A naïve, recently orphaned Indian architecture student in Brooklyn, fearing deportation if he loses the roof over his head, teams with a classmate to save his uncle’s delicatessen from demolition by an upstart developer.

SYNOPSIS:

Honoring his late parents’ wish, naive Aadi Ganguly accepts a scholarship to complete his architecture studies in Brooklyn, NY. But he requires a stable roof over his head, so must reside with his uncle Rana Santoori, proprietor of a struggling delicatessen in a part of the city ripe undergoing gentrification.

At college, Aadi befriends fellow student Vanessa Ephron (to the displeasure of the precocious, bigoted suitor Benjamin). All augers well for Aadi ... until he learns that an upstart developer is scheming to demolish the deli and build an apartment block. Aadi's future in the US now seems problematic. Unable to secure other accommodation, he proposes a bold plan to transform the delicatessen into such a popular Brooklyn landmark which any landlord would be mad to consider demolishing.

One problem. Money! With limited options, it doesn’t help that he must contend with the entrenched prejudices of those who are able to help, namely Vanessa's father, David.

Seems Aadi is destined for deportation.

But where there's a will ...

With new-found cunning, Aadi procures the identity of a prospective savior, the attorney, Preston Ironseid Senior, who’s had his own struggles with discrimination. He's sold on the pitch. The deli undergoes its metamorphosis, and Aadi’s residential status seems assured. Not so, his emotional status.

Photographs of Aadi confronting David outside a neighborhood whorehouse are anonymously forwarded to David’s wife, Gloria, intimating that Aadi is a pimp with David one of his clients. Vanessa rues the day she became involved with Aadi’s ‘kind’. She seeks sympathy from Benjamin, only to learn that it was he who took the photos in an attempt to discredit Aadi.

Ashamed of her own prejudices, Vanessa atones by convincing her parents of Aadi’s integrity. As for the heart broken Aadi, it takes a proverbial “kick up the ass” from an unlikely mentor for him to realize his true need and send him rushing to Vanessa to declare his love.

With Gloria forgiving David’s ‘alleged’ indiscretion, the foursome makes an eleventh-hour dash to help Rana celebrate the renaissance of the ‘New Taj Delicatessen’ where, amidst the Bollywood-esque music and dancing, Ironseid reveals his intention to sponsor Aadi’s future in the US, assuring him that his love affair with Brooklyn – and all that it offers – is about to blossom...

NEW DELI