D= Dawood H = Hameed W = Wajid A = Azhar N = Needo

Boy o boy! When I was a kid how much hours I spent remembering the sequence of these names and how they came together to form DHUWAN .  In literature they have a term called “one touch of class” reserved for writers who only write one thing but it turns out to be a master piece. The obvious nominees are Margret Mitchell for “gone with the wind” and Annie Bronte for “Wuthering heights”. Coming to Pakistani dramas I think Asher Azeem falls in the category of “one touch of class”.

There are many PTV plays which unravel strange sort of nostalgia upon us but none more than this flick. It was by far the most memorable production to come out of Quetta centre. The best thing about PTV days was that you can distinguish between plays of different centers just by their visual fell. The bright colors, loud dialogues and rural themes came from Lahore. The urban classy sets and tongue in cheek humor came from Karachi. Peshawar added up with a typically pakhtun look of covered women and arms and weapons carrying men and icing on the cake was Quetta centre. A darkish visual appearance in the indoors and the magnificent locations on outdoor. The greatest ambassador of this style was Dhuwaan.

Police has never been a happy face in our dramas or films; in fact this negativity spreads across the border too and is perhaps one of the few commonalities in Pakistani and Indian media. Dhuwaan however was different. It was the story of a group of people who were brought together by a serving Police DIG under the leadership of newly commissioned ASP. Asher Azeem was tailor made for his role of a police officer. Since he was in real life a CSS officer from customs his acting was so surreal it never faltered. Nabeel gave one of his most dramatic performances. I actually think that before restricting himself to stupidistic comedy flicks Nabeel has given some memorable performances to us. Then there was asal khan who was equally loveable as Needo. And the Wajid and Hameed who completed the group.

The only criticism on drama would be that it was clichéd at least in the beginning. There was a love story and the whole thing felt like James bond movie with five bonds. But the real bomb shell was the death of Nabeel in an action laden sequence. The Nusrat Fateh Ali’s majestic voice in “kisse da Yaar na vichre” and memorable performance by Nabeel’s going to be fiancé’ (she was a relatively unknown actress) just transpires this play to another level. Nayyer ejaz as a villain was again quite superb and unique. Stylish, classic and always on top of his game. The wrap up of the drama was a bit filmy but again you have to give the writer the margin that despite falling to a “happy ending”. He actually went for a far more realistic and dramatic ending. I still remember the last scene when the newly joined ASP stands in front of Quaid e Azam’s portrait. It was such a message of hope.

All in all, it was majestic production with excellent script brilliant execution and wonderful acting. Congratulations Asher you only made one production but it was well worth a life time of work.