The season seems to be of Zeinas (Xenia) and I don’t mean the flower in the literal sense – or it can be if our female names can be Nargis, Chambaeli, or Gulabo. The name Xenia is given to a many petaled, mauve coloured flower. The word Xenia (Greek, means hospitality, courtesy, affection and warmth etc. shown to guests from far away. A beautiful host-guest relationship. Can be written with a ‘Z’ or ‘X’ as ‘X’ stands for ‘S’ as in saviour, Xavier or ‘CH’ as in Christmas (Xmas). So as I was saying, it seems to be the season for Xenias or Zenias on our TV channels. Since only a few channels have lawns and gardens the rest are planting Zenias on the telescreen in form of the female human species which, being the sanf-e-nazuk, is conveniently comparable to the equally beautiful flower, wujood-e-zan sae hai tasweer-e-kainat main rung. Zan (woman) and Zenia (the flower) – though the Urdu word phool is much sweeter and descriptive. So talking about flowers in Telemix makes any sense or does it sound ‘Greek’ to you too’? Why this apparent irrelevant thought process? And you know by now that I am one given to apparently irrelevant thought processes which ultimately lead to relevance. And in this case the relevant fact is that two of our current drama serials namely Barish Kay Ansoo and Malal have two women named Zenia and now our state owned channel (government not to be left behind) is very shortly coming with another Zenia in its coming to-be-launched drama serial Baar. So much for Zenias. To avoid confusion in the storyline and relationships, as I am a typical drama viewer – I’d rather be planting the Zenia flower and watch it grow single-mindedly. TelemixThe new serial to be dished out from last week of October is titled Baar (the hedge) – again horticulture! Hafeez Ahmed, an industrialist and his wife Saira, a beautiful and loving personality have two young offspring, Eeman and her elder brother Shehryar. Hafeez Ahmed and his wife have also brought up – and here comes – Zenia – and Tahir, the children of Hafeez Ahmed’s dead brother. Zenia is already engaged to their son Shehryar. Her brother expects to marry Eeman but Eeman has a soft and loving corner in her heart for Ali. Ali is the son of Nadira – not NADRA, widow of Imtiaz Ahmed, a retired bureaucrat who left behind considerable lands and properties (naturally) and is a Masters in Fine Arts, having many painting exhibitions to his credit. His sister Rubab (now a musical instrument) wants to go for a job after her MBA but her mother Nadira wants her to get married. Tahir not liking Eeman’s inclination towards Ali, plans to eliminate him. He (Tahir) plans a shikaar party in Bahawalnagar near the Indian border. As planned, during the shikaar dacoits attack them with the intention of killing Ali. Ali is wounded and trying to escape, crosses the border and enters India where he is caught by the Border Security Force. Tahir comes back to tell everyone that Ali is dead and succeeds in marrying Eeman. In the meantime, Ali is tortured physically on a typical Indian allegation of being a Pakistani jasoos. A psychiatrist of their intelligence agency takes Ali in hand trying to coax him into working for them, as being a landscape artist, he can sketch locations of vital and strategic importance for their agency. Ali being mentally and physically strong does not break and ultimately escapes and comes back to Pakistan. From here onwards there are many twists and turns that the viewer will get to know on a weekly basis. This serial has been penned by Azmi Ali Khan and Kazim Pasha has directed it. The cast includes Imran Abbas, Savera, Naheed Shabbir, Saba Faisal, Qazi Wajid, Mira Khan etc. Another play which is on air these days on Geo TV is a social family soap titled Kahe Ko Biahi Bedas. A young, good looking and intelligent girl Mehru wants to go for higher studies but her family wants her to get married – a typical tend in our society. She secures first position within her division.  In this family tussle, her aunt comes to her aid and brings her to the city so that she can achieve her ambition. She helps her out in getting an admission in a university. After initial problems of so different natures with her aunts family and fellow students she befriends Fatima whose mother Salma is a politician. Not welcoming Mehru at her home, Salma creates problems and stress for her which she is not capable of dealing with. By accident, a workshop owner Wajahat gets close to Mehru and they tie the knot. This character, Seth Wajahat, is an extremely jealous chauvinist husband. Mehru’s cousin Saleem being always interested in her and wanting very hard to impress the girl, takes the undesired direction and becomes a pawn of low class to Salma’s high level politics. The events take a turn – Saleem kills Wajahat and makes off to save himself. Meanwhile, Mehru is accused of killing her own husband and is sent to serve a sentence. What these complexities and turbulations hold in store for her will be unfolding weekly with the airing of this dramatic presentation. The production mix consists of Beenish Chouhan, Suhail Asghar, Parveen Akber, Shehzad Reza, Naeema Garaj, Shabbir Jan, Rubina Ashraf, Ahsan Khan, Kanwal and others as players of Ghazala Naqvi’s story working under the direction of Siraj ul Haq.
A comedy-based family oriented chronicle of a memon family, headed by saith sattar who is highly authoritative in nature, but is soft hearted and likes his family to be integrated. the daughter-in-law always remains in a fiery mood, due to her constant disputes with saith sattar and on the other hand the son of saith is a typical simpleton. the moral of the sitcom is that how a well integrated family gets rid of different problems and issues by the virtue of their unity.
In a country like Pakistan, girls go through a lot of stress and pressures because of inhuman norms. Girl’s Schools in Swat are being bombed. Kahe Ko Biyahee Bides is an inspirational story, that will motivate many girls to pursue education and have big dreams in life. Mehru (played by Beenish Chauhan) the main protagonist of Kahe ko Biyahee Bides is also one such girl, who challenges status quo and goes beyond the conventions of her community.
A young good looking intelligent girl named Mehru wants to study further but her family wants to marry her off. She secures first position in her division and her aunt brings her to the city so that she could achieve her goal and helps her out regarding her admission to the university. After the initial problems with her aunt’s family and fellow students, she befriends Fatima whose mother (Salma) is a politician. Salma doesn’t welcome Mehru at her home causing tension and resentment.
After an accident, a workshop owner Seth Wajahat marries Mehru. Wajahat turns out to be an extremely jealous. Mehru’s cousin Saleem wanting to impress Mehru goes in the wrong direction and becomes a low level pawn on the political chessboard of Salma’s politics. Then events take a turn and Saleem kills Wajahat and runs away. Mehru is accused of the murder and is sent to jail. Later, Saleem realizes that Mehru is being punished for his crime; he comes and accepts his guilt. Mehru is freed and feels that she has lost track of her life, so she goes to the city once again where further complexities of life awaits her…
Cast: Sohail Asghar, Shabbir Jan, Rubina Ashraf, Beenish Chauhan, Ahsan Khan, Shehzad Raza,Parveen Akbar, Naeema Garaj, Arif Bahalim, Anoushey Abbasi, Afshan Qureshi, Barkat Ullah, Tabbasum Arif, Amina Kareem, Naseem Bano, Kanwal, Sami Khan,
Madiha Iftekhar, Uzma Mazhar, Farid Ullah, Adam Rathore
Drama serial “Uraan”, based on PIA, covered different aspects of air travel and events related to lives of passengers and airline professionals like cabin crew and pilots. Shooting of serial’s episodes took place in various cities served by PIA including Paris, New York, London, Kathmandu and Nairobi. Faryal played role of PIA Senior Flight Purser while Shakeel acted as PIA aircraft Captain in this
drama serial.
PTV drama serial "Uraan" cast members Faryal Gohar and Shakeel Ahmed seen with Managing Director PIA Air Vice Marshal Farooq Umar at dinner hosted by Mr & Mrs Air Vice Marshal Farooq Umar in honour of "Uraan" team members at Pearl Continental Hotel, Karachi, on October 25, 1995.
Mr & Mrs Air Vice Marshal Farooq Umar in a group photo with PTV drama serial "Uraan" team members. The photo was taken at dinner hosted by Mr & Mrs Air Vice Marshal Farooq Umar in honour of "Uraan" team members at Pearl Continental Hotel, Karachi, on October 25, 1995.
Flight Engineer Sohail Malik in the cockpit of PIA Boeing 747-367 (AP-BFW) flying from London to Islamabad on August 18, 2000. Sohail was one of real-life PIA crew members who acted in "Uraan". He played the role of a PIA Flight Engineer.
PIA's first woman pilot First Officer Maliha Sami (right) seen in conversation with cast members Faryal Gohar (centre) and Savera Nadeem. This photo was taken at dinner in Pearl Continental Hotel,Karachi, on October 25, 1995.
A sit-com revolving around a young man, Naseeruddin aka Nannah (Sarmad Khoosat), left bereft by his wife’s sudden death, who now has to raise his one-year old son, Cheeko (Faadil Asil) by himself, as well as take care of his old parents and do domestic chores. The parents, Husn Ara (Komal) and Ateeq ur Rehman (Erfan Khoosat) are a melodramatic cribbing pair of senile old birds who bicker all day with each other and are never grateful for all that Nannah does for them. Compounding the problem are Rizwana and Rizwan, the twins (Seemab Muzaffar and Anees Chachar respectively). The former is not the least bit interested in work and spends her day enjoying the old couple’s tantrums and aggravating them with her teasing, while Rizwan is a dud. Nor do Nannah’s problems end here. Every night he is visited by his wife’s ghost, Nanni, (Gia Ali) a true filmi character that lives on in the world of movies even after her death. Nanni’s ghost is not only jealous of every woman that sets her eyes on Nannah, including Malo, but also demanding and melodramatic.
Written by: Faiza Iftikhar
Senior Producer: Aamir Khattak
Producer: Gulzaib Nawaz
Directed by: S. Mazhar Moin
Siger: Maha Laxmi
Composer: Farrukh Abid & Shoaib Farrukh
Cast: Ayesha Khan, Sami Khan, Adnan Shah, Nazli Nasar, Sawera Pasha, Shahood Alvi, Shahnaz Pervez, Salma Zafar, Badar Khalil, Hasan Niazi, Kanwal Nazar
Imagine a home where “a mother is makin’ it a livin’ hellâ€, a father conjunctioning between the four daughters as their sole shelter from the cruelty. An unusual story of a usual life. The story of this soap is revolves around the problems of those girls, who lives in the same house, they had a lot of money, but their parents have a relation of hatred, rather than love. The mother of these four girls was belongs to a feudal family, with the same feudal thoughts. In her youth she loved some one, and had a child without the marriage, because of her sins, her family forced her to marry a poor but a literate relative.
Because of her bad attitude this marriage, converts into a life time punishment for both. Her husband, Anwar Ahmed is a University Professor, very much loves her daughters, and because of them enforced to acquire this relation. The Wife, kulsoom is so much sank in the hatered and obstinacy that, she ignores her own daughters, and could not be a perfect mother.
For daughters, the father acts like their mother, they share their thoughts with the father instead of mother, as a replacement for parents the servants, raised them and looked after them, In the middle of love and hate, the girls are studying, but in a perplex state of mind.
A serious look at realism, this play focuses on the struggle of a family whose breadwinner had been wrongly accused of murder. With great acting all round, this play went on to become a big hit in Pakistan.
CAST
