WORKS
Jameela at the Bat
Screenplay
After failing to make her high school baseball team, Jameela starts a cricket league in her California school district when she becomes inspired by a Bollywood film. Tensions rise when the star player of the baseball team, Jameela’s older brother, becomes her rival on the quest to prove the league’s legitimacy.
Jameela at the Bat is a screenplay for a family film for all ages.
CURRENT STATUS: Jameela at the Bat was a finalist in the 1497 Features Lab to uplift South Asian voices and was a quarterfinalist in ScreenCraft’s Family Screenplay Competition. The screenplay can be requested on Coverfly.com, where its’s also been on the Red List.
An Evening Repast
A One-Act Play
After Laxmi’s friend, Saadia, gets married, Laxmi and her husband host the newlyweds for dinner. It’s a night of catching up and reminiscing until Saadia and Laxmi step into what initially seems like an honest misunderstanding about culture and religion that delves into something deeper as pent-up resentment and an unexpected connection to their grandparents’ past to India emerge. As the night continues, these two friends realize they don’t know each other as well as they thought they did.
This play features four characters and takes place entirely over one dinner.
CURRENT STATUS: An Evening Repast was featured in Morgan-Wixson Theater’s New Works Festival on October 1 and October 2, 2021.
THE KULFI PARADOX - SOLO SHOW
When a high-stakes work project falls apart, Bushra, a thirty-something Muslim and Pakistani-American woman, has one panic attack that triggers another until she’s at Urgent Care. But it’s all good ’cause Dr. Feelings prescribes medical leave. Now, Bushra’s got three whole weeks, to listen to Daft Punk on vinyl, try some coffee recipes, rewatch Bottle Rocket on Blu-Ray with the director’s commentary, and think about all of her parents’ sacrifices that brought her to this moment. Alone. Will she make it out of medical leave in one piece? Kulfi, a creamy frozen dessert that’s better than ice cream might have all the answers.
CURRENT STATUS: I did a 5 show run of The Kulfi Paradox, live on Zoom! My director and I had adapted it using multiple cameras and my apartment as a stage. Hoping to adapt for an actual stage when we can get back in theaters safely!
Designated Muslim
In this contemporary comedy, a thirty-something American Muslim Pakistani woman looks for love and understanding, and just a little cultural sensitivity from her coworkers. When she meets a charming fellow Muslim—who happens to be an Irish-American man—it’s possible she’ll find all three.
Originally written as a play, Designated Muslim received a staged reading as part of City Lights Theater Company’s “Lights Up!” festival of new plays, where it played to a sold-out crowd.
Pictured: Rehearsal from the staged reading.
CURRENT STATUS: I have adapted Designated Muslim as a TV pilot.