Pashto Play on Afghan issue ...
By Sher Alam Shinwari
Pashto Play on Afghan issue affecting Pashtuns across Durand line completed
PESHAWAR: A Pashto drama serial highlighting the Afghan issue affecting three successive generations of Pashtuns across the Durand line has been completed recently by a private Art Academy in Peshawar. The 13-episode Pashto drama serial ´Parauo´ (The sojourn ) written by renowned playwright Noor-ul-Bashar Naveed, produced and directed by Ashfaq Toru is based on the Afghan conflict which has cast adverse effects on the lives of Pashtuns living on both sides of the Pak-Afghan border.
Story of the play revolves around a family conflict stretching to three generations, in the first phase Zar Mohammad Khan a landlord family head is father of two sons, one of them gets married to an Afghan girl without consent of his father, his son-in law kills his sister and her husband leaving behind two orphan kids who are brought up at Zarbagh family. The kids are also under threat of being killed by his maternal uncle.
Zar Muhammad Khan is a stubborn tribal lord who sways his family , his grandson though an educated youth joins a militant organization , carrying out militant activities both in Afghanistan and Pakistan but reverts to normal life after he comes to know about the real underworld of the militants. One of the sons of Zar Muhammad Khan becomes Political Agent of a tribal Agency and develops love affairs with a refugee Afghan singer.
Thus the sour relations between a migrated Afghan family and Zarbagh a Pakistani family ends up with marriage of the Afghan singer and Pakistani bureaucrat. The basic theme of the story is that earlier generations could not understand the reality of situation but the young generation fully comprehended the matter and preferred to resolve deadly issues through love and peaceful coexistence which believes in no geographical boundaries, race or colour. The cast of the play include seasoned actors -Fazle Rahman, Shazma Haleem, Sultan Hussain, Tauheedullah Qureshi, Nisar Adil, Fauzia Javed, Zahoor Jan and Afsar Jan. Most shots have been taken in locations of Afghanistan, parts of Fata, Peshawar, Mardan and outskirts of Akora Khattak to give the play a real touch.
Each episode runs for 50 minutes engaging attention of the viewers with its powerful dialogue delivery, beautiful camera work and excellent performance. Ashfaq Turo producer of the play told KWN that he had received offers from private channels both in Afghanistan and Pakistan but he would like PTV to sponsor it because he had used PTV talent and even playwright Noor-ul- Bashar Naveed who had been writing plays on various social themes for PTV for the last so many years and also the play being reformative would cast very positive impact on the youth.
He said he had written a letter to the Fata secretariat in this regard from where he expected a positive response but appealed to Governor Khyber Pakhtnkhwa Owias Ahmed Ghani to support the project. ´´I want this special play to be run on PTV for its wider positive impact, secondly Cable network facility is not available in far -flung areas and my real target is the rural population especially tribal belt where awareness is must among its people to avoid militancy and extremism,´´ Ashfaq observed. ´´This huge project took me six months to complete and I faced many hardships in approaching original sites where I needed to carry out shots.
The most heart rending scene was the one when the play writer asked me to produce a small kid to be shown as dead. No parent was ready to offer their child for the scene. I had to cast my own son little Talha , striped off his clothes , clad him in white shroud, tucked cotton puffs in his nostrils and laid him down a wooden plank meant for dead. For a while I remained stunned but had to take the tragic shot. Scenes like this bring one to stark reality of life. Viewers would experience such emotional shots in the play,´´ Ashfaq concluded.
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