Azfar Ali to light up TV screens again

After the successes of “Sab Set Hai”, “Mani Azfar Show” and “Main Aur Tum” Ali Azfar is all set for “Light On Hai”


Rafay Mahmood May 12, 2011

KARACHI:


Comedy is one of the most celebrated assets of Pakistani television. Productions like “Taaleem e Baalighan”, “Alif Noon”, “Uncle Jady”, “50/50”, “Aangan Tera”, “Rozi”  and obviously “Guest House” to name a few, have greatly contributed to PTV’s identity of being the hub of classic entertainment.


However, the first series that defined the pop culture of the early 2000s was none other than “Sab Set Hai”.  Azfar Ali, the creator of the hilarious production is all set to return to comedy with his latest show “Light On Hai”, which goes on air May 14 on PTV Home, Ary Digital and Play TV at 6:30 pm.

Other than “Sab Set Hai”, the late night “Mani Azfar Show” developed a huge following after which Azfar went on to direct one of the most popular situational comedies, “Main Aur Tum”. “Daira” (based on Mohsin Hamid’s novel Moth Smoke), “Jo Baat Ghar Mei Hai” (the first soap opera to be televised on Geo TV) are some of the major landmarks both in his career and  for Pakistani TV. However, his latest ventures before “Light On Hai” included a college love story “Dreamers”, and Pakistan’s first Urdu improvisational comedy troupe Aisa Karogay Tau Kaun Ayega.

Talking to The Express Tribune, the director shared his insight on the present scenario of entertainment in Pakistan and his upcoming show.

“I think innovation is what we lack as an industry in Pakistan, everything is happening between the 7-10 pm time slot. We don’t take our consumer demands — and in turn our time slots — seriously, as responsible entertainment practitioners should,” said Ali.

Ali said that it takes a lot of time for our industry to try something new and a great example of that is the new trend of morning shows.

“It takes us around six years to try something new. The same is the case with morning shows — once some intelligent guy finally introduced it to the audience, the morning time slot from 8-11:30 am became your prime time,” said Ali.

Ali agrees to the notion that nowadays, the news has become the source of entertainment, but feels that this is also dying out gradually. “I totally agree that our masses are suffering from news hysteria and news has become entertainment for them, but then who defines what entertainment is? Entertainment in any form is entertainment, be it a cheesy news report or a comedy performance,” remarked Ali.

Optimistic about the survival of true entertainment, Ali explained: “The entertainment of news is now as significant as that of a one day cricket match. It has no shelf life at all, because so much is happening so quickly. Secondly, we keep on forgetting that our primary market is the women who stay at home and watch soaps.”

A contributor to the entertainment industry for about two decades, Ali always had a special place for comedy and believes comedy hasn’t changed much from the days of “50/50”.

“We are still following the ‘50/50’ format, but the only difference is that the world has turned into a global village. Today people have access to English standup, the Indian laughter challenges and whatever is happening the world over. Hence, what comes through is not a mere comedy of errors but a combination of all the exposure people are getting,” Ali told The Express Tribune.

Ali’s new show is being produced  by  his wife  and TV actor Salma Hasan,  and  is directed by Ali himself, along  with four performers from his original troupe, which includes  Saquib Sumeer, Ali Gul Pir, Minhaaj Ali Askari, and Afraaz Rasool, whereas Imran Ahmed and  Rameez Siddiqui are  the backup performers.

“The theatre troupe was very blatant and outrageous in making political statements and making fun of everything, but after the brand’s involvement in the philosophy of ‘Light On Hai’, we have considered cultural sensitivities,” said Ali.

Azfar left a short teaser for the audience, as he revealed some of the celebrity participants in the show: “Marina Khan, Javed Sheikh, Ali Azmat and Faisal Qureshi will be performing as well. I am sure it won’t be a disappointment.”

Published in The Express Tribune, May 13th, 2011.

COMMENTS (3)

O'comeon! | 12 years ago | Reply @aayan: Dreamers was awesome?? are you serious!?
Aayan | 12 years ago | Reply Just watched the promos... Really looking forward to the show.... Azfar Bhai ab films ki taraf bhi ajaein....I mean direct karein... and yeah his Dreamers was awesome... watched all its episodes and waiting for its second season...
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