Today's Special (2009)

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

Don't Believe the Hype

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

The acting in this movie is really good.

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

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.

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 is a movie with a great mix of humor, family, romance and humanity. It has nothing that I consider objectionable but I also think that it has very little that will appeal to kids. Although the end is a bit predictable and a bit slow at times (thus making it not a 10), it's one of the most entertaining films I've seen this year (and I've seen a lot of movies this year).I would like to know why I don't remember seeing Naseeruddin Shah (who plays the memorable character Akbar (the cab driver/chef))in a movie before. He's the best of an excellent cast. I found myself caring a great deal for the main character Samir (Assif Mandiv) which doesn't happen often in most movies I see (even the good ones). Today's Special centers entirely on the characters and the story. If your looking for a movie with lots of computer generated images (CGI) and/or other special effects and/or stunts and/or violence and/or action and/or sex, go see something else.It was nice to see a movie that doesn't stereotype Muslims as terrorists and that many in the audience clapped for when it was over. I think most adults who enjoy a few very good laughs and a good story will enjoy this movie a great deal.