Based on an Obie-award winning play
by the Daily Show’s Aasif Mandvi, this is the closest thing on my menu
to that tiniest of genres: the Thanksgiving Day film (since nobody’s reprising
the genre’s singular classic: John Hughes’ Planes, Trains and Automobiles).
This David Kaplan directed comedy
sizzles when it focuses on the odd bond between an unemployed sous-chef
(Mandvi) and a charismatic cab driver/master chef. These two men – who could
only meet in a failing Jackson Heights Indian family restaurant farce – possess
a goofy chemistry that allows you to forget the corny family subplot. One
realistic note: the early scenes reveal sanitary practices at the Tandoon
Palace that would make a restaurant inspector feel he’d been transferred to the
River Ganges.
Based on his saucy meal prep scenes
one can only hope that Bollywood vet Naseerrudin Shah consents to another
English language food fight.