comedy film
A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending (black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the ol ...
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 Honorific nicknames in popular music, Queen of South Asian pop, she is considered one of the most influential singe ...
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
Penn Masala is an American a cappella group. It is the world's first and premier South Asian a cappella group. Formed in 1996 by students at the University of Pennsylvania, Penn Masala's music has been influenced by the Eastern and Western cultur ...
and originally from the movie '' Qurbani''. The term ''
Desi DESI may refer to
* Desorption electrospray ionization
* Drug Efficacy Study Implementation
* Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument
See also
* Desi (disambiguation)
Desi or Deshi is a self-referential term used by South Asian people.
Desi may al ...
'' in the title refers to the people and cultures of the
Indian subcontinent
The Indian subcontinent is a list of the physiographic regions of the world, physiographical region in United Nations geoscheme for Asia#Southern Asia, Southern Asia. It is situated on the Indian Plate, projecting southwards into the Indian O ...
.
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 portrayin ...
), who idealizes
African-American
African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...
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
Deep Katdare (born July 4, 1970) is an Americans, American executive and former actor. He starred in and produced the movie ''American Desi'' (2001) and was in the cast of ''Hiding Divya'' (2006), on which he was an executive producer. He also ap ...
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 appearanc ...
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
*
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 portrayin ...
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
Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...
, the film has a score of 50% based on reviews from 7 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".
See also
*
Chutney Popcorn
''Chutney Popcorn'' is a 1999 comedy-drama film starring, directed and co-written by Nisha Ganatra. Ganatra plays a young lesbian Indian American woman called Reena. Jill Hennessy plays her girlfriend Lisa and Reena's mother and sister are played ...