Madhur Jaffrey Movies
Madhur Jaffrey grew up in her native Delhi, India, as a self-described tomboy. At an early age, she realized the limitations that were placed on her by Hindu society, due to the fact that she is a woman. She thus strove to accomplish what was most difficult to achieve, which was occupational and personal success independent of male intervention.Fortunately, her parents were among her biggest supporters and she was allowed to travel to London, England, in order to study at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts. Upon completion of her degree, she moved to New York and married fellow actor Saeed Jaffrey. Reportedly, it was the Jaffreys that introduced director James Ivory to producer Ismail Merchant, with whom Madhur would later develop a longstanding working relationship. The foursome collaborated on the film Shakespeare Wallah, for which Jaffrey won a Best Actress award at the Berlin Film Festival in 1965.
When her marriage to Saeed fell apart, she came upon hard financial times. During this period, Madhur began to study Indian cooking and she eventually authored a series of cookbooks about her native cuisine, which established a second career for her. Because of the success of her cookbooks, she has appeared on numerous cooking shows and she has also developed a line of mass-marketed cooking sauces.
In 1969, she remarried, this time to famed violinist Sanford Allen. The two met as Jaffrey was working part time as a tour guide at the Lincoln Center, while Allen was performing with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra.
She has three children, all by first husband Saeed. The youngest, Sakina Jaffrey, is also an actor and has appeared three times with her mother, in the films Chutney Popcorn, The Perfect Murder, and Cotton Mary. ~ Ryan Shriver, Rovi
A man gains a new lease on life when circumstances force him to take over the family business in this comedy drama from director David Kaplan. Samir (Aasif Mandvi) is a traditionally trained chef who works as the sous chef in an exclusive restaurant in Manhattan, but when he learns he's been turned down for an expected promotion, he leaves in a huff and isn't asked to return. Samir is convinced he's cut out for better things and considers heading for Europe to attend a culinary academy in Paris. But Samir's plans quickly change when he learns that his father (Harish Patel) has suffered a severe heart attack and someone needs to look after the family business, a dingy Indian restaurant in Queens that's fallen on hard times. While Samir has spent years learning to prepare gourmet cuisine, he's never had much experience making Indian food, and his mother (Madhur Jaffrey) is singularly unimpressed with his efforts. Samir has to hire a new cook to assist him, and he ends up with Akbar (Naseeruddin Shah), a cabbie who claims to have cooked for many of India's leading dignitaries, and with Akbar's help Samir learns about the soul of Indian cuisine, as well as a few things about himself. Samir also tries to make time for a budding romance with Carrie (Jess Weixler), who worked with him at his old job. Today's Special was an official selection at the 2009 BFI London Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Aasif Mandvi, Naseeruddin Shah, (more)
In a time when India and Pakistan are being torn apart, true love still manages to take root despite the fear and intolerance that blights the troubled landscape. The year is 1947, and as India and Pakistan are split into two separate states the rivers run red with blood. Gian (Jimi Mistry) is a Sikh and former soldier who risks his life to rescue young Muslim Naseem (Kristin Kruek) from a rampaging mob. As this unlikely pair begins to realize their true feelings for one another, the bond between them helps to heal the tender wounds of war. But what chance does true love really have against the destructive force or religious zealotry? ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Jimi Mistry, Kristin Kreuk, (more)
- 2007
- NR
First-time feature filmmaker Rehana Mirza explores the lives of three generations of South Asian women afflicted with mental illness in this heartfelt drama. Divya Shah (Madhur Jaffrey) suffers from bipolar disorder, though for years she's managed to keep her condition a closely guarded secret from her family and friends. Meanwhile, Divya's disobedient daughter, Linny (Pooja Kumar), ran away from home before she was married, and gave birth to a daughter, Jia (Madelaine Massey), out of wedlock. Now Jia is 16, and the strength required to keep her condition a secret is beginning to take a heavy emotional toll on the mentally ill adolescent. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Pooja Kumar, Madhur Jaffrey, (more)
- 2005
- PG13
- Add Prime to Queue Add Prime to top of Queue
Two women get a new and unusual perspective on the doctor/patient relationship in this romantic comedy. Rafi Gardet (Uma Thurman) is a woman in her mid-thirties who has recently gone through a messy divorce. Rafi has been seeing an analyst, Lisa Metzger (Meryl Streep), as she struggles to get back on her feet emotionally and look for new love. Rafi meets a man named David Bloomberg (Bryan Greenberg), and the two quickly hit it off, but Rafi isn't sure if she should pursue the relationship, since David is only 23 years old. After discussing the burgeoning romance during one of their weekly sessions, Lisa urges Rafi to take a plunge with David, and not be afraid to seek out the companionship she needs. However, there's something about David that Lisa doesn't know -- he's her son. Rafi doesn't know that Lisa is David's mother, either, and both psychiatrist and patient are thrown for a loop when they learn the truth. Prime was originally intended to star Sandra Bullock as Rafi, but she dropped out of the project shortly before filming began, reportedly due to disagreements with the director over the script, with Thurman taking her place. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Meryl Streep, Uma Thurman, (more)
Ismail Merchant, best known as a producer for his work with director James Ivory (including Howards End and A Room With a View), takes possession of the director's chair in this drama. In 1954, seven years after India has gained independence from Great Britain, many Indians still feel like second-class citizens in their own country, as the nation's sovereignty has not immediately erased the perception that the British are superior to the Indian-born natives. Such a woman is Cotton Mary (Madhur Jaffrey), who works as a nurse for Lily Macintosh (Greta Scacchi), the wife of a BBC correspondent. Mary claims she's the daughter of a British regiment officer (although she has no firm evidence), and she sees herself as more British than Indian. While she takes offense at racist comments, she often states her belief that most of her people are unclean and dishonest, and her personal philosophy is informed by Christianity as much as the Hindu teachings with which she was raised. When Lily gives birth prematurely, Mary has to find a wet nurse for the child, and she uses this to win greater trust and confidence from Lily; in time, Mary persuades Lily to fire Abraham (Prayag Raaj), the household's loyal but proudly Indian cook, while she hides the fact that her sister Blossom (Neena Gupta) is nursing Lily's child. When not acting, Madhur Jaffrey is an acclaimed Indian chef and author, who has written a series of books on Indian cuisine; her daughter, Sakina Jaffrey, also appears in the film. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Madhur Jaffrey, Greta Scacchi, (more)
New York University film student Krutin Patel debuts with this cross-cultural drama about a pair of Indian-American 20-somethings. Bedhopping Nina (Sheetal Sheth) is split between upper class white boy Sam (Rex Young) and childhood friend Ashok (Aasif Mandvi). Meanwhile, Nina's workaholic brother Raj (Faran Tahir) is set for an arranged marriage with pleasant Tejal (Adriane Forlana Erdos), but he has eyes for sexy white co-worker Julia (Jennifer Dorr White). This film was screened in the 1999 London Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi
- Starring:
- Madhur Jaffrey, Faran Tahir, (more)
The push and pull of familial bonds and clashing cultures sets the stage for the comic drama Chutney Popcorn. Renna (Nisha Ganatra) is a young woman of Indian descent living in New York, where she works as both a photographer and a body artist who creates henna tattoos. Renna is also a lesbian, which does not please her mother, Meenu (Madhur Jaffrey), who prefers to dote on her more traditionally minded (and happily married) daughter Sarita (Sakina Jeffrey). One day, Renna gets some bad news from Sarita: While she and her husband have been trying to have a baby, her doctor has informed that her she is infertile and will never bear a child of her own. Renna volunteers to serve as surrogate mother for Sarita; she wants to help her sister and hopes this will smooth some of the rough spots in her relationship with her mother. But Renna starts to have second thoughts, as her lover Lisa (Jill Hennessy) feels left out of the loop, and Meenu thinks both Renna and Sarita are making a mistake. Nisha Ganatra co-wrote and directed Chutney Popcorn and also plays Renna; the film was enthusiastically received in its screening at the 1999 Los Angeles Independent Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Jill Hennessy, Nisha Ganatra, (more)
- 1996
Based on a novel by Rumer Godden, the two-part British miniseries The Peacock Spring took place in Delhi, India, in 1959. Hattie Moraham starred as Una Gwithin, 15-year-old daughter of the recently appointed U.N. diplomat to the region. Una caused shock waves to ripple throughout what was left of the British empire when she fell in love with a charismatic (and extremely self-absorbed) Indian poet named Ravi Batticharya (Naveen Andrews). Further complicating the story is the curious animosity between Una's father and her Eurasian governess Alix (Jennifer Hall). The Peacock Spring originally aired in 1996. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Hattie Moraham, Jennifer Hall, (more)
In the late 1980s, noted theatrical director Andre Gregory assembled a group of friends and actors and began rehearsing a new translation of Anton Chekhov's Uncle Vanya by David Mamet, not with any specific performance in mind but as a way of exploring the beauty and precise construction of Chekhov's play. Louis Malle, a friend of Gregory's, became interested in the project and spent two weeks filming Gregory's actors as they performed Uncle Vanya without an audience in a run-down theater near New York's Times Square. In these performances, the line between theater and real life is blurred as conversations between actors -- juggling take-out cups of coffee and wearing street clothes -- slowly grow into a superb performance of Chekhov's classic, with Wallace Shawn as Vanya, Julianne Moore as Yelena, Brooke Smith as Sonya, and Larry Pine as Dr. Astrov. With a certain sad irony, this marvelously realized adaptation of a play about people wondering what they've done with their lives proved to be Louis Malle's final film; he died of cancer in 1995. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Wallace Shawn, Larry Pine, (more)
Jack Nicholson becomes a werewolf in this bizarre comedy-horror film directed by Mike Nichols. Nicholson plays Will Randall, a book editor with a testosterone deficit who has just been sacked at his publishing firm by a new boss, Raymond Alden (Christopher Plummer). A colleague, Stewart Swinton (James Spader), whom Randall thought was his friend, betrays him. Randall's personality changes after he hits a wolf with his car and gets bitten by the creature. He immediately feels more powerful, has heightened hearing and vision, and sets about to right the wrongs in his life. He visits Alden at the publisher's mansion to protest his dismissal, and he is asked to leave -- but Alden's daughter Laura (Michelle Pfeiffer) asks him to stay for lunch. Laura loves to defy her father. Will tells her about the wolf bite, and she becomes attracted to him. But because werewolves usually kill the ones they love, Laura is in danger. Will reasserts his place in the publishing world, supported by his loyal secretary Mary (Eileen Atkins), and his relationship with Laura deepens. ~ Michael Betzold, Rovi
- Starring:
- Jack Nicholson, Michelle Pfeiffer, (more)
Two socialites find their view of the world changed when a young man takes advantage of their preconceptions in this thoughtful comedy-drama. Flan and Ouisa Kittredge (Donald Sutherland and Stockard Channing) are a married couple who have built highly successful careers as art dealers catering to Manhattan's upper crust. The Kittredges are entertaining friends one evening when a young black man named Paul (Will Smith) appears at their door. Paul says that he's a close friend of their children, with whom he attended boarding school, and he's just been mugged and needs to get off the street for a moment. Flan and Ouisa invite him in, and they are immediately taken by Paul's intelligence and charm; he offers to prepare dinner, regales them with stories about his father, Sidney Poitier, and ends up spending the night at their apartment. However, the next morning Flan and Ouisa discover that they've been had; Paul is actually a con artist from the streets who has been pulling the wool over the eyes of many of their friends -- and his actions are beginning to have serious consequences. John Guare adapted the script from his own successful stage play; the supporting cast includes Ian McKellen, Mary Beth Hurt, Bruce Davison, and Heather Graham. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Stockard Channing, Will Smith, (more)
- 1988
Someone has tried to murder Mr. Perfect (Dinshaw Daji) and now the beleaguered Inspector Ghote (Krishna Shah) must figure out who tried to do it. Set in Bombay, India, this rollicking crime drama centers on Ghote's search for the would-be killer. Mr. Perfect was knocked out with a candlestick in the home of the jovial Dilap Lal, his employer. As there was no sign that the assassin forced his or her way into the home, Ghote assumes the prime suspect is Lal or one of his family members. Unfortunately, the pressures from his other cases that include a ring of jewel smugglers and a bureaucrat's purloined piece of costume jewelry prevent Ghote from giving his full attention to Perfect's assailant. That Ghote must also entertain the meddlesome Axel Svensson (Stellan Skarsgård), a renowned Swedish crime scientist, does nothing to help matters. To make matters worse, Lal's clan belongs to the upper caste, making it nearly impossible for him to get answers to his questions. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Dalip Tahil, Madhur Jaffrey, (more)
- 1988
Madhur Jaffrey is one of the most renowned Indian cooks in the English-speaking world. She has authored dozens of cookbooks, opened several highly successful restaurants, and has traveled the world time and time again in search of authentic regional food that characterizes its people. In this video, she guides viewers through Bangkok fruit markets and the seaside of western Sumatra, and explores the cuisine of Hong Kong, Indonesia, Korea, Vietnam, the Philippines, and Japan.
~ Madeline Cavalieri, Rovi
~ Madeline Cavalieri, Rovi
- 1987
Madhur Jaffrey is one of the most renowned Indian cooks in the English-speaking world. She has authored dozens of cookbooks, opened several highly successful restaurants, and has traveled the world time and time again in search of authentic regional food that characterizes its people. In this video, she prepares eight authentic Indian dishes. She gives clear and concise instruction and uses ingredients that can be found in most Western supermarkets.
~ Madeline Cavalieri, Rovi
~ Madeline Cavalieri, Rovi
- 1985
An embittered, lonely old widow reluctantly tends her late husband's garden and discovers that more than flowers can bloom there when she encounters her East Indian neighbor, a woman with an ailing husband. This touching drama chronicles their friendship. The story opens as the widow returns from India where she and her recently deceased spouse spent many years working on a tea plantation in Assam. Soon after settling into her British home, she begins planting the garden her husband had always wanted to have in India. As the woman bore no children, there is no one to comfort her until she meets her neighbor and begins their tumultuous friendship. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Deborah Kerr, Madhur Jaffrey, (more)
Two women, related but separated by one generation and 60 years, have parallel experiences in the evocative mystical environment of India in this period drama from producer Ismail Merchant and director James Ivory. Although a little slow-paced for some, and slightly confusing because the stories of the two women are intercut, the scenery and script evoke a time and place that mesmerize. Based on the 1975 novel by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, a long-time collaborator in Merchant-Ivory Productions, the story begins with Ann (Julie Christie) who discovers some letters written by her grandfather's first wife Olivia (Greta Scacchi) that open up a whole new world as Ann travels to India to continue researching her grandmother's past. The letters reveal that when she was young, the free-spirited grandmother fell in love with an Indian nobleman (Shashi Kapoor) and left her husband -- an administrator in the British colonial government -- for her lover. After Ann arrives in India, her life and the modern rush of cars and people are played off against flashbacks to Olivia's life in a colonial setting. When the environment of each woman is compared and the nature of their momentous decisions placed side-by-side, their rites of passage and the society that dominated their choices stand out in high relief. Ruth Prawer Jhabvala won "Best Adapted Screenplay" at the 1983 British Academy Awards for her script of Heat And Dust. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- Julie Christie, Christopher Cazenove, (more)
- 1975
Autobiography of a Princess represents the return to East Indian themes by the team of Ismail Merchant and James Ivory after the unsuccessful Hollywood-based The Wild Party (1973). The basic Merchant/Ivory "props", including landed gentry, old folks taking unnatural interest in the goings-on of young folks, period costumes and reams of upper-class dialogue are here in abundance. The elderly character is James Mason, playing the former tutor of the father of Indian princess Mahur Jaffrey. For nearly an hour, tutor and princess discourse over their experiences in colonial India. Made for television, Autobiography of a Princess may be a yawnfest for non-fans of the Merchant/Ivory output, but the opportunity to see the brilliant Indian actress Mahur Jaffrey in full artistic flower should not be missed. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- James Mason, Madhur Jaffrey, (more)
- 1969
Tom Pickle (Michael York) is the British rock star who travels to India to learn the sitar from Ustad Zafar Khan (Uptal Dutt). Much to the dismay of his aggressive agent Chris (Barry Foster), he leaves the money-making music world behind to learn about the exotic Indian instrument. Khan believes Tom lacks focus but has the talent, and a young hippie girl arrives (Rita Tushingham) who has the focus but not the natural talent that Tom possesses. There is a romantic angle between the hippie-girl Jenny and Tom, but it is more implied than demonstrated. Soon the Guru Khan is besieged by women who all try to capture his attention. He becomes frustrated over the lack of spiritual commitment of his students, as the rocker contemplates his return to swinging London town. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi
- Starring:
- Michael York, Utpal Dutt, (more)
Lizzie (Felicity Kendal) is an actress in a Shakespearean theater troupe that has seen better days. The troupe tours India to dwindling crowds who are less interested in all things British in the wake of Indian independence. When she has an affair with the Indian playboy Sanju (Shashi Kapoor), Lizzie feels the wrath of her disapproving father Tony (Geoffrey Kendal) and her mother Carla (Laura Liddell). Madhur Jaffrey plays the role of the Indian actress Manjula in this romantic drama with musical score from Satyajit Ray. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi
- Starring:
- Shashi Kapoor, Felicity Kendal, (more)
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