The recent first screening of a new film that explores generational cultural differences was a big success. First Generation, produced, written, and directed by Ishwar L. Maisuria of Mya Studios Inc., focuses on a character named Asha (played by Akesh Gill of The Burning Season) who rebels against the pressure she feels from her parents and non-Indian boyfriend. Asha’s parents want her to get married in a traditional manner, while her boyfriend, Kevin (Christopher Newton) pressures her to reveal the secret of their relationship to her parents.

"I wanted to write about something that I know about," explains Maisuria. "People around me are experiencing these kinds of conflicts. I took various situations and made the family in this film deal with them, both individually and as a family."

As for whether Maisuria feels the Indian community is ready for a subject like this, he says, "Absolutely. First Generation is a reflection of what’s happening out there or could happen tomorrow."

A graduate of the Vancouver Film School, Lal recruited the help of graduates from his alma mater, who worked under a deferred payment contract, to make up the film crew. Most of the casting was done through word-of-mouth.

Barber takes scissors to budget to make feature

There's a lot of Ishwar L. Maisuria in his feature-film debut First Generation.

His parents' east Vancouver house is used as a main location in the low-budget story about inter-generational strife in an immigrant family. His mom cooked for the crew, he wrote and directed the film and raised the production budget through bank loans and credit cards.

Although Ishwar belongs to an immigrant family like the one depicted in his movie, the story isn't autobiographical.

The parents and adult children in the film can't talk to one another, Ishwar says, he and his three siblings have a great relationship with their folks.

"This film is about how important it is to keep talking," says Ishwar.

The pocket-change budget is obvious – filmed in 16 millimeter, the film is rough-edged but heartfelt, with some affecting moments. It’s being shown Sunday afternoon at the Vancouver Asian Film Festival.

Ishwar says filming turned into a labor of love for most of the 40 people involved.

He got friends to score the movie for free. The actors – drawn mainly from ethnic theatre groups – worked for free. B.C. Ferries wanted about $1,000 a day to give Ishwar and his crew the nod to film on a ferry.

Their solution was to play tourist – they bought passage on the ferry, the crew lugged the gear on board and filmed a short scene without official permission.

However, Lal found afterwards that the real battle was getting the film shown.

"Distribution and exhibition is tricky," says Ishwar, who admits that the look of the film suffered somewhat from the low budget.

"It’s got some rough edges, but the spirit of the film is there," he says.

Ishwar L. Maisuria will be participating in a filmmakers workshop on the trials of independent film-making at this weekend’s Vancouver Asian Film Festival. Ishwar got his training at the Vancouver Film School, and went from there to work as a production assistant at Cannell Films in North Vancouver. He struck out on his own, figuring it would take too long for him to work his way up the corporate hierarchy to doing his own films.

With the film industry in Vancouver coming into its own, it is heartening to see young Indo-Canadian talent also beginning to flex its creative muscle. And, if the film First Generation is any indication, locally produced Indo-Canadian cinema may now be poised to carve a niche of its own.

Granted that the editing needs tightening and the acting could have been better; accepted that the film may not be technically brilliant, but those are not flaws that experience can't fix. Consider the constraints under which it was made and film’s limitations seem minor. Actually, First Generation is a film that has all the earmarks of a creative talent at work. And, given time, experience and finances, this young film-maker is one who will be heard from again and again, maybe even on festival circuits.

Scripted, produced, and directed by Ishwar L. Maisuria, the film seeks to encapsulate some of the problems faced by immigrant families that are seeking to find their proverbial place in the sun in a new culture while retaining their ties to their roots. It is the story of an Indo-Canadian family, the Rattanjis, from Fiji. The parents, competently played by Bhupinder Dhaliwal and Balinder Johal, have worked hard to provide for their children, Asha (Akesh Gill of The Burning Season) and Ajay (Haroon Khan), who are now in their twenties. Both youngsters are torn between the traditional cultural values advocated by their parents and the Western values that are fostered by the society they live in. The pressures created by the circumstances come to a head when Asha’s parents find out about her affair with Kevin.

"I wanted to make a film that had some substance," Ishwar explains. "I am not trying to provide a solution to the problem – if the film gets people to at least think about the issues involved, I would have achieved what I am aiming for. Because, after all, there is no cut and dried solution to a problem like this."

Ishwar candidly admits that this is his idealistic phase. "Perhaps I will not always be able to make meaningful films – maybe I will have to go 'commercial' because there is where the money is," he says. "But, right now, I have to satisfy my creative urges and deal in stories that try to make a difference."

As a schoolboy in Port Hardy, Ishwar thought he was going to become a doctor. Though films fascinated him – and photography was a hobby that took up more of his time, "I was actually studying to be a doctor because that is what my parents wanted."

Somewhere along the way, he realized that medicine was not his passion. "It was only after I’d done about two years of science that it dawned on me that this is a country where you can do what you want. And I really wanted to make films."

So he joined the Vancouver Film School where, in 10 months, he received practical training in all aspects of film-making.

After graduating from the Film School, Ishwar worked at local film studios as production assistant, making commercials and music videos. In addition, in between such jobs, he worked at retail sales and telemarketing, “to pay the bills since production jobs were sporadic.” However, all this was not what he had gone to film school for. And so, he began work on his script, First Generation.

"Getting production under way was tough," Ishwar recalls. "To start with, our budget was almost non-existent and I had to get friends and colleagues from film school to work on a voluntary basis. I also had a hard time finding Indo-Canadian film actors – there were none listed with local agencies. And, because of the stringent budget, I couldn't get actors from elsewhere. In the end, apart from Akesh who has one film to her credit, the people who ended up doing the main roles, like Balinder and Bhupinder, are essentially theatre actors and they’ve done a marvellous job."

Yes, indeed, considering the constraints the young crew worked under, they have acquitted themselves remarkably well.

And Ishwar L. Maisuria is definitely a filmmaker to watch for.

Kudos to the unit of First Generation for a job well done!

- By Ariba Dalal

The Link Weekday Edition – January 4, 1995

Huddled in the cosy living room of First Generation actor Balinder Johal's living room, eating samosas and drinking some fine hot Indian tea, First Generation writer/director Ishwar L. Maisuria and key actors from his maiden venture – Bhupinder Dhaliwal, Haroon Khan and of course our hostess – Balinder Johal – relate the hardships of low budget film making.

"Film making for me is a labour of love," says Ishwar, who graduated from The Vancouver Film School, before making his foray into low budget feature length film making.

After several stints at North Shore based Cannell Productions, Ishwar began feeling a great itch to venture into a production of his own. His desire to make a film led him back to his colleagues at The Vancouver Film School, who gave him encouragement to proceed.

Ishwar sat down at his personal computer and churned out the first draft of First Generation, a story about generational conflict in an Indo-Canadian family. The story was inspired by events closer to Ishwar’s home.

"I ultimately came to the conclusion that whatever I wrote, it would have to do with the family. It’s a story about people I have known and still know and they may still be dealing with the conflicts portrayed in the film," Ishwar says.

"The film asks a lot of questions and the answers aren't always readily available. It's a reflection of ourselves and our community. I wanted to write this now because it had a certain resonance that was close to my own life. A lot of my cousins had these problems."

Ishwar showed the first draft to his Film School chum – cinematographer Richard Choi, who provided the needed spark to get production underway by agreeing to do the photography for the film.

With the production taking shape – Ishwar’s hardest task lay ahead. He admits casting was a real pain. "We were only weeks away from shooting and we still didn't have many of the principles cast," Lal says. "There is a real shortage of Asian-Indo-Canadian actors, which is a real problem for casting."

With Akesh Gill (not so hot from The Burning Season) on aboard, all the main roles began to fall in place. Haroon khan – the troubled lad of the Rattanji Family – was recruited from Tarlington Talent, a local talent agency. And for the role of the mother – Balinder Johal – the veteran actor from South Vancouver – was chosen, who then helped Lal with the casting of other key roles – including that of the father played by Bhupinder Dhaliwal.

Once the cast was in place, the production began shooting 16-18 hour days on a very tight shooting schedule. Along the way, the cast and crew had to endure great pains and make personal sacrifices to keep the production on schedule.

"A lot of times we didn't have a permit and people wanted money that we didn’t have," says Lal, who put up all the money from his pocket to make the film. "We really had to rough it. Some places – like the scene on the ferry – we just went in, got the shots and got out. It was in the best sense of the word – Guerilla filmmaking."

But Ishwar admits that many of the hardships faced by the production were made easier by the family bond that developed between the cast and crew.

"We had a skeleton crew and long hours of shooting and everyone worked closely together. It was a real family atmosphere was great because it gave us the support and enthusiasm we needed to get the production to completion. My own family was also tremendously supportive of the film and of what I was trying to do, so it helped."

As the invited guests sip their tea and bite into the sugar-filled sweetness of jalebis, the actors all relate their own tales of the production.

For Haroon Khan, it was his first feature film. "For a young actor, it was a great opportunity and I found the experience satisfying," said the young actor, who also desires to become a filmmaker. "I'm very choosy about what parts I play and I don’t like playing cliché, stereotype characters. The only way to play challenging actors is to write them yourself. So It was great to have this role come along and it was great to do it."

Khan did a lot of research for the character including seeing a psychiatrist for the troubled character he was going to play. "I didn't behave very happily on the set. I stayed in character and did all the things my character was going to do in the film like smoking and staying up all night. I really learned a lot about myself while playing and researching the character. For my character of a troubled Indo-Canadian youth, I had to believe what he was going through and remain faithful to his emotions. Essentially you play the emotions and hope that the camera can capture the convictions of the emotions."

Dhaliwal, a real estate agent who has had stage and television experience, found the experience to be quite different from stage. "I have a passion for acting and I like to get into different characters. Getting into this role, I knew the emotions and background. It gave me great satisfaction to act in the film and the people were great, especially Ishwar and Mark Tuit ( first Assistant Director)."

For Balinder Johal, the veteran actor who recently acted in the French director Jean Jacques Annuad's (with credits including The Bear and The Lover) groundbreaking IMAX narrative film – Wings of Courage, First Generation was another first in a long list of acting credits that include a drama to be shown on CBC this year.

"It's a film that three generations can sit together and watch. And the film is a reflection of their conflicts and tensions. I play a typical traditional mother and the values she holds dear to her heart. She wants to marry off the daughter and is very affectionate towards the son, even though he has gone stray."

The film also makes use of other local talent including Sushma Sardana's mother Mrs. L. Dutta, Aman Sara, Sunny Hunuman Singh, music composer and teacher Satwant Singh.

- By R. Paul Dhillon

Movie Review

In recent years, there has been a growth of South Asian film-makers expressing their conflicts, tensions, and their world views while living on the threshold of cultural fusion in the western world. Two of the best examples are Hanif Kureshi and Gurinder Chadha from England, who have given us a taste of this fusion while making important works that enjoy a crossover appeal in the mainstream market.

And now comes Canadian film maker Ishwar L. Maisuria’s First Generation, although not technically and artistically as the films of aforementioned filmmakers, but still an important step in the right direction.

Maisuria, working not on a low budget, but what can only be described as a shoe-string budget and skeleton crew with largely unknown and inexperienced actors, have filmed First Generation – film about the trials and tribulations of an Indo-Canadian (Fijian to be exact) family undergoing the conflicts between their first generation kids and old world parents.

The film follows the Rattanji family products – daughter of Asha (played by Akesh Gill of The Burning Season fame) and son Ajay (played by Haroon Khan, the son of former Pakistan Canada Association president Riaset Ali Khan), both in their early twenties and confused, lost or perhaps just following the Canadian way of life – whatever that may be.

Asha is in love with a nice Caucasian boy, Kevin (Christopher Newton) and Ajay is just a basket case, walking around a mute zombie. His association with drug addicts is the first sign of his troubles and the situation only gets worse when he has to face his father (Bhupinder Dhaliwal) and mother, - played by Balinder Johal, an experienced stage and screen actress, who has been active in the Indo-Canadian arts community.

The conflict slowly begins to reach its peak when the parents insist on marrying off the daughter, while trying to hold down their druggie son. The outcome of these conflicts are always tragic and the film poses more questions than it offers answers – which might be one of its greater weaknesses.

Despite the problems, the resonant of the story does come through and without a doubt, it's more applicable to the Canadian immigrant experienced than the "White Washed" – The Burning Season. The filmmakers and local Indo-Canadian artists should definitely be commended for their effort.

- By R. Paul Dhillon