Four Pakistani artists living in Canada have devoted their lives to present their countrymen living in North America in a positive and thoughtful light. Toronto-based Pakistani singer Qurram Hussain, who performed in more than 160 cities in the world with an Indian Sikh (Rup Magon) this time joined hands with a very talented trio, Adeel and Khurram Suhrwardy and Maha Warsi, for the new season of Canadian multilingual web drama series, Mangoes: A Slice of Life, which is all set to premiere on November 11.
Based on the web series Mangoes and telling a globally relevant story with a uniquely Canadian heart, Mangoes: A Slice of Life follows the adventures of three millennials with South Asian backgrounds as they explore the true potential of life in Canada. The new season’s six episodes will be first available in English, Urdu, Punjabi, and Hindi for OMNI TV’s multicultural audiences in Canada. These episodes would be later released on the web for the global audiences.
The first two seasons of Mangoes had already received an overwhelming response from South Asian audiences throughout the world. And, the OST for Season 1, “Keh Dena” by legendary pop singer Alamgir and Canadian singer Kristie Yung, is still one of biggest international hits of this decade.
Qurram has done a background score for the third season, Mangoes: A Slice of Life co-created, co-produced, and starring Suharwardy brothers, Adeel and Khurram, as Sami and Rakay respectively. This is the first drama score by Qurram Hussain who produced music for Josh’s four music album and Urwa Hocane’s film, Rangreeza.
Mangoes is a series that showcases some of the problems and challenges faced by first-generation immigrants coming to Canada. Although the problems can be pretty serious at times, the show showcases them in a light-hearted fashion, keeping the overall spirit of the show positive. At the same time, they are able to tackle some bigger issues ranging from women empowerment to racism. Mangoes are also unique in that it has a very strong female lead, who thinks for herself, and is at times looked down for doing so. This is the character of Asha, played by Maha Warsi, and Maha delivers on the requirements of her role in a brilliant manner. Furthermore, Maha’s character is from India, so it showcases a Pakistani – Indian friendship as well, further adding to the positive narrative of the show.
In a day and age where political agendas are used to keep people apart, Mangoes is taking the steps to showcase that all South Asians share a common bond which goes beyond borders.
Talking about the project, Qurram Hussain said he was really impressed with how the Suhrwardy brothers wrote the story of Mangoes that jumped from being funny and light-hearted to taking some serious issues and bringing them to light.
“It’s not easy to juggle moods like that, but they did it very well, and that also gave me a chance to do music that ranges through various emotions,” he added.
Furthermore, Qurram said, that taking some big issues head-on was very brave and necessary at a time like this. “Women are showing their strength everywhere and tackling problems they have been facing for a very long time, and shows like Mangoes gives them a chance to have highlighted some of these issues so that people can have open conversations about them and learn about the problems they have been dealing with. It always great to work with people that you’re in sync with,” the Toronto-based singer concluded.