Cooking With Stella

How much you enjoy Cooking with Stella depends on how much you’re willing to set aside your hopes for a foodie movie and accept it as a cross-cultural satire with a side dish of Bollywood antics. Don McKellar plays it straight as Michael, a father, chef and husband to Maya (Lisa Ray), a Canadian diplomat who gets assigned to New Dehli, India, ridiculously considered a “hardship post,” considering the job comes with a sleek apartment and servants. Natural comedian Seema Biswas is their cook Stella, who, when she’s not teaching Michael how to make Kerala shrimp curry, is running a profitable black market business out of their home, until the lovely and virtuous nanny Tannu (Shriya Saran) threatens to shut her down. Co-written with his sister Deepa, director Dilip Mehta really finds Stella’s groove outside the kitchen, among the Delhi markets and street vendors. –Sue Carter Flinn