New York City's South Asian Cultural Guide

Bollywood.NYC

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Issue No. 004 · March 26, 2026

Editor's Note

Three rooms. Three nights. The filter holding.

Issue 004 is a three-event week and that's exactly right. The filter is the product — we found three events that belong here and stopped. What we didn't include matters as much as what we did.

Friday, Laughing Lassi brings the tightest South Asian comedy lineup in the city to Broadway Comedy Club — headlined by Sabeen Sadiq, a Pakistani-American comedian who has opened for Hasan Minhaj and released an album that went to number one in its category. Sunday, a Carnatic vocal concert at Barzakh Café — Meghana Kumar, Tanisha Srivatsa, Dhruv Hari, and Joey van Leeuwen in one of the few rooms in Brooklyn that knows what to do with this music. Saturday between them, the Rāginī Festival closes at Reforesters Lab in Williamsburg — a 24-channel spatial sound clinic running live music and vinyl in a meditative deep-listening format. Not a concert. A room designed to slow you down.

Three nights. Friday through Sunday. One very specific weekend.

If someone came to mind while reading this, stop and forward it to them now. That's the only way this list grows into something.

If you go to any of these events, hit reply and tell us — your feedback directly shapes what we cover next.

— The Editors, Bollywood.NYC
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This Week

Friday: Laughing Lassi at Broadway Comedy Club, 7pm — Sabeen Sadiq headlines. Saturday: Rāginī Festival: Rhythm & Space at Reforesters Lab, Williamsburg, 5pm. Sunday: Carnatic Vocal Concert at Barzakh Café, 6:30pm.

The Edit — This Weekend
01
Editor's Pick Comedy

Laughing Lassi

Friday, March 27 · 7pm (doors 6:30) · Broadway Comedy Club, 318 W 53rd St · $25

Sabeen Sadiq is a Pakistani-American comedian who opened for Hasan Minhaj and released a comedy album that reached number one in its category. She is headlining Laughing Lassi this Friday — NYC's monthly South Asian stand-up showcase, featured in Time Out, The New Yorker, and India Tribune, now in its fourth year of sold-out shows. The lineup also includes Neal Patel, whose tech-world comedy has built a devoted following under the handle @hinduhops, hosted by Ali Mehedi, the show's founder.

Four years of sold-out shows. The New Yorker cover. A headliner who opened for Hasan Minhaj. This is the South Asian comedy room New York has been building toward.

This issue, comedy leads. Three issues of data say this is what converts — and this particular Friday night, with this lineup, is the strongest case we've made for it. Broadway Comedy Club, 318 W 53rd St, Midtown. Doors 6:30pm, show 7pm. Limited seats.

Get tickets on Eventbrite

Found via Bollywood.NYC

02
Live Music

Carnatic Vocal Concert — Barzakh Café

Sunday, March 29 · 6:30–8pm · Barzakh Café, 147 Utica Ave, Brooklyn

Carnatic music is one of the oldest continuous classical traditions in the world — rooted in South India, built around raga and tala, and passed down through a rigorous system of teacher-student lineage. It rarely surfaces in intimate Brooklyn rooms. This Sunday at Barzakh Café it does: Meghana Kumar on vocal, Tanisha Srivatsa on violin, Dhruv Hari on mridangam, and Joey van Leeuwen on ghatam — four musicians, one room, one evening.

Barzakh has quietly become one of the most consistent venues for South Asian classical and devotional music in New York. This is the kind of Sunday evening they were built for. 6:30–8pm, 147 Utica Ave, Brooklyn.

Get tickets on Viewcy

Found via Bollywood.NYC

03
Experience

Rāginī Festival: Rhythm & Space

Saturday, March 28 · 5pm · Reforesters Lab, 147 Metropolitan Ave, Williamsburg

Reforesters Laboratory is an experimental adaptogen café and spatial sound clinic in Williamsburg running a 24.2-channel D&B Audiotechnik sound system — a format designed for immersive listening, not background music. The closing event of Brooklyn Raga Massive's Rāginī Festival will use that room for an evening of vinyl and live music in a meditative, guided format. The description is intentional: not a concert, not a performance, a gathering. You are invited to slow down.

The festival's three 2026 events form a complete arc: devotional poetry (Kahat Kabir at Drom, March 20), folk mysticism (Baul Songbook at Barzakh, tonight), deep listening (here, now). Saturday, 5pm, 147 Metropolitan Ave, Williamsburg.

RSVP on Luma

Found via Bollywood.NYC

Coming Soon — Worth a Look
April 3, 6, 13, 18

Desi SNL — NYC Fringe Festival

South Asian sketch comedy reimagining the SNL format — monologues, Weekend Update, original skits rooted in diaspora life. Written and directed by Azhar Bande-Ali (compared to Hasan Minhaj and Mike Birbiglia by critics, multiple Moth StorySLAM wins). Sold out four performances of the debut run in November. Back for episode two with a new ensemble cast. Part of the 2026 NYC Fringe Festival. wild project, 195 E 3rd St, East Village. $28.

Get tickets — frigid.nyc

Found via Bollywood.NYC

Wed, April 8

Bhavana — Semi Classical USA Tour

Bhavana brings her semi-classical dance tour to New York — a form that sits at the intersection of Bharatanatyam and contemporary movement, rigorous in technique but accessible in presence. One night only. Tickets through Handstamp.

Get tickets — Handstamp

Found via Bollywood.NYC

Fri, April 17

In Search of Bengali Harlem — Screening

A documentary screening at Asia Society tracing the Bengali Muslim presence in Harlem from the 1920s through the mid-century — sailors, factory workers, and community builders who preceded the better-documented waves of South Asian immigration. One of the more historically significant events on the calendar this spring. 6:30–8:30pm, Asia Society, 725 Park Ave at 70th St.

Details — Asia Society

Found via Bollywood.NYC

Tue, May 5

Anuv Jain — Dastakhat World Tour

The Hindi indie-pop singer brings his Dastakhat World Tour to New York for the first time. Known for Baarishein, Jo Tum Mere Ho, and Husn — songs that tend to sell rooms before the venue has time to market them. The Town Hall, 123 West 43rd St, Manhattan. 7pm. Book early if you haven't.

Get tickets — thetownhall.org

Found via Bollywood.NYC

Thu, June 4

Seedhe Maut — Blue Note Jazz Festival

The Delhi-based hip-hop duo brings their dense, layered lyricism to Sony Hall as part of the Blue Note Jazz Festival — one of New York's most prestigious summer music events. Seedhe Maut occupy a singular space in South Asian music: serious production, serious bars, a fanbase that follows them to the edge of the map. 8pm, Sony Hall, 235 W 46th St, Midtown. Tickets on Ticketmaster.

Details — worldmusicinstitute.org

Found via Bollywood.NYC

Thu, April 30

Amjad Ali Khan — Strings for Peace

The sarod maestro returns to New York after selling out NYU Skirball in 2025 — this time at Symphony Space, with his sons Amaan and Ayaan Ali Bangash and Grammy Award-winning guitarist Sharon Isbin. "Strings for Peace" unites Western classical guitar with Indian ragas in a collaboration that has been building for years. Tabla virtuoso Amit Kavthekar joins on stage. Presented by the World Music Institute. 8pm, Symphony Space, 2537 Broadway. Tickets $45–$105. VIP includes artist meet and greet.

Get tickets — symphonyspace.org

Found via Bollywood.NYC

Words

"If you cannot bear these stories then the society you are living in is unbearable. With my stories, I only hold up a mirror to the world."

Saadat Hasan Manto — writer, 1912–1955

Manto was tried for obscenity six times — three times under British rule, three times after Partition — for stories about sex workers, violence, and the humanity of people India and Pakistan preferred not to see.

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