Over the years, I have noticed that most cooking movies are really great entertainment. "Babette's Feast", "Big Night" and "Bella Martha" are a few great cooking films I have seen and so I was looking forward to seeing "Today's Special". Fortunately, my expectations were met. While not quite in the same league as these three films, it was very close--and a film I can heartily recommend. Aasif Mandva plays Samir--an Indian-American who is classically trained and has dreams of going to France to further his culinary education. Unfortunately, just before he leaves, his father has a heart attack and Samir is forced to stay and run his family's horrible Indian restaurant. I say horrible because the place is filthy, the chef is a filthy pig and the food is wretched. Truly Samir has his work cut out for him--particularly because he knows nothing about Indian cooking. By chance, he happens to meet a cabbie who claims he knows how to cook well and Samir hires him to work in the restaurant. What's next? See the film as there is so much more to the movie--such as Samir's very problematic relationship with his father, Samir's pathetic dating life and his father's plans to sell the restaurant! Why did I like this film? Well, it had a wonderful ensemble cast. So many of the supporting characters were very cute and likable. Additionally, Naseeruddin Shah did a lovely job as the cabbie cook--which was a very important foundation for the film. Well worth seeing, a bit funny and with a lot of heart. Oh, and while I'm thinking of it, another wonderful film about cooking is "Eat, Drink, Man, Woman". If you can think of any others let me know--I am always in the mood for a good food film.