The American-Pakistani playwright, actor and novelist, Ayad Akhtar, has two plays showing in New York during this busy tourist season. The Pulitzer Prize-winning play, Disgraced, and the powerful The Invisible Hand explore complex relations between religion, social and political values and the global financial system.

Both plays also depict common threads in the complicated US-Pakistani connection, with a strong emphasis on Islam.

Yet, the two plays have different situations and the plots are completely separate.

I happened to watch both productions recently.

Disgraced is the story of a hardworking corporate lawyer, Amir Kapoor, who is born in a Muslim family that immigrated to the US from Pakistan. Amir retains a Hindu identity to rise in the corporate world. His wife Emily, an Islamophile, shows extensive interest in Islamic art, culture and history while Amir is critical of his Islamic heritage.