3/16/2004 » TV

(via Turbanhead and Hollywood Masala) A new NBC desi cross-cultural comedy pilot, 'Nevermind Nirvana,' is coming out this season. The talented Mr. Penn ('Van Wilder') plays an Indian-American doctor, while Canadian comic Shaun Majumder plays his brother. I never thought I'd live to see the day that a desi actor played romantic lead in a mainstream production— nirvana indeed.

It's an in-law plot: Kal Penn's family moves in with him and his non-Indian fiancee, Judy Greer (the waitress in 'Adaptation'), and disapproves of his choice. A family tiff in the other direction would've seemed a throwback to Archie Bunker. But there's no truth in advertising here, baba: it's no comedy, that conflict sounds like pure drama!

The pilot is written by Ajay Sahgal and is loosely based on his life with wife Kelli Williams ('The Practice'). It's directed by David Schwimmer, rounding off his P.F.R. (post-'Friends' rebound).

The title is a sly pun, both Buddhist and nihilist, evoking a Nirvana album, a reference which will flutter right over the heads of the young'uns. Judging from the casting call, they're turning it into 'The Cosby Show'— a manservant? In America? They're really bending over backwards on the model minority bit here.

Don't send out the invites for the viewing party just yet: NBC alone is throwing out seventeen pilots this season to see what sticks. 'It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle...' You can always rely on the good book to keep a camel metaphor handy.

Whatever happened to Mira Nair's Punjabi-American sitcom?

Update: KXB comments: it should be called 'Everybody Loves Raju.'