Aladdin Ullah

In Search of Bengali Harlem follows Ullah from the streets of New York City to the villages of Bangladesh to uncover the pasts of his father, Habib, and mother, Mohima. Alaudin discovers that Habib was part of a rich lost history of mid-20th century Harlem, in which Bengali Muslim men, dodging racist Asian Exclusion laws, married into New York's African American and Puerto Rican communities - and in which the likes of Malcolm X and Miles Davis shared space and broke bread with immigrants from the subcontinent. He also unearths the hardships and trauma that his mother overcame to become one of the first women to immigrate to the U.S. from rural Bangladesh. In Search of Bengali Harlem is a transformative journey, not just for Alaudin Ullah, but for our understanding of the complex histories of South Asians and Muslims in the United States.

This is a fun-loving romantic comedy reminiscent of the great teen films of the 80's.From Kris, an All-American boy from India, to Ajay, an Afro-Centric Hindu homeboy, to Farah, a devoutly religious but modern Muslim girl, 'American Desi' tells the story of a unique set of characters and their culture from a decidedly hip and youthful point of view.