‘Dining With The Kapoors’ Tries To Explore Family History Through Food
As we enter the new year, why not talk about food? Food is something that connects and defines all of us. From critics to filmmakers, many people have tackled the idea of viewing people through the food they eat. Some have explored ideas of history, class, and family through the lens of dining. In short, food is an incredibly versatile symbol that can be used as a central thesis for all kinds of explorations. On the surface, Dining With the Kapoors appears to use food as a means to explore not only the family, their relations, personalities, and more, but also to pay tribute to the works, life, and legacy of “The Greatest Showman of Indian Cinema,” Raj Kapoor. Unfortunately, it falls short in all these aspects.
Released on Netflix on Friday, November 21, 2025, this documentary special follows the Kapoor family gathering to celebrate Raj Kapoor’s 100th birthday. Together, they share treasured memories, discuss the family history, joke and laugh with one another, and indulge in culinary delights.
The film appears to start on a decent foot, quickly cutting between the family members as they play a game that asks questions about each Kapoor, giving the audience a good sense of their personalities. The special does largely consist of the family simply being together, catching up, talking, and teasing, putting forward the image of an authentic, large family that is no different to anyone else’s. Further helping this is the filmmaking, where the standard documentary style of handheld cameras is used to further push this image. At the very least, the special does not feel overly scripted, at least not initially, but it could have done with better structuring and a longer runtime.
For something called Dining With the Kapoors, the actual dining does not occur until the halfway mark. The first half is spent introducing the various members of the family, laying out the family tree and discussing the legacy of Raj Kapoor. This is certainly helpful to viewers unfamiliar with the Kapoors, but will definitely come across as tired and repetitive to fans. Regardless, the film does do a decent job at helping viewers keep track of the various members of the family, even if that focus and balance is lost come the second half. Instead of structuring the introductions around food, the film instead gives off the feeling of going through a checklist of family members. This issue of lacking structure permeates throughout. Information, discussions, and interviews just occur with no rhyme or reason. There is little in the way of smooth transitions from one topic to the next.
Further compounding the issue is the runtime. As a special, it is only 60 minutes long, and as a result, can only explore the family history at the very surface level. Despite doing a good job at laying out the family tree, the viewer is ultimately left with little information about each member other than perhaps their profession. It is all one and done very quickly, which gives the whole thing a feeling that it was rushed and hastily put together. This results in a very quick look into Raj Kapoor’s life and career, and very little in the way of exploration of food. Once something is explained to the viewer, the film moves on to the next thing. There is no time to dwell on the information that is provided, which is especially important given the family’s size and vast history.
As for the dining itself, there is little importance in the meals that are served. There isn’t even a clear glimpse of the family actually eating it, adding a feeling of inauthenticity. There are some moments where the audience is shown the actual cooking process, but like everything else, this is all surface level. No attention is given to the recipes used, the actual cooking process, or the significance of the meals. It all unfortunately rings hollow. The final scene, where the audience is shown the last interview of Raj Kapoor, should have served as a poignant endpoint to tie everything together. Instead, it just reminds the viewer, “oh, this was supposed to be about him and his legacy.”
Overall, there really is not a lot to say about this special. It ultimately feels like a quickly put together project made just for the sake of it. It does nothing interesting with its premise and barely scratches the surface of the vast history of the Kapoor family. Fans might certainly get something out of this if they just want to see members of the family interact, but Dining With the Kapoors will leave those wanting a deeper look into an iconic figure of Indian cinema hungry for more.