Television maybe a booming industry in Pakistan but that too tends to get stagnant and calls for change every now and then. Therefore, whenever a TV play aimed at offering something unusual hits the screens, it quickly catches attention. One such upcoming play that has become talk of the town these days is period drama,
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The exclusive preview of the upcoming production, starring Adnan Siddiqui, Amar Khan and Hamza Firdous, was recently held at TDF Ghar.
Karachi: Television maybe a booming industry in Pakistan but that too tends to get stagnant and calls for change every now and then. Therefore, whenever a TV play aimed at offering something unusual hits the screens, it quickly catches attention. One such upcoming play that has become talk of the town these days is period drama, Ghughi that is based on the partition era and follows a love story between a Hindu woman and a Muslim man.
Produced under Adnan Siddiqui’s production house, Cereal Entertainment, Ghughi is scheduled to go on air tonight while its exclusive media preview was held at TDF Ghar on Tuesday evening.
The drama stars Adnan Siddiui, Firdous Jamal’s son Hamza Firdous of O’Rangreza fame and introduces Amar Khan who makes her debut with the play. Adnan plays the role of a hot headed, Muslim man Rasheed while Amar will be seen as his love interest, a Hindu woman Nirmala.
“It was a very challenging role for me; emotionally as well as physically,” Amar noted at the event. “The agony and torture that women have been facing since the partition days is still a hot button issue. And no matter how much I try, I can’t match up to that level.”
The official press statement describes the play as, “The cry of a kidnapped girl, the obsession of a tortured man, the agony of a rejected bride and the venom of a disgraced family. It is a story of passionate love and overpowering hate set against the violent, bloody upheaval of partition.”
Aside from Adnan, Amar and Hamza, Ghughi also stars Haris Waheed, Rashid Mehmood, Asma Abbas, Mohsin Gillani and many others. Directed by Iqbal Hussain and written by Amn Mufti, the play is an adaptation of Amrita Pritam’s acclaimed novel, Pinjar.
We spoke to actor/co-producer Adnan Siddiqui and asked what is it that needs to be kept in mind in order to make period plays relevant in today’s time.
“We are seeing run of the mill plays everywhere but what about passion?” he responded. “What about educating people? As a producer, it is my responsibility to educate and entertain people with my work. And with people going away from books, we decided to adapt a classic novel and bring it to our TV screens. It’s not a boring play, it is a complete masala. Unfortunately, issues like kidnapping and rape are still pertinent as much as they were in those times. Some of the issues prevalent during the pre and post partition era that confronted women included kidnapping, sexual abuse, killing and homelessness. We have picked up one story out of these around which the play revolves.”
