''American Desi'' is a 2001 American comedy film with Indian influence, notable for featuring many prominent

South Asian American South Asian Americans are Americans of full or partial South Asian ancestry. The term generally excludes Afghanistan, referring specifically to those who can trace back their heritage to the Indian subcontinent, which includes the countries of Ba ...

actors. Also featured is an a cappella version of

Nazia Hassan Nazia Hassan (3 April 1965 – 13 August 2000) was a Pakistani singer-songwriter, lawyer and social activist. Referred to as the Queen of South Asian pop, she is considered one of the most influential singers in the subcontinent. Starting in ...

's Urdu classic "

Aap Jaisa Koi "Aap Jaisa Koi" () is a song from the soundtrack of the 1980 Bollywood film '' Qurbani''. It was the debut song of Pakistani singer Nazia Hassan, and was composed by British Indian producer Biddu. The song was featured in the film as an item num ...

", sung by Penn Masala and originally from the movie '' Qurbani''. The term ''

Desi DESI may refer to * Desorption electrospray ionization * Drug Efficacy Study Implementation * Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument The Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) is a scientific research instrument for conducting spectrographic ...

'' in the title refers to the people and cultures of the Indian subcontinent.

Plot

An American son of Indian immigrants, Krishnagopal Reddy, or "Kris" as he prefers to be called (to distance himself from his heritage), does not associate with the Indian culture that his parents have pushed upon him. Upon arriving at

Rutgers University Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's ...

, he finds out to his dismay that all of his roommates are of Indian descent, and all except one are international students from India. His roommates include Ajay (

Kal Penn Kalpen Suresh Modi (born April 23, 1977), known professionally as Kal Penn, is an American actor, author, academic lecturer, and former White House staff member in the Barack Obama administration. As an actor, he is known for his role portrayi ...

), who idealizes

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ensla ...

culture; Jagjit, who loves art but studies engineering to please his father; and Salim, who is very traditional and conservative, feeling that Indian-American girls are too Westernized to make good wives. Kris meets Nina, a girl he immediately falls for, and is surprised to find out that not only is she of Indian descent, but she is also quite connected to Indian culture and speaks her parents' native language. Kris tries his best to win Nina over - from joining the Indian Students Association to be near her, to learning how to perform a

Dandiya Raas Raas or Dandiya Raas is the socio-religious folk dance originating from Indian state of Gujarat and popularly performed in the festival of Navaratri. The dance is performed in the Marwar region of Rajasthan too. The etymology of Dandiya-Raas ...

. Kris eventually begins to enjoy the company of his roommates, all of whom put together their knowledge and skill to help Kris impress Nina through various ways involving Indian culture, which he eventually comes to appreciate.

Cast

* Deep Katdare as Krishnagopal "Kris" Reddy *

Purva Bedi Purva Bedi is an American actress. She has appeared in many television serials and several films, including '' Green Card Fever'', '' American Desi'', and '' Cosmopolitan''. She has also starred in an episode of ''House''. Her most recent appear ...

as Nina Shah * Ronobir Lahiri as Jagjit Singh *

Rizwan Manji Rizwan Manji (born October 17, 1974) is a Canadian actor. He is known best for his portrayals of Ray Butani on ''Schitt's Creek'', Tick Pickwick on '' The Magicians'', Rajiv Gidwani in the NBC Universal TV series '' Outsourced'', and Jamil in th ...

as Salim Ali Khan *

as Ajay Pandya * Anil Kumar as Rakesh Patel * Sunita Param as Farah Saeed * Aladdin Ullah as Gautam Rao * Eric Axen as Eric Berger *

Sanjit De Silva Sanjit De Silva (born 31 October 1976) is a Sri Lankan actor and director who is known for his roles in ''The Company Men'' and '' American Desi''. Early life De Silva was born in Colombo and graduated from New York University's Tisch School ...

as Chandu * Sunil Malhotra as Hemant * Ami Shukla as Priya * Krishen Mehta as Mr. Reddy * Smita Patel as Mrs. Reddy * Bina Sharif as Mrs. Saeed *

Tirlok Malik Tirlok Malik (born in New Delhi) is an Indian-American film maker, actor and producer based in New York. He has been nominated in Emmy Awards. He is also an entrepreneur, ayurveda restaurateur and happy life yoga speaker. Early life Malik was ...

as Mr. Saeed *

Ravi Khanna Ravi Khanna (born 15 March 1957) is an Indian actor, journalist and writer. Ravi Khanna is a Mumbai-based international character actor who spent more than 24 years as a radio and TV journalist in the Voice of America Newsroom in USA, after doi ...

as Mr. Singh

Soundtrack

Track listing

Reception

On Metacritic, the film has a score of 50% based on reviews from 7 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

References

External links

Home - American Desi
* {{IMDb title , title = American Desi , id = 0203289 2001 films 2001 comedy films Films set in New Jersey Films about Indian Americans Films by Desi directors Films shot in New Jersey South Asian American culture Comedy films about Asian Americans 2000s English-language films 2000s American films