Film/Stage

Sikhs in the City:
Jaspreet Kaur's Punjabi Sitcom
"Teri Meri Duniya"

by RANDY SHORE

 

When you move to a new country, everything on TV might as well be a foreign film.

That's why Jaspreet Kaur's gentle comedy about a Punjabi family struggling with a new life in Surrey (British Columbia, Canada) is called Teri Meri Duniya - "Our World."

"The issues being faced by immigrant families gave us the idea to make the show," said Jaspreet, who is from Chandigarh in the eastern-most corner of Punjab.

"Punjabi immigrants want to integrate into Canadian culture, but at the same time keep their heritage."

These are not the kind of stories that you routinely see on Canadian TV, especially not in the Punjabi language.

Teri Meri Duniya is a mirror that Sikh-Canadians and those of Punjabi descent can look into and see themselves reflected back, with all the tension and warmth that comes from living in a large extended family.

Though stars of Sikh and other Indian descent are making big strides on-screen in North America, they, too, feel a little foreign.

ER's Parminder Nagra, a Sikh from the U.K., for example, is hardly reflective of the lives of Metro Vancouver's Punjabi diaspora.

"I use my own experiences, as I am an immigrant too, and those of my family and friends in the show," said Jaspreet Kaur, who also holds a degree in electrical engineering. She came to Canada in 1998 and attended Vancouver Film School (VFS) to pursue her dream of making films about her people.

The very first Punjabi-language Canadian situation comedy is looking for a broader audience on VisionTV after a two-year prime-time run on Shaw Multicultural Channel in Metro Vancouver. The first episode aired nationally earlier this month.

The faith-based network VisionTV has a known quantity on its hands, with 40 episodes in the can.

It was Shaw that made the great leap of faith in 2007 when Jaspreet Kaur, a recent VFS graduate, approached the community cable provider with five episodes and a promise of more.

She had completed a family drama series called Jaildarian and Shaw felt confident she could deliver. She would write and shoot each episode just ahead of its air date.

"This is pure Canadian content," said Jaspreet. "Canadian stories, Canadian actors, Canadian locations and Canadian issues."

In Punjabi, peppered with English and subtitled, just in case.

When the show's first run ended on Shaw, Jaspreet was faced with demands from the community to bring it back, particularly from people who said it was the only show the whole family - all three generations - could watch together.

"Older people were very upset when it ended on Shaw Multicultural Channel," Jaspreet recalled. "They wanted to see more."

VisionTV embraced the show for its universal storylines and easy humour, according to the network's head of mosaic client relations, Avik Lee.

"All immigrants can identify with these stories," said Lee. "And the sense of humour is not in your face, but it is entertaining."

Lee said he has heard that people are taping the show to share it with their families.

Though the show is a comedy, Jaspreet Kaur likes to weave a social message into her storylines and often confronts family and generational issues - troubled kids, alcoholism, the works - all with a specific Punjabi flavour.

"I had one viewer who wrote to say that her husband had decided to address his own alcoholism after watching the show," Jaspreet said. "She said thank you."

Jaspreet Kaur is in talks with the U.S. channel Jus Punjabi to air Teri Meri Duniya nationally in the United States, as well. If that deal comes through, the pressure to make new episodes will be too great to resist, she said.

While she waits, Jaspreet Kaur is working on pre-production for a feature film set in Vancouver, a relationship drama about a Punjabi family settling in Canada.

 

[Teri Meri Duniya is currently airing on VisionTV and Shaw Cable 4 in Canada.]

Courtesy: Vancouver Sun

May 14, 2009

read other articles in Film/Stage