There are two opinions on Sheher e Zaat, the first held by myself and I think the majority, is that this a very special drama that has helped us analyze and dare I say improve our lives in a very spiritual sense.The other minority opinion is that this is another crude attempt at forcing more conservative religious views on an already weary public. The majority opinion is found among regular viewers and The minority opinion held by those who watched in passing .However I come to bury Caesar not to praise him,so let us not quibble over who has the moral high ground. Let us think of it for a moment in a purely commercial sense. Such a highly successful series deserved a congratulatory salute at its end and HumTv decided to hold their equivalent of a parade this Friday. When you connect with a drama serial as a lot of people have with SEZ, everything about it is interesting, I wanted to know about the production, the cinematography, the difficulties and the fun the SEZ team had . To a certain extent that was what I got. I loved seeing Mahira, who was her bubbly self and the ever beautiful Samina Peerzada,whose annoying Nanni character had acted as the voice of guidance throughout the serial. It was good to see the other actors such as Mohib Mirza and the producers discussing how they got to make this project. I am not sure that I buy the story that they were not expecting SEZ to be a commercial success, but who knows perhaps they did invest so much money and time purely for the love of Art. Whatever their motivation something good and lasting was created. The writer Umera Ahmed was not seen but I think she may not be one for public appearances but her work was roundly appreciated by all especially the producers. We even got to hear Mikaal Zulfikaar’s disembodied voice from some shoot he was at.
Azfer Rahman was an impressive host, pleasantly asking the right questions and actually listening to the answers. I was more embarrassed than Mahira by the bloopers because there were several heavy dramatic scenes which I cried through which seemed to be pretty light when seen like this. Samina Peerzada revealed that she had done her role in the state of wudu because she had taken this as an act of worship to be accepted by Allah. A beautiful sentiment for sure. Despite these highlights I felt the viewer was cheated. Where was the creative visionary behind SEZ who had breathed life into ink and paper? Where was Sarmad Sultan Khoosat? This “parade” was a far cry from the joyous shout of exhilaration we felt for the Humsafer special. It seemed a little dim and contrived .I had read Sarmads official Face book status that he was disowning any connection to SEZ and thought this might at best a joke or at worst a mistake. I think all the fans of SEZ are sorely disappointed at this situation. SEZ is an interesting, well written story but there are many out there, it takes imagination to translate such a thing to the medium of our screens. I hesitate to print gossip, but it is a fact that Umera ahmad did not like Sarmad’s addition of the dialogue”
The following dialogue in drama serial “Shehr-e-Zaat” was not written by Umera Ahmed. It was added by the director without the consent of writer and the writer have complained against this to the production house.
“Cheezein beyhaya nahi hoti hain un say jo kuch mansoob kiya jata hai wo unhey beyhaya ya baahaya bnata hai. Haya bhi nazar mein hoti hai aur beyhayyai bhi.”
Admins : Umera Ahmed Official
Earlier in the series there had been an incident when a character played by Sarmad had used a Humsafer ring tone in a very self deprecating way, and He had to apologize. We the viewing public has no idea what went on behind the scenes and quite frankly it is none of our business. What is our business is that the person who created this beautiful journey has for some reason distanced himself from it.If we look back on the Humsafer special, Sarmad came across as a humble , generous individual full of praise for others despite being the guiding light for that historically successful serial. Making a judgement would be like shooting in the dark, so I for one am going to wait and see. We all hope that there is a quick and easy resolution to this whole situation. Sez would be nothing without Sarmad and we hope to see him back taking the credit he so richly deserves.
Written by Sadaf~
