‘Udaari’ is a Punjabi word meaning, ‘to fly’. A drama series on your TV screens these days, by the same name, is flying right into our hearts, too. Not because it has those exotic sets, colorful clothes and a kick-ass cast of beautiful actors(well, it has those too) but because it is so much more than just what meets the eye.
Here’s why you need to be watching Udaari, if you aren’t already:
It tackles the stigma against a maraasi beautifully
It started off as a depiction of a village life in Pakistan, how nicely all neighbors are to one another and surprisingly, how they actually respect those we loathe – maraasi. These people are trying their best to stay alive, physically and emotionally, through the spirit of folk music.
While culturally, in Pakistan, there is a general perception that unless, you make it big and get featured on Coke Studio, you are but a lowly maraasi. This show tries to depict the hard work these talented people put in to meet their daily requirements such as food and shelter.
The concept ‘achay ghar ke laug’ is taken head on
What is an achay ghar ke laug anyway? Does anyone thing they aren’t from an acha ghar?
There is a raw image of class division shown in Udaari. There is a girl belonging to a maraasi family who is in love with a guy of a a somewhat comfortable economic background. There is also a middle-class girl struggling to make it big in the music industry just as her friends who are from the so-called elite class.
These are all the issues that plague a younger audience – building relationships in a very classist Pakistani society and trying to make it big in your chosen profession. And this is why it is a show that matters more than one where your ex husband’s wife’s cousin has fallen in love with the pupho of the girl he saw one day in school but that pupho is also married to the father of the sister-in-law’s chachu of that guy.
If you’re looking for the big and beautiful names, you’ve got them in this show
Bushra Ansari, Samiya Mumtaz, Rehan Sheikh, Ahsan Khan and the singer-turned actor Farhan Saeed, all have done a nice job. Also, Farhan’s real-life lady-love Urwa Hocane(the name will crack us up every single time) is playing the lead role.
It is written by Farhat Ishtiaq, best known for the iconic TV shows Humsafar and Diyar-e-dil. She clearly knows how to prove each character’s worth by giving them equal importance with tiny details. It is co-produced by Momina Duraid of HUM TV, The Kashf Foundation and the Canadian Government.
Ahsan Khan is giving the performance of a lifetime
Ahsan Khan, the lad we’ve all come to know for his innocent, good looks and those creepy-yet-strange-yet-equally-mesmerizing eyes, is shown as a widower who gets married to his friend’s widowed wife. In first couple of episodes he was seen as a nice guy who has come from Dubai and stands out in the uneducated crowd of the village but later on his true colors are revealed. Not to spoil the plot for anyone but he behaves rather inappropriately with his step daughter.
And what a fabulous performance, so believable that you’ll want to hate the man’s guts.
You will love the music
The music has become a very important element of every Pakistani drama, post the much celebrated Woh Humsafar Tha OST sung by QB. In Udaari you get a wide variety of music to listen to. One the one hand you can see Farhan Saeed and his band (that’s a plot line, folks) performing some classic songs way back from the 90’s to take you on a nostalgic journey, and on the other hand, you have Bushra Ansari singing folk songs in Punjabi.
The show is educating everyone in Pakistan
We need to raise issues like the one’s depicted in the TV show because child abuse is not something to be kept hidden. Unless you talk about it with them, you can’t save your children from it.
These are our children, our future, we can not simply let them get ruined. Don’t switch the channel just because you feel uncomfortable watching a sensitive scene with your family around. Trust me, it is much better than watching a guy going crazy over a married woman he was in love with before he ended up with crores from a dying uncle.
We are living in a country where around 3,508 cases(and the number of children per case is much more than just 1 child) of child abuse have been reported in one year alone. Is this the “bright future” we all want for our children?
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