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Sakina's Restaurant
Sakina's Restaurant breathes new life into an age old story: the emotive tale of an immigrant coming to New York in pursuit of the American dream.
Actor, comedian, and writer Aasif Mandvi originally performed his Obie Award-winning solo show off-Broadway 20 years ago. This past October, the iconic play was reimagined and produced by Audible for a limited run at Minetta Lane Theatre in the West Village of Manhattan.
Recorded for an Audible-exclusive audience, listeners can forgo the price of admission and embark on the cross-cultural journey with Mandvi. Listen in as he seamlessly transitions from character to character, impersonating a teenage girl as she grapples with coming of age in New York under the roof of traditional Indian parents, and an older male restauranteur clinging to his heritage with the same remarkable ease.
Entertaining and intimate, this story of what it means to be an American was written long before immigration became an intensely polarizing issue. Today, it’s revival feels necessary if not urgent, and certainly as honest and refreshing as ever.
Actor, comedian, and writer Aasif Mandvi originally performed his Obie Award-winning solo show off-Broadway 20 years ago. This past October, the iconic play was reimagined and produced by Audible for a limited run at Minetta Lane Theatre in the West Village of Manhattan.
Recorded for an Audible-exclusive audience, listeners can forgo the price of admission and embark on the cross-cultural journey with Mandvi. Listen in as he seamlessly transitions from character to character, impersonating a teenage girl as she grapples with coming of age in New York under the roof of traditional Indian parents, and an older male restauranteur clinging to his heritage with the same remarkable ease.
Entertaining and intimate, this story of what it means to be an American was written long before immigration became an intensely polarizing issue. Today, it’s revival feels necessary if not urgent, and certainly as honest and refreshing as ever.
1 pages, Audible Audio
First published January 1, 1998
13 people are currently reading
210 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 167 reviews
May 8, 2019
Meh. Not for me. I could see this as a one-person play, but I haven't enjoyed that kind of play since I was a drama student in high-school.
The voice acting seemed terrific, although the "speakers" (I believe it is all Mandvi) interrupt themselves or are pretending other things are going on around them, which would be aided by visual cues.
I picked this up for the cultural background and insight, and because I like Mandvi's work on The Daily Show, but this was just not for me.
The voice acting seemed terrific, although the "speakers" (I believe it is all Mandvi) interrupt themselves or are pretending other things are going on around them, which would be aided by visual cues.
I picked this up for the cultural background and insight, and because I like Mandvi's work on The Daily Show, but this was just not for me.
March 1, 2019
Interesting. I imagine the play is better. It got hard at times to discern who the character was at any given time. Might be easier with the ability to see.
August 24, 2012
A hilarious semi-autobiographical one-person show about an Indian guy who moves to the United States to work at an Indian restaurant in New York City. One person plays all the parts and never stops talking. Beautiful commentary on being torn between Indian and American cultures. I found this little gem in Talk to Me: Monologue Plays.
April 8, 2020
This one-man play was narrated by the author & he did an excellent job of it. It was interesting how he could transform from one character to another. In each character, he gives us one side of a conversation, leaving the other side to our imagination. This technique was well done and, I guess for a one-man show, necessary but by the end, it seemed a bit much to me.
March 3, 2019
Aasif Mandvi delivers a highly entertaining, madcap, character-shifting audio narration, which, in a very short time (1-hr, 17-min), portrays the joys, pains, uncertainty, and conflicts experienced by a small group Indian immigrants to the U.S. Although the tone is humorous, the picture painted becomes one of immigrant struggles to adapt to American culture while not losing the best of their own. Even as the narration entertains, it evokes in the listener a growing understanding of and sympathy for the characters—canny work by a talented writer-performer.
March 8, 2019
I like the Aasif Mandvi as an actor and I respect his work, plus this play was free via Audible, so I gave it a go. The play is a 1 man show with each character played by the same person. Aasif narrated - acted - himself, which ALWAYS makes audiobooks better. His acting was incredible.
But the play...was not. I understood the plot, but it didn’t go anywhere, except... India. I know he put his soul into it, and I respect his work, but I couldn’t get myself into it. I feel as if it was a “you had to be there” kind of thing.
But the play...was not. I understood the plot, but it didn’t go anywhere, except... India. I know he put his soul into it, and I respect his work, but I couldn’t get myself into it. I feel as if it was a “you had to be there” kind of thing.
March 21, 2021
There’s a way you tell a story when you are going to be in front of an audience versus when you’re recording on your own; there’s an energy in an audience. While this recording intends to capture the experience, I think it falls short. The larger themes are of lost and broken dreams, but at under 90 minutes it just doesn’t get there.
full review: https://faintingviolet.wordpress.com/...
full review: https://faintingviolet.wordpress.com/...
May 1, 2022
It was interesting and entertaining but I don't think it completely succeeded in being touching and funny like it was aiming to be.
March 11, 2019
So this didn't quite work for me; it seemed too broad in many ways, too over the top. Too many characters. Too much acting. The pacing confused me. The decisions about which characters would appear, when, and how often...none of it made the kind of sense I'd hoped it would. But there was heart in there, for sure. And I feel like it probably suffered from being audio only; I think I needed Aasif's facial expressions to help me stay with the story, to 'get' it in a deeper way.
July 14, 2019
Since apparently I'm odd when it comes to what I love but this was definitely a fantastic story and despite it being a one-man play I was really impressed by the amount of emotion and feeling that Mandvi put into this kind of story.
As a tale about an immigrant coming to NYC this was absolutely heartbreaking and encouraging.
As a tale about an immigrant coming to NYC this was absolutely heartbreaking and encouraging.
March 7, 2019
Stories of Indian immigrants written and performed by a comedian. A bit too over the top at times.
March 24, 2020
I'm glad it was short.
April 17, 2019
This is a one-man play meant to be a comedy. It is indeed very funny, even laugh-out-loud funny at times, but it could’ve been much, much more.
It is a semi-autobiographical show about Muslim-Indian migrants to the US in the early nineties. Some of the characters are older, first-generation migrants to the US; some characters include their teenaged, second-generation children; some are recently-arrived young adults. The tone is set at the start when a character (one assumes the lead, but one would be wrong) promises their mother he will write from “top of the Empire State Building to the bottom of the Grand Canyon”: it is a fragmented tale told from the point of view of whoever’s talking, only. It is an epistolary tale where only the “speaker” exists.
Sounds fascinating, both as a story and because of the choices made in format, right? It is.
But it never reaches its full potential: no story is closed, nor does it appear the author wishes any to be closed. Even though this may be intentional, it is a shame. Mandvi is a gifted and smart storyteller. And he has a diamond in the rough. But he prefers to leave his tale open-ended. The story needed to be, in my opinion, twice as long and aim to give all the stories which are opened something resembling closure.
There are two fables of religious/folk-tale wisdom in the play. One is a very moving and insightful story, which starts at the beginning of the play and DOES concluse at the end, about a stone thrown into a river by a boy who didn’t really know what it looked like. The other is this quote: “once upon a time, a man asked God for a new face because he was tired of the one that he had. And so God granted the man his wish. The tragedy of this story is that now every time the man looks in the mirror he doesn’t know who he is.”
One would’ve wanted to pick Mandvi’s brains for more nuggets such as these.
It is a semi-autobiographical show about Muslim-Indian migrants to the US in the early nineties. Some of the characters are older, first-generation migrants to the US; some characters include their teenaged, second-generation children; some are recently-arrived young adults. The tone is set at the start when a character (one assumes the lead, but one would be wrong) promises their mother he will write from “top of the Empire State Building to the bottom of the Grand Canyon”: it is a fragmented tale told from the point of view of whoever’s talking, only. It is an epistolary tale where only the “speaker” exists.
Sounds fascinating, both as a story and because of the choices made in format, right? It is.
But it never reaches its full potential: no story is closed, nor does it appear the author wishes any to be closed. Even though this may be intentional, it is a shame. Mandvi is a gifted and smart storyteller. And he has a diamond in the rough. But he prefers to leave his tale open-ended. The story needed to be, in my opinion, twice as long and aim to give all the stories which are opened something resembling closure.
There are two fables of religious/folk-tale wisdom in the play. One is a very moving and insightful story, which starts at the beginning of the play and DOES concluse at the end, about a stone thrown into a river by a boy who didn’t really know what it looked like. The other is this quote: “once upon a time, a man asked God for a new face because he was tired of the one that he had. And so God granted the man his wish. The tragedy of this story is that now every time the man looks in the mirror he doesn’t know who he is.”
One would’ve wanted to pick Mandvi’s brains for more nuggets such as these.
July 31, 2020
Odd little vignette on Audible. This is a story of an immigrant family's experience in America and of lost and broken dreams. It is also a story of lives that pass away; along with the cultural heritage and treasured family memories that we once held dear. Younger generations of our families do not remember or cherish the history of the past. Mandvi acts out all of the various parts and does an exceptional job; but the play itself was not that unforgettable.
July 2, 2019
I just couldn't get into this one. I think I would have enjoyed it more if I could have seen it performed. It was difficult for me to tell which character was speaking without referring to the chapter titles.
May 20, 2016
It has funny moments. It has Themes. It's really not bad at all. But it strangely feels like the first film in a double feature.
June 7, 2016
This play was confusing, I had a difficult time keeping track of the characters.
April 5, 2019
Not my cup of tea. One man show, just never really cared what was happening. I’d have just quit if it wasn’t so short.
February 25, 2023
Perhaps I chose this audio performance without having realized it was more like a one-man play. Still, a passionate performance of a multi-layered story. It packed quite a lot in its storied baggage; I unfolded so many perspectives, perceived and real obstacles:
- an immigrant's hopefulness then eventual disappointment
- a parent's hope, sacrifice, and protection of the children while harboring the disdain for the new country and their ways
- a teen's frustration with fitting into a country her parents brought her to procure an expectedly better future, but also not being allowed to fit in and forced to endure cultural traditions
- a youth's normal struggles with understanding why life is the way it is sometimes and not getting what he wants, and without the ability to communicate to an adult like an adult, naturally
- an immigrated father's challenge of maintaining a family unit and a profitable business to provide for said family all while appearing to like his customers despite his unacknowledged resentment of them and the country he know lives in
- a mother's sense of loss (of her passions, her future, her happiness) that often results from a woman's multi-purpose role of devoted wife, mother, employee-owner, and so on
- a young man being overwhelmed by familial obligation and expectations, constraints placed by his faith, and a lost love
Other than the emigrating from India, I feel this story is exactly of many if not most American families. So while I can appreciate the difficulty of immigration to a new Country, the struggles to obtain happiness, success, and harmony is NOT unique to only those who immigrate to a "new world."
- an immigrant's hopefulness then eventual disappointment
- a parent's hope, sacrifice, and protection of the children while harboring the disdain for the new country and their ways
- a teen's frustration with fitting into a country her parents brought her to procure an expectedly better future, but also not being allowed to fit in and forced to endure cultural traditions
- a youth's normal struggles with understanding why life is the way it is sometimes and not getting what he wants, and without the ability to communicate to an adult like an adult, naturally
- an immigrated father's challenge of maintaining a family unit and a profitable business to provide for said family all while appearing to like his customers despite his unacknowledged resentment of them and the country he know lives in
- a mother's sense of loss (of her passions, her future, her happiness) that often results from a woman's multi-purpose role of devoted wife, mother, employee-owner, and so on
- a young man being overwhelmed by familial obligation and expectations, constraints placed by his faith, and a lost love
Other than the emigrating from India, I feel this story is exactly of many if not most American families. So while I can appreciate the difficulty of immigration to a new Country, the struggles to obtain happiness, success, and harmony is NOT unique to only those who immigrate to a "new world."
June 6, 2019
Summer 2019 - Audible original (May);
I knew the moment I skimmed the synopsis this piece would be for me. You can take the girl out her master dissertation of Jhumpa Lahiri, but you cannot take the things she learned to love and mourn there out of the girl.
This is another gorgeous declaration of the slings and arrows of diasporic hybrid identities of multiple generations trying to understand the world they've traveled to, and, also, the new world they've been born to, while straddling both the old world, the mixed world of their parents, and the native not-new land where they've grown up. I have such love already for these topics, and so I cried with the mother, felt the despair of the father, the burgeoning hope of the newly relocated, the betrayal of the current generation both in going back and in being present.
I advise this to anyone who understands how clearly the divides between generations of immigrants (and emigrants) can affect everything about a life, a person, a family, a country, culture, connection, and on and on. I still have a quiet, melancholy in my soul for this piece that will be there a while longer. It was superbly done.
I knew the moment I skimmed the synopsis this piece would be for me. You can take the girl out her master dissertation of Jhumpa Lahiri, but you cannot take the things she learned to love and mourn there out of the girl.
This is another gorgeous declaration of the slings and arrows of diasporic hybrid identities of multiple generations trying to understand the world they've traveled to, and, also, the new world they've been born to, while straddling both the old world, the mixed world of their parents, and the native not-new land where they've grown up. I have such love already for these topics, and so I cried with the mother, felt the despair of the father, the burgeoning hope of the newly relocated, the betrayal of the current generation both in going back and in being present.
I advise this to anyone who understands how clearly the divides between generations of immigrants (and emigrants) can affect everything about a life, a person, a family, a country, culture, connection, and on and on. I still have a quiet, melancholy in my soul for this piece that will be there a while longer. It was superbly done.
April 1, 2019
Listened to this on Audible. Went into this expecting a fun and light piece because of the daily show background of the writer and was not expecting a thorough and at times heart wrenching piece about being an Indian Immigrant in America. The monologues were throughoughly heartfelt and beautiful and because I wasn't expecting a drama made me choke up at the realness of all the relationships.
Aasif Mandavi plays all the parts but because there is no visual aspect to the audio original it can be confusing. Reviews of the play claim he changes props in the show which I'm sure works beautifully on stage, but just doesn't translate in audio format. If you get the chance to see the play would highly recommend but probably skip the audible audio original.
Aasif Mandavi plays all the parts but because there is no visual aspect to the audio original it can be confusing. Reviews of the play claim he changes props in the show which I'm sure works beautifully on stage, but just doesn't translate in audio format. If you get the chance to see the play would highly recommend but probably skip the audible audio original.
April 3, 2019
I generally reserve 1 star ratings for books I couldn’t finish. Since this was such a short listen, I powered through to the end. This audio version really had a lot of potential but unfortunately fell short. The topic and story line/idea was great and could have been very interesting. I’m sure seeing the play in person would have been a different experience, however listening to this version was extremely difficult. There wasn’t enough distinction between characters so it was really confusing most of the time. I couldn’t always decipher who was who and what was going on and the acting at times was just way too much. It was a free monthly audible selection but I’m left wishing I could get my 75 min back.
April 22, 2019
Rating: 2.5
So this was an experience.
This is my first time listening to a one act show rather than visually seeing it, and overall it was okay? Every part is played by one guy (Aasif Mandvi), however, there isn't much of a character shift in voice that makes it easier to discern who is talking and when we have changed scenes/characters. I found myself having to go back a couple times to figure out who was talking and when we shifted because I got really confused. I did, however, love the play itself and the story it is trying to express and revealing the differences between American and Indian culture and the hardships immigrants from India have to face when moving to the States all the while trying to maintain their roots/heritage. For that alone I give it the 2.5 stars.
So this was an experience.
This is my first time listening to a one act show rather than visually seeing it, and overall it was okay? Every part is played by one guy (Aasif Mandvi), however, there isn't much of a character shift in voice that makes it easier to discern who is talking and when we have changed scenes/characters. I found myself having to go back a couple times to figure out who was talking and when we shifted because I got really confused. I did, however, love the play itself and the story it is trying to express and revealing the differences between American and Indian culture and the hardships immigrants from India have to face when moving to the States all the while trying to maintain their roots/heritage. For that alone I give it the 2.5 stars.
July 16, 2019
So this was a free book from audible. It was ok. It was told in first person perspective about the experiences of a person coming from India to work in a restaurant in the US. It’s like you are overhearing one side of a conversation, so you have to piece together what the other person says or the events they are talking about. That made it interesting, but also sometimes hard to follow because either the character ages or the character who is talking changes. I think the character ages, but since I had to figure that out from clues I’m still a little unsure. I liked hearing about life from the POV of the one character. You get to know him really well and become sympathetic to his life and experiences. It was different, which made it interesting and challenging.
December 6, 2021
Aasif Mandvi provides a variety of characters in this one-man performance: 1) a man's arrival to America for the first time who becomes disheartened by the "American dream" reality, 2) a person who has been in America for some time, 3) a child, Samir, who has grown up in America.
Honestly, the different characters were difficult to distinguish. Characters' name and purpose would have been helpful for the audio recording. Nonetheless, readers/listeners will appreciate this work about the impossible American dream. The child screaming about not wanting to share his electronic stuff with his cousins in India and hating his grandmother for dying when he was supposed to go to Disneyworld was gripping.
Honestly, the different characters were difficult to distinguish. Characters' name and purpose would have been helpful for the audio recording. Nonetheless, readers/listeners will appreciate this work about the impossible American dream. The child screaming about not wanting to share his electronic stuff with his cousins in India and hating his grandmother for dying when he was supposed to go to Disneyworld was gripping.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 3, 2019
Aasif Mandvi delivers a madcap, character-shifting audio narration, which, in a very short time, portrays the joys, pains, uncertainty, and conflicts experienced by a small group Indian immigrants to the U.S. I got this as an Audible Original and I think I would have enjoyed it better having seen the play. The characters were sometimes hard to distinguish, although they did a good job with sound effects trying to portray the shifting of scenes. Aasif Mandvi is a funny guy and that came through in this, but I also got the pain and struggle that many immigrants go through trying to adapt to their new surroundings while also trying to stay true to their culture and who they are.
March 31, 2019
2.5 stars. I got this for free on Audible.
I chose this because I felt like it would be an easy listen. Admittedly, I'm not much of an audiobook listener--my mind tends to wander and I get bored. But Aasif Mandvi has such a soothing, calm voice that made this pleasant and easy to listen to. I have to agree with the people that say that this was a bit disjointed and hard to follow at times. I think it would have been much better to actually see the play in person. That being said, it wasn't as confusing as one would expect. At least not for me, anyway. I kind of just lost myself in the story.
It was an enjoyable, quick listen.
I chose this because I felt like it would be an easy listen. Admittedly, I'm not much of an audiobook listener--my mind tends to wander and I get bored. But Aasif Mandvi has such a soothing, calm voice that made this pleasant and easy to listen to. I have to agree with the people that say that this was a bit disjointed and hard to follow at times. I think it would have been much better to actually see the play in person. That being said, it wasn't as confusing as one would expect. At least not for me, anyway. I kind of just lost myself in the story.
It was an enjoyable, quick listen.
May 7, 2019
I received this via audible, so I listened to it. This is a tough review. Aasif Mandvi is a talented comedian and writer, he has a passion for the topic and a message.
He just didn't pull it off, maybe because it is tough to translate the multiple characters with one voice and no visuals. There might be a small audience of Indian immigrants that will enjoy this work, but the work as a whole does not fit a greater audience.
I would give Aasif Madvi a 5 star rating, but go and read one of his other works.
He just didn't pull it off, maybe because it is tough to translate the multiple characters with one voice and no visuals. There might be a small audience of Indian immigrants that will enjoy this work, but the work as a whole does not fit a greater audience.
I would give Aasif Madvi a 5 star rating, but go and read one of his other works.
November 25, 2019
I never understand low ratings because a book was not what the reader expected...I would understand if this was a forum for rating expectations. But the ratings are supposed to be for the book, and this audio drama from Audible is superb.
At times hilarious, at times utterly heartbreaking, Mandvi's one man show is thoroughly insightful. If art is meant to provide the opportunity to see the world through a different set of eyes, *Sakina's Restaraunt* is an artistic success.
At times hilarious, at times utterly heartbreaking, Mandvi's one man show is thoroughly insightful. If art is meant to provide the opportunity to see the world through a different set of eyes, *Sakina's Restaraunt* is an artistic success.
December 15, 2019
I listened to it as an audiobook, and absolutely hated the narrator. However, I do feel that if I were reading this as a book, I would have thoroughly enjoyed it and the perspective it highlights of Desi immigrants moving to America and the struggles they have to face as aliens in the West. There were quite a few parts that were very relatable! Just wish that Mandvi hadn’t done such a terrible job as a narrator for what could have been a great read.
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