Behind the veils and borders of immigration are human connections between countries, communities and families. When shoes walk across national lines, the impact radiates far beyond the feet inside them.
Manpreet Singh Khanouri has crossed those lines himself. Now that he's in Canada, from his birthplace of India, he is absorbing the English language, which will be his fourth language.
He is also learning to express himself using art, and his chosen medium is live-action performance.
Khanouri is setting up to make a movie called Karajdaar, which translates to English as Indebted. The story is about the obligations that follow you when you move from the developing world into a wealthy country, only to find that wealth is relative and nothing comes easy, especially if you forget your obligations to the ones left behind.
Indebted is a modern fictional fable similar to the old story of the grasshopper and the ant. It focuses on three friends, all of whom are shirking their duties to family as they grow up in India.
"Their parents are unhappy with them because of their wrong deeds they do everyday. Eventually, they plan to come over to Canada to study," said Khanouri, who is himself a student at CNC. "Their parents don't have enough money to support them, and parents also think that they will do hard work there and they will get rid of poverty at home by making dollars in Canada. Their parents make arrangements for money by selling their house and farming land."
Staking their family solvency on this trip to Canada, the families now have no choice but to rely on the three friends living up to their ends of the bargain. The film depicts the path of choices each of the sons takes in Canada. Sometimes the decisions are fruitful, sometimes there are temptations they fall for or morals they skirt.
The successes and challenges are also tested by the straining bonds between the three as each one adjusts differently to life in this strange culture and the distance from home.
"In culture of India, our parents support us regardless of our age limit," Khanouri said. "We are family oriented people. When our parents get older and we stand on our feet then we are obligated to support them back."
As an international student, he has a sense of what pressures are put upon the youth of India if they are lucky enough to get staked to a developing nation's education resources.
Sometimes the expectations about the riches of the western world are exaggerated in the minds of those in poverty back home, and sometimes it really does work out to everyone's advantage. Each sojourner who strikes out from India (or any number of other countries) has an individualized experience, and it can involve unexpected help from the Canadians, or being the victims of racism, or both. Sometimes the only jobs available are under the table, and that poses legal risks. Sometimes, the students fall prey to cheats, or they become cheaters themselves in an effort to send that much more money back home.
What is common to many, though, is what's riding on them back in their home community.
Khanouri is an avid actor and writer. He moved to Prince George in 2015 for CNC's Human Resource Management program. Since then he has already staged two plays on his own initiative, and this is the next step in his artistic evolution, directing his first film.
"I have good network of people here who are going to help me for acting, production, locations and many more things I need to shoot this film," he said. "P.G. suits best for location for this film. There is everything I need to show like mall, downtown market, clubs, swimming pool, grounds, gardens, college, big roads, small streets, rivers, jungles, etc. All the locations I need for film are available in and around P.G. The only thing I can't have in P.G. is a whole bunch of big buildings. Otherwise it's best and cheaper location for shooting this film. Moreover the community of P.G. is so helping which gives me more courage to shoot this film here."
The film is loosely based on true stories Khanouri has gleaned from his home country and the experience of living in Canada.
"This is a non-profit project. We are making this movie to convey the message to that people who are forgetting their responsibility just for a few days of fun, who get addicted into drugs, who choose the easy way in life," he said Khanouri.
The film will be shot using the Punjabi and English languages. He also plans to dub the whole movie into English for western audiences.
Khanouri plans to shoot this film in summer, but preparations are underway now. A general casting call has been issued for Monday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Stan Shaffer Theatre (Room 1-306) in CNC.
Those interested in a part are asked to bring one short comedy and one short dramatic scene to read, or use to the ones that will be provided.
