Masala Millionaire?

Anybody else into theme evenings… dinners out that match the location or mood of the movie you are going to see? (Remember all those Italian places we went to after Big Night came out?)

Well, I was in a Slumdog Millionaire mood tonight, the Oscar-nominated film set in the slums of Mumbai. I’ve never been to Mumbai, but I have been to India and I LOVE Indian food.

But finding good Indian food in Paris is a real challenge, especially if you don’t want to part with the equivalent of  what an Indian slum dweller makes in their entire lifetime for your plate of Lamb Tikka Masala!

Eventually, through the magic of the Internet, my movie-going pal and I ended up at a place near the Arc de Triomphe. We shared a chicken dish, a lamb dish, a plate of rice and a couple of small Kingfisher beers. The bill was 50 euros. Kinda pricey for food that should have been a lot tastier, but in that tony type of neighbourhood, we probably got off easy…

A quick Metro ride down to the St. Francis Xavier stop and we were at La Pagode theatre… an old cinema house done up on the outside like a Japanese pagoda, with a real Japanese garden and bamboo plants. Inside, it's ornately decorated inside with golden cranes and brocade fabric on the walls. (If I’d realized that, we could have gone for sushi!)

Anyway, the movie was beautifully shot, although the scenes in the orphanage were hard to watch. Another friend says she wasn’t impressed at all with the story line, but I thought it was clever, and I especially liked the ending in light of it being a parody in some ways of a Bollywood romance, with a heavy dose of gritty realism thrown in, most likely for Western audiences!

 Anybody else out there seen Slumdog? Thumbs up or down? And any recommendations for Indian places in Paris?