Should be interesting…
Pakistani, Actually starts on BBC2, Saturday 5 March 9.15pm
BBC2 to run a series on Pakistanis, Actually
“If you say to somebody ‘I’m from India’ they’ll go ‘Oh great, I was there last year. I went to Goa’ or ‘I went to Jaipur’, there’s more of a kind of rapport. Whereas Pakistanis, it will kill the conversation dead. ‘Oh really, we don’t know anything about that, we don’t know much about you.’”
That’s according to actor and comedian Jeff Mirza in British Paki and Proud, the first programme to be shown as part Pakistani, Actually, a special night of programmes on BBC Two, looking at the lives of British Pakistanis.
Tommy Nagra, Executive Producer of Pakistani, Actually says: “These documentaries provide just a snapshot of contemporary life amongst British Pakistanis - a community who are often misunderstood, neglected or stereotyped. They are ‘slices of life’, and offer a revealing insight into just some of the real life experiences of Pakistanis living in Britain.”
The episode British Paki and Proud explores the British Pakistani experience through themes of belonging, identity and the debate around the word ‘Paki’. “The word Paki should not have been a derogatory term in the first place, I think the right wing hijacked this word. Paki means ‘pure’, I mean isn’t it a laugh that these skinheads or whoever have been calling us pure all this time,” says Abdul Rahim. He thinks the word should be reclaimed and used in a positive way, so he is making clothes with ‘Pak1’ showing that he is proud to be a Pakistani. But there are those who vehemently disagree.
Musician Aki Nawaz comments: “The guys who are trying to reclaim it, tell them to go and ask their parents what they had to endure with that word.” British, Paki and Proud also looks at how people identify themselves.
Hanif Kuresishi, writer of My Beautiful Laundrette says for a long time people have worries about identity, but its something put together from a number of sources: “I’m a father, I’m a son, sometimes on a Saturday I’m a QPR supporter. And I think most Pakistanis now are quite aware they can put together the Pakistani part of themselves, the Muslim part of themselves, the part of themselves that identifies with Britain, with their town, their street, with their city, with their school and so on.”
Luton, actually, written and presented by Sarfraz Manzoor, tells the tale of his own experience as a Pakistani Brit. He arrived in Luton in Spring 1974 with his mother, brother and sister. At the time, Luton was celebrated for two things - an airport that was the butt of national jokes and the Vauxhall factory, which provided unskilled work for his father and many of the town’s immigrants.
For his father, coming to Britain offered opportunities that were not available in Pakistan - namely, money and education. This entertaining, insightful and often amusing film meets his family and friends and finds out what it’s like to grow up as a Pakistani Brit in what has recently been labelled Britain’s ‘crappiest town’.
In Who Wants to be a Mullah? Navid Akhtar (pictured), a British born Pakistani Muslim, goes on a personal quest in search of a greater understanding of Islam and the way it’s practiced in Britain today. He challenges the demonised image of the ‘mad mullah’ and asks whether the current breed of Imams or religious leaders are up to the challenge of connecting with young British Muslims.
Atta Boy is a portrait of Atta Yaqub, plucked from obscurity on the streets of Pollockshields in Glasgow to star in Ken Loach’s latest movie, Ae Fond Kiss. The programme looks at the dilemmas faced by Atta as he tries to please everyone - his mum, his community, his religious leaders and his own ambitions to act.
“These programmes are both thought provoking and entertaining. They reflect just a selection of real life stories and voices from a diverse and vibrant community” adds Tommy Nagra. “It’s a night of programming that will appeal to a broad audience and give viewers a flavour of what it means to be a British Pakistani today .”
]
Real life ones are actually quite hawwt, no where near as geeky as those on TV.