Today, while I was working on something totally unrelated and far removed from the drama world, my mind wandered and I ended up somehow thinking about Humsafar and it occured to me that it had been about forty days since it had ended, a kind of a chaleesvaan, if you will. So, as they say rasm-e duniya bhi hai, mauqa bhi hai, dastoor bhi hai … let’s reminisce … lets muse over why we continue to miss Humsafar. Why is it that most of have watched the serial more than once in its entirety? Why are Ashar and Khirad still as dear, and just as real to us as our family members? Why do we invariably end up comparing almost all new dramas to this dearly departed serial? Why is it that every time Faraz posts his weekly comment on the Humsafar thread, it becomes the hottest thread for the next couple of days… why, why, why Humsafar?
Needless to say I cannot answer any of the questions above – these are not the kinds of questions that can be addressed by either logic or rationale. Rather, the answers are unquantifiable, related to that something extra, something indefinable, which elevates something mundane and ordinary to a whole other realm. Yes, we all know the story was, in the memorable words of a beloved Walt Disney character, a tale as old as time/a song as old as rhyme. The formulaic love triangle, with a conniving mother-in-law thrown in for good measure, has been done to death before. Nonetheless, Farhat Ishtiaq’s superb weaving of the Ashar-Khirad-Sarah-Fareeda-Baseerat-Khizar saga still managed to mesmerize a jaded audience. We fell for the purity of the emotion – Ashar’s passion and pain; Khirad’s naïveté and strength; Sarah’s love and despair; and Fareeda’s manipulation and retribution. We felt every nuance of their emotional graph, and the credit for making the audience empathize with every character belongs to Sarmad Khoosat. His keen understanding of human psychology coupled with his aesthetic sensibility made for a winning combination. Shehzad Kashmiri’s excellent cinematography, Quratulain Baloch’s haunting rendition of the OST, and excellent editing by Kashif Ahmed and his team, breathed life into Sarmad’s cinematic vision, making the screenplay come alive and take on a life all its own.
Beautifully written and brilliantly translated as it was on to the screen, none of it would have worked if it wasn’t for the superb acting by the whole cast and the explosive chemistry between the Fawad-Mahira-Navin triumvirate. While we applauded their acting, and talked about the chemistry while the serial was on air, I don’t think we fully realized the potency of their lethal combination. The heat generated by this triad made us overlook so many of the fault lines in this wafer-thin story. Even as socio-cultural stereotypes were being reinforced, we willed ourselves into ignoring the obvious incongruities: Ashar, a foreign-educated, successful businessman easily gives into his father’s emotional blackmail; the ladies in the family have planned his marriage but he remains blissfully ignorant; he is easily led astray by his mother’s nefarious plans; and even in this day and age, Khirad is unable to communicate with Ashar and tell him her side of the story. I could go on and on, but I think we are well aware of these shortcomings. Moreover, while we criticize the excessive smoking and inappropriate language shown on TV these days, we were treated to a healthy dose of these here as well – Ashar smoked liked a chimney, and slurs like begahairat, behaya, besharam, and kamina were repeated ad nauseam. Though we complained about these issues then too, the overall impact was such that these appeared to be minor grievances. Simply put, we bought the whole package. Brilliantly executed as it was by Momina Duraid, Sarmad Khoosat, Farhat Ishtiaq, Fawad Khan, Mahira Khan, Navin Waqar, Atiqa Odho, Behroze Sabzwari, Hina Bayat, and the rest of the cast and crew, we fell for Humsafar hook, line, and sinker. Way to go guys!
While I am not one to look back and say the best is behind us, I will confess to being just a tad bit sentimental about Humsafar. Almost certainly there will be another stellar romance soon on our TV screens, but it will have to be something beyond special to fill the void left by Humsafar.
Written by SZ
