Aasif Mandvi with the Best actor award at the MIAAC Festival

What’s cooking with Aasif Mandvi? A whole Indian feast! Well for one, the zany commentator from ‘The Daily Show with Jon Stewart’ has turned chef, worked at Tandoori Palace, found a new love, and even bagged a best actor award.

Sure beats Deep Space Naan!

His brand new movie ‘Today’s Special’ – all about the travails of a sous chef – premiered at the MIAAC, New York’s Indian Film Festival in Manhattan and has been a real crowd pleaser.

Sunday  night at the awards ceremony at the Walter Reade Theater, Mandvi bagged the best actor award. The other nominees were two noted names in the Indian film industry, Naseeruddin Shah and Rahul Bose.

MIAAC (Mahindra-Indo American Arts Council) Film Festival showed over 47 movies from South Asia over three days in several venues across the city. Last year ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ had opened the film festival, this year it’s ‘Tonight’s Special’ which also stars Madhur Jaffrey, Naseeruddin Shah and Jess Weixler.

And so what’s ‘Today’s Special’ about? Succinctly put, it’s about the Biryani of Life. Biryani, of course, is the spicy, savory rice dish from India, and it’s a bit like life itself – you can never have too much of it. The movie is all about Samir, a hapless sous cook who’s passed over for promotion because he’s just not creative enough in the kitchen, hasn’t quite discovered his inner-chef. When his dad, who owns a rundown Indian eatery in Jackson Heights, has a heart-attack, Samir not only saves Tandoori Palace, but also finds his groove and true love.

Mandvi has worked for several years to make this movie happen. So it was pretty special when he came up on stage to receive his award from India’s noted film director Shyam Benegal and actress Sarita Choudhury.  He quipped: “I haven’t actually won an award for acting since I was in junior high in a school play so I think I have a future. It’s looking good!”

Related Article Aasif Mandvi Savors the Biryani of Life

Cast and crew of 'Today's Special' at the awards ceremony