‘Four Samosas’ Review: A Quirky, Yet Familiar Watch

Our story begins in sepia tone. The screen size is square and rounded at the corners, transporting us back in time to Artesia, better known as Los Angeles’s “Little India,” where four friends, dressed as elderly uncles and aunties, are booking it out of their local grocery store with a pickle jar full of stolen diamonds. The heist has gone — mostly — to plan. 

“Believe it or not, this is actually a love story,” narrator and lead character, Vinesh, aka “big boy” Vin (Venk Potula), says over footage of the ragtag bunch running in slow motion from the crime scene. “Or maybe it’s a story about finding your voice again after you’ve smashed it so deep down inside of yourself and made it so small and hard that even you can’t hear it no more. Or maybe it’s just a story about saris.” 

That’s the thing with Four Samosas, the quirky new comedy from writer-director-producer Ravi Kapoor and a deep bench of executive producers, including actors Utkarsh Ambudkar and Karan Soni — it’s about a lot of things, without being too heavy-handed about any of them. It’s a heist à la Ocean’s Eleven, it’s a laugh-out-loud comedy, and it’s a Wes Anderson-style indie film. But at its heart, this is a film by, for, and about community — and that’s where it really shines.