Today's Special

Product Description

Product Description

TODAY'S SPECIAL, a heartwarming comedy with culinary flavor, tells the story of Samir (Aasif Mandvi, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, The Proposal), a sous chef who dreams of becoming the head chef at an upscale Manhattan restaurant. When he is passed over for a promotion, he impulsively quits and tells his co-worker Carrie (Jess Weixler, Teeth) that he intends to go to Paris and apprentice under a master French chef. But dreams must be put aside after his estranged father, Hakim (Harish Patel, Run, Fat Boy, Run), has a heart attack and Samir is forced to take over Tandoori Palace, the nearly bankrupt family restaurant in Jackson Heights. Samir's mother, Farrida (legendary cookbook writer Madhur Jaffrey), is consumed with trying to find a wife for her son, while Samir is trying to master Indian cooking to salvage the family business. Luckily, he crosses paths with Akbar (Naseeruddin Shah, Monsoon Wedding), a taxi driver, passionate chef and worldly raconteur. Akbar inspires Samir and teaches him to trust his senses more than recipes; to stop measuring his life, and to start truly living it. With Akbar's guidance, Samir has a chance to rediscover his heritage and his passion for life through the enchanting art of cooking Indian food.

Special Features

• Deleted Scenes
• Cooking Video
• Interview With the Writers
• Recipe from Madhur Jaffrey

Review

Directed with verve by David Kaplan from Aasif Mandvi and Jonathan Bines exceptional screenplay, TODAY'S SPECIAL stars Mandvi as a sous-chef at a Manhattan restaurant whose plans to head to Paris for further culinary study are derailed after his father suffers a heart attack and he must take over the family restaurant in Queens.

Imaginative, warm and witty, the film, inspired by Mandvi's prize-winning play Sakina's Restaurant, is an irresistible delight, its theatrical roots vanishing amid a gracefully cinematic evocation of life in Jackson Heights, a venerable Queens neighborhood with an inviting human scale and grand rooftop vistas of the New York skyline. It is alive with a screen full of captivating characters, all written with affection and exquisitely played by a raft of fine actors.

TODAY'S SPECIAL is a gem of wide appeal, richly deserving of finding an audience. --Los Angeles Times

Aasif Mandvi [has] cooked up a feel-good fable about a talented cook and second-generation Indian, who discovers his destiny and own version of the American Dream when he takes over his father's run-down Tandoori Palace restaurant. While it tracks familiar themes of generational clashes in immigrant families, upward mobility and Old World vs. New World values, Today's Special does so with vigor and a pleasing sense of comedy. Not hurting matters for foreign and Indian film devotees, the film features two icons of Indian cinema, Madhur Jaffrey and Naseeruddin Shah. --New York Daily News

The film, like a great meal, leaves you wanting more. --Hollywood Reporter

Aasif Mandvi [has] cooked up a feel-good fable about a talented cook and second-generation Indian, who discovers his destiny and own version of the American Dream when he takes over his father s run-down Tandoori Palace restaurant. While it tracks familiar themes of generational clashes in immigrant families, upward mobility and Old World vs. New World values, Today s Special does so with vigor and a pleasing sense of comedy. Not hurting matters for foreign and Indian film devotees, the film features two icons of Indian cinema, Madhur Jaffrey and Naseeruddin Shah. --New York Daily News

The film, like a great meal, leaves you wanting more. --Hollywood Reporter