One Dollar Curry

One Dollar Curry is a new Indo-French film written and directed by author and director Vijay Singh. The film is the story of Nishan (Chatwal), a streetwise Indian who reaches Paris in search of political refuge. Needing to make a buck to live, he creates a kitchen on wheels and tries to sell ultra-cheap curries at yes, you’ve guessed it, one dollar a time.

Nishan knows ‘sweet f.a.’ about cooking and has to pretend to be something of an Egon Ronay, even bluffing to those in the know about what spices he’s used. Nishan therefore is spinning lies about his cooking skills and before long he’s also telling porkies about his private life as he gets torn between his Indian fiancé and a French girl he gets to know. As his business reaches great heights, Nishan’s life gets steadily more complicated.

One Dollar Curry begins quite spicily, you don’t see many Indian comedies set in France for example but it loses its way in the second half after a reasonable start. The initial idea is an ok one but the story gradually becomes too far-fetched to be truly credible and you get the feeling that if director Vijay Singh had just held back on 1-2 ingredients, he might have ended up with a better dish altogether.

Matt Arnoldi