Jimi Chopra (Chris Bisson), a medical student in Lancashire, England and the only son of Indian immigrants, arrives home from medical school. He is suprised to learn his parents have arranged his marriage to a young woman, but he hasn't the courage to tell them that he is gay, and in love with Jack (Peter Ash), a man they think is his best friend. The Patel family from Delhi bring their beautiful daughter Simran (Jinder Mahal) to England and Jimi's parents C. P. (Saeed Jaffrey) and Asha (Jamila Massey) and his grandmother (Zohra Sehgal) decide Simran is the girl for Jimi to marry--without consulting Jimi. To stop the wedding, Jack's 8-year-old niece Hannah (Katy Clayton) tells the bride-to-be that she's Jimi's daughter. Jimi's family decide to make the best of it by marrying Jimi to Hannah's mother, the hard-drinking, foul-mouthed Vanessa (Sally Bankes). Jimi begs Vanessa to go through with it so he can be with Jack. Vanessa dresses in a sari to prepare for the wedding, and Jimi becomes terrified at what he is doing just to please his parents. Jack is his best man. At the wedding the truth comes out and to Jimi's surprise his family accepts Jimi's true self and the day is saved by simply being truthful.
"Chicken Tikka Masala" is a family comedy of errors with an Indian flavor. It's a low-budget British film, not a Bollywood production with musical and dance numbers. Bissson, Ash, and Bankes perform well, but the rest of the cast play stereotypes. Brief trips to locations such as football grounds, shopping malls and lap-dancing bars relieve the boredom of the cramped colourless living rooms, kitchens, and stairwells. The script jumps around with subplots, but the movie has its moments. Jasmine Eden, Illegal Demo, and Pravin Mani wrote the original music. Roopesh Parekh wrote the screenplay and Harmage Singh Kalirai directed.
