Pakistani television has seen a gradual decline in the last few decades(though I accept that in last 5-6 years things have been looking better) the thing which has suffered the most is comedy. I worte previously in my post about aangan theraa also that in recent days we see comedy everywhere but the quality is no where to be seen, the flawless knitting and timing of the lines which used to be the trade mark of pakistani television has been replaced by slapstick remarks and ambiguous double meaning Dialogues. Confucius once wrote that” The biggest disease a society suffers i wrong use of the words, when ill deeds are left without criticism and bad craftsmen are heaped with appraisal then the society is on the final stage of its decline”. i never understood this when i read it but now when i see plays like Baarat series and Bilqees Kaur being praised as flawless comedies, have i understood what it meant. any way after this prologue coming to the topic what we have today is one of the classic comedies and the most memorable performance by a true legend of comedy.
A very common disease on pakistan now a days is the plagiarism. This play was also a copy but as a very healthy tradition it was an accredited inspiration from a holly wood flick. Dustin Hoffman is one of my favourite actors and “tootsie” was one of his best performances therefore when this play came on scene and i knew it was inspired from Tootsie i was skeptical to say the least . but now looking back i must say it was truly an inspiration with an entirely different flavour and i enjoyed both master pieces in their own landscape.
the story was very simple. A struggling actor unable to find a chance cloaks himself as a female and lands a major role . but his double identity runs him in to many problems . slowly he begins to enjoy the other gender’s life. things however take a dramtic turn when he falls in love with the female lead of the play but his female version has become best friend of that girl. the final twist in the tale came when the father of the girl falls for rozie and in the end the truth has to be revealed. although it was a classic happy ending where everything sorts itself out .
Moin Akhtar played the lead role and he brought all his majestic acting skills on the screen. specially when he was acting as rozee the character seemed to had a life of his own and i never thought of it as a double role rather i was always thinking of it as a separate entity. his delivery was completely different from that of Hoffman and that was a huge credit. Fazila Qazi played the female lead and was equally superb. full credit goes to the director for choosing her as she was at that time one of the most innocent faces on television screen. a brilliant cameo was played by akbar subhaani who in my opinion was one of the most under rated actors of that era.
The flow of the story was spell binding . the dialogues were superb. the situations were lovely and gave birth to true magical moments. all in all it was one of the most beautiful long plays seen on our TV screens for a long long time
