Today's Special + Gala Reception

(300 mins)

Be sure to get your tickets to both Opening Night Film TODAY'S SPECIAL and the fabulous gala party following at the Asian Art Museum! Take advantage of the special combo price for both!

In Person: Aasif Mandvi, Madhur Jaffrey, David Kaplan, Nimitt Mankad, Lillian LaSalle

A sparkling romantic comedy that hits the heart as well as the funny bone, TODAY’S SPECIAL is a lovingly crafted ode to family, food and New york City. Steaming kitchens and Bollywood songs of yore fill this hilarious second feature from Kaplan (YEAR OF THE FISH, SFIAAFF ‘07), written by and starring Aasif Mandvi (The Daily Show), as well as Harish Patel, Madhur Jaffrey and the great Naseerrudin Shah.

Mandvi plays Samir, an ambitious, thirty-something sous-chef at a fancy French restaurant. His life is a fast-paced blur of bubbling butter, lamb chops and cilantro oil, and he dreams of a seemingly certain promotion to head chef at a soon-to-be opened SoHo restaurant. To his parents’ disappointment, however, he hasn’t married, has no children, and ignores all of the dating profiles that his mother (played by the doyen of Indian cooking, Madhur Jaffrey) sends him. Food (and perhaps ignorance) is bliss. Events, however, conspire to throw his life through the wringer, and lead to a realization that his cooking lacks the magic and passion to make it truly special. Or is it his life itself that’s lacking that passion? All routes lead home, especially the #7 train to Jackson Heights, where the family restaurant “Tandoori Palace” beckons. A place of childhood nostalgia, it is now slightly down-in-the dumps. It does, however, offer a glimmer of possibility…

A film about living life outside the lines we draw, TODAY’S SPECIAL is brought to life by the cast of offbeat, endearing characters who enter Samir’s world and right its course. Carrie (Jess Weixler) is the blue-eyed prep chef who might just teach him something about love, and a peanut galley of old-timers at the restaurant banter, shimmy and save the day more than once. The soul of the film however, is veteran Bollywood actor Naseerrudin Shah, as Akbar, the freewheeling cabbie-cumchef who magically appears in Samir’s life. Claiming that he cooked for Indira Ghandi and met the Queen of England, and able to “make a Mugli Masala that will hound you like a lost love,” Akbar is the free-spirited, transformative foil to Samir’s buttoned-up, haute self. Mandvi’s script is a riotous accomplishment, matched only by his impeccable comic timing and Kaplan’s caring eye for detail. Enormously satisfying and bursting with talent, TODAY’S SPECIAL casts a memorable spell.

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