Although the first episode of Sarmad Khoosat’s much-awaited magnum opus, Mor Mahal, aired on Geo TV this past Sunday night, the official launch of the period drama was held on Tuesday evening, at the Pearl Continental Hotel in Karachi.
Mor Mahal, directed by Sarmad Khoosat and written by Sarmad Sehbai, is a period fantasy production with an all-star cast that includes Umair Jaswal, Hina
Bayat, Ali Saleem, Zahid Ahmed, Sonia Nazir, Fizza Ali and many more.
InstepREport
Director Sarmad Khoosat’s new play Mor Mahal was officially launched on Tuesday evening in presence of the cast and crew.
Karachi : Although the first episode of Sarmad Khoosat’s much-awaited magnum opus, Mor Mahal, aired on Geo TV this past Sunday night, the official launch of the period drama was held on Tuesday evening, at the Pearl Continental Hotel in Karachi.
It was refreshing to see stars turn up on the red carpet dot on time, which isn’t a usual sight at press meet-ups or in fact any media affair. But while respect for punctuality was welcoming, the lack of glamour and leading cast members at the event was not. There were hardly any members from the television fraternity present to lend their support to Khoosat’s much-hyped experiment and the play’s female lead, Meesha Shafi, was missing because she had ‘other’ commitments. All this made for a rather lackluster beginning to an event one was really looking forward to.
But what eventually saved it from being a snoozefest was the flamboyant Sarmad Khoosat and his quick-witted responses to Urdu press’ infamous antics.
After a brief introduction of the cast in attendance, including lead actor Umair Jaswal, Ali Saleem, Hina Bayat, Zahid Ahmed, Sonia Nazir and Fizza Ali, the press was shown an extended trailer of the play. Magnanimous and larger than life in execution with a dark and twisted storyline, Mor Mahal is miles away from run-of-the-mill, melodramatic soaps that crowd our TV screens. Set in a historical era, the play is intense, gritty, thrilling and all about twisted hierarchies and shifting thrones. Women seem to take centre stage not as miserable souls but as strong and powerful characters; leading by example. In that, comparisons with Mera Sultan were only natural. However, director Khoosat asserted that there is no need for a comparison.
Umair Jaswal (seen here with director Sarmad Khoosat) makes his small screen debut with Mor Mahal and is essaying the role of Nawab Asif Jehan who is at the center of the serial.
“It is not a historical play set in a certain era. It’s a fantasy play and it’s a perception of our times, our language and mannerisms. We’ve tried to make something different for the audience and have put in a lot of effort and hard work to bring this to life,” Sarmad told the audience.
It’s interesting to see someone finally break away from the herd and bring something new to the table. But in a fast-paced, tech-savvy world like ours and given the ratings game that prove our masses’ liking for misery, one wonders if the audience will be receptive to a play like Mor Mahal.
“Every experiment or every situation where you are trying to push the envelope comes with fear and a lot of inhibitions. But once you dive straight into it, you have to let go. I have dealt with that when I was making Manto because even that was very risqué and dark and that process somehow helped me understand the audience also. Pre-Humsafar, I didn’t know what the audience really wanted and I had never done a romance,” Khoosat shared. “It’s also unfair that we keep blaming it on the audience. One should always try. With Mor Mahal I am just hoping that the audience will give it a fair chance. We tend to tune into comfort viewing where one just wants to see a certain pace and a certain kind of dialogue. Here you definitely have a very intricate language and layers and layers of galore and costumes. So it might not be very easy viewing instantly but moving beyond the picture, the characters are very intricate, intense and complex and I hope the audience likes it.”
This depth in characters, according to the cast, can be credited to Khoosat and writer Sarmad Sehbai. Each and every cast member present was all praise for the director and the writer and grateful for what they learned over a course of 8 months. Jaswal, who will be making his screen debut with Mor Mahal, was particularly excited to finally see the hard work pay off.
“This is a massive project happening for the first time in Pakistan and I am the lead in it and that’s why I chose it to be my debut project. I am very excited and had a great time shooting. We have worked almost a year for this project. The reviews of the first episode have started coming in and we are all very proud of it. Both Sarmad Khoosat and Sarmad Sehbai have done a marvelous job and I hope people go out of their way and watch this,” Jaswal said. On transitioning from music to acting – a common occurrence in the Pakistani entertainment industry – Jaswal added that, “Shakespeare said that every actor is a musician and every musician is an actor. So they go hand in hand because while delivering dialogues one has to use different tones and expressions. And tonal variation and expressions are something I have learnt through music. That said, it wasn’t easy but I had the best director as my mentor.”
Said to be 45-episode long, Mor Mahal will be running across television screens for the rest of the coming year and though it’s too early to comment, it certainly has the potential to be a success because of the simple reason that it’s different.
