Today's Special

2009 "Life Has No Recipe"
6.6| 1h39m| R| en| More Info
Released: 19 November 2009 Released
Producted By: Inimitable Pictures
Country:
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website:
Info

Young Manhattan chef Samir rediscovers his heritage and passion for life through the enchanting art of cooking Indian food.

Genre

Comedy, Romance

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Director

David Kaplan

Production Companies

Inimitable Pictures

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Today's Special Audience Reviews

Evengyny Thanks for the memories!
Rijndri Load of rubbish!!
UnowPriceless hyped garbage
FuzzyTagz If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.
Rob-O-Cop I don't think I've seen quite so many trite clichés of food based rom coms packed into a single movie, or at least noticed them so badly. They've got a decent case against the 2014 movie Chef http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2883512/reference which pretty much stole the vibe of this movie on the food side of things. The Cliché family aspects we've seen so many times, the formulaic food as art tropes, standard rom com touchstones, they're all here exactly as they have been in many other movies before and obviously after (see aforementioned Chef 2014). They were just so damn strong in this film, overpowering, overwhelming to the point of it making me feel irritable and uncomfortable. The only saving graces here were the original Indian soundtrack and some of the Indian culture insights, which did go deeper than standard Hollywood tokenism. The production values as far as cinematography and sound were fine, just the tired and pilfered template they pasted it all over was a waste of everyone's time. I wanted it to be over round about when it started.
Tim Johnson 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."
Mel Famie Lighter than light, frothier than froth, sweeter than sweet, with an impressive lack of attention to trivial things like character, continuity, or motivation. This film wasn't written so much as it was constructed out of existing bits and pieces, with any element of surprise or originality clinically excised. On the bright side, it was slickly filmed and lit, with some nice food shots which rescued it from being rated zero stars.I wanted to like this movie. Independent, "small" film, some talented actors, and about a subject I love, all things that would predispose me to forgive minor flaws. Nope, even with that head-start, "Today's Special" made me wish that I had that 2 hours of my life back.It might make a decent date film if you're trying to impress someone who's a bit shallow and slow.
slackergirl42 This is a heartfelt, amusing film starring Aasif Mandvi, mostly known for his work as a Daily Show correspondent. It's not quite as funny as I expected from a comedian of his caliber; not because he tried and failed, but because it's more of a quirky story of a personal journey. But there were definitely a good number of lines that were so funny I had to repeat them out loud to myself. It's a bit slow in the beginning (could have used some tighter editing), but give it some time to build. Naseeruddin Shah is magic, as always. If you know his work, nothing more needs to be said. If not, watch this and enjoy. (And I gotta say, I think he looks damn good for his age!) It is not a coincidence that the song Akbar (Shah) is listening to when Samir (Mandvi) first meets him is from a classic Hindi film in which the character says that although all his clothes come from other countries, his heart is still Indian. Samir has tried to cut himself off from Indian traditions, even while his parents are attempting to shove them down his throat; the more they push, the more he pulls away, and vise versa. Throughout the film, with help from unexpected places, he learns to reconcile his western life with his heritage, and appreciate where he came from.