Comedy drama starring Helen Mirren, Manish Dayal and Om Puri. The competition for customers reaches vindaloo intensity when the Kadam family open an Indian restaurant in rural France, just across the road from the Michelin-starred establishment owned by snobbish Madame Mallory.
Racial divisions are seen in soft focus through the lens of director Lasse Hallström (Chocolat) in this adaptation of the novel by Richard C Morais. Helen Mirren plays the snooty owner of a Michelin-starred restaurant in rural France who scents a rival when the aroma of curry wafts across the road from Om Puri's newly opened business. A game of one-upmanship ensues, as each tries to get punters through their door. But when the prodigious culinary talent of Om Puri's son (Manish Dayal) catches Mirren's attention, a bridge starts to be built between the two. There are few insights into what really makes these characters tick, while Dayal's slow-cooking romance with fellow gastronome Charlotte Le Bon may be thrown in just to bulk up the stew, but the always-good-value Puri (East Is East) delivers some wry laughs along the way.
| role | name |
|---|---|
| Madame Mallory | Helen Mirren |
| Hassan | Manish Dayal |
| Papa | Om Puri |
| Marguerite | Charlotte Le Bon |
| Mansur | Amit Shah |
| Mahira | Farzana Dua Elahe |
| Mukhtar | Dillon Mitra |
| Jean-Pierre | Clément Sibony |
| Paul | Vincent Elbaz |
| Aisha | Aria Pandya |
| Mayor | Michel Blanc |
| role | name |
|---|---|
| Director | Lasse Hallström |
