Ankahi

• Major spoilers ahead

The renowned Pakistani playwright Haseena Moin passed away earlier this year. While she had a vast body of work (television serials, telefilms and movies) spanning over five decades, from the 1970’s to the 2010’s, she is perhaps best known for the much loved domestic dramas she penned in the 1980’s: Ankahi (1982), Tanhaiyan (1986) and Dhoop Kinaare (1987). All three of these dramas/serials share certain common themes and features: endearing characters, abundant humour, and high-spirited, gutsy heroines. The last point is probably the most commonly remarked upon aspect of these dramas, and seems like a clichéd point to make, with me mandatorily adverting to the fact the dramas appropriately contained “strong” female protagonists (tick). However, Moin’s heroines were never contrived creations, or caricatures of independent women. (1) They were very real: aspiring, warm-hearted, fumbling along and learning from their mistakes. You thought of them as individuals and not archetypes. They struck a chord with audiences and were immensely popular among both men and women: I was reading somewhere that after ‘Ankahi’ was televised in 1982 ‘Sana’ (the name of the show’s heroine) became the most, or one of the most popular girl’s name’s in Pakistan. Today’s post is a celebration of my favourite Haseena Moin serial ‘Ankahi’, and its hero’s as well as its heroines. Before discussing some of my favourite scenes, a broad outline of the serial is provided for those who have not seen ‘Ankahi’.

‘Ankahi’ is at core about the Murad family: Sana, her precocious younger brother Gibran (who suffers from a hole in his heart), their mother, their hilarious Mamu (maternal uncle) and nieghbour Timmy (Tameezuddin). The family live in what can be described as ‘genteel poverty’ after the early death of Sana’s father. Sana is unhappy about their straitened means and continually compares her situation with that of her affluent friend Sara. She is keen to supplement the family income and through the intervention of Siddiqi Sahab (who feels sorry for her and sees flashes of his own daughter Abeer within her) lands a job as secretary to Taimoor, the Managing Director of a large company. Taimoor is wealthy, considerably older than Sana and seems very distinguished to her. Though their early interactions are comedic and largely consist of him scolding her for her blunders, Sana acquires a respect for her boss and slowly falls for him.

At the same time Faraz, the friend of Sara’s fiancé Sajjad runs into Sana and falls in love with her. He is drawn to her vivaciousness and persists in wooing her despite her rather obvious disinterest. Sana’s family own some land and get by through rents made by their tenants. One such tenant is Fazledeen whose daughter Maryam is engaged to be married to her step-cousin and village thug Majeede. Through some hilarious maneuvering Mamu rescues her from the situation, and she comes to join the Murad household. Later additions to the family are Sana’s wealthy aunt and cousin Moby from America. A second love triangle springs up as a rivalry between Timmy and Moby emerges for the attentions of Maryam.

Faraz

Faraz (Javed Sheikh) is probably the least liked hero of any Haseena Moin drama. He persists in trying to win over Sana despite her indifference to him. He’s witty, charming and something of a flirt but Sana is completely impervious to his charm. To her, he lacks the gravitas her boss Taimoor possesses, and for much of the serial she regards him as little more than a minor irritant. He gets a job in the same company as Sana so that he can be near her, and in the course of the serial makes at least four marriage proposals to her (three directly and one through her family). Going by views expressed on the internet, Sana’s perception of him as annoying largely seems to be echoed by audiences. I’ve seen ‘Ankahi’ many times since childhood, and the adults in my own family considered Faraz marginally better than Taimoor but could barely stand him. Today, it would be easy to glibly dismiss him as a stalker due to his persistent persual of Sana in the face of her repeated rejections. Yet, as an adult my perception of Faraz dramatically shifted. His breeziness of manner and appearance of levity served as fronts for the deeply held feelings he harboured for Sana. Despite his seeming flippancy, he was actually dead sincere in his affection for her, and genuinely wanted the best for her in every aspect of her life. Take this scene where Faraz first proposes to Sana. His avowal of love is the last thing she wants to hear, and she rebuffs him by completely ignoring him. Dismayed, but in order to save face Faraz seeks her out at work a couple of days later, and convinces her that the whole thing had been a joke. She leaves the room feeling relieved, and after she has left the camera turns to his unhappy face as he reflects on where he actually stands with her.

Another scene near the end of the serial that I really like is Faraz’s final marriage proposal to Sana in the course of Maryam’s Mehendi. Sana is still very much averse to the idea and acts as though she is doing him a huge favour by deigning to consider his proposal. The conversation proceeds as follows:

Sana: Mehendi ki rasam hone wali hai, log humme dhund rahe honge
Sana: The henna ceremony is about to start, people will be looking for us.
Faraz : Aap ka waqai dil chahra hai us shor aur ghul me jaane ke liye?
Faraz: Do you really wish to go in there, where there’s so much noise and commotion?
Sana: Baaz dafa bahot si baatein dil na chahte hue bhi karni parti hain, doosro ke liye
Sana: Sometimes one has to do things against one’s own wishes, in order to please others.
Faraz: Baat suniye, jab kisi ki khatir kuch kiya kare, toh dil ko manaa liya Karen. Jab maanjaye tab kiya kijiye, warna inkaar kar dijiye, kyunki is tarah bheek de ke aap doosron ki bhi tauheen kerengi aur apni bhi.
Faraz: Next time you do something for someone else, persuade your heart first. If your heart agrees, only then go ahead. Otherwise say no. By dispensing charity you will end up insulting others and yourself.

The whole scene can be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2CBEfUpais

It takes place at the beginning of the episode.

Timmy

Timmy (Jamshed Ansari) is the Murad family’s long-standing nieghbour and loyal friend. He has been with them through turbulent times, and even pretends to be the family butler when Aunty from America arrives. When Maryam comes from her village and joins the household Timmy takes on the task of being her tutor. While he has never expressed his feelings to her, he loves Maryam and has his heart set on marrying her. His rival Moby is also determined to marry Maryam and the two have a heated exchange on the matter. Timmy asserts that Maryam comes from a background similar to his own and will be happy living with him. He states that her current surroundings (Aunty’s mansion where the family now live) are alien to her and that she will never find lasting contentment with Moby. She will always be ill at ease and something of an outsider. These are the very things that have made her happy, Moby shoots back. She lives in a beautiful home, rides in a fancy car, is well dressed and moves in society. Timmy is utterly incredulous on hearing this, and says with a scoff ‘Kya tumhaara matlab hai ki Maryam in cheezon ki wajah se khush hai?/ Do you mean to say that it is these things that have made Maryam happy?’. Yet, Moby’s words have planted doubt in his heart and he goes on to speak to Maryam in order to gauge her feelings.

This scene can be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFhaL861W4I

(at 40 mins)

Sana

While ‘Ankahi’ is a dynamic character driven drama bursting with action, it also simultaneously contains numerous ‘slice of life’ vignettes, or episodes which truthfully reflect common everyday experiences: E.g. That of starting the day in a wonderful mood, perhaps anticipating something good and then things turning awry, or the reverse; expecting little and something positive happening (even something as little as a smile or a gesture which has the effect of transforming the day). Sana (Shehnaz Shiekh) experiences something of this nature. An incident has occurred earlier that week which makes her feel that Taimoor (Shakeel) has some protective instinct towards her, and she is exuberant. She wakes up in the morning feeling buoyant, gets out a brightly coloured green shalwar kameez which reflects her state of mind, and capers about in the garden with Gibran, before arriving at work with a bunch of flowers which she places on her bosses table. That same morning it turns out that she has misplaced an important file, and is thoroughly rebuked by Taimoor (being absent-minded this is a quite common occurrence for her at work). But her heart sinks when she overhears Taimoor mention to Faraz that he was compelled to appoint her to the position because of Mr. Siddiqi, a senior direction/owner of the company (who is unbeknownst to everyone is also Taimoor’s father-in-law), and considers her entirely unsuitable for the role. Pacing near the garden that evening, she reflects on what she has heard.

The scene can be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsXm3yZ4dh0

(At 2 mins)

Sana’s arc is that of a happy-go-lucky girl who, through her love for Taimoor, becomes a much more serious young woman by the end of the drama. The earlier Sana is ambitious, rocks up for her job interview (despite the expressed skepticism of her family members as to the likelihood of her getting the job) and is confident of landing the role even after she has completely bungled the interview. She’s rarely disheartened by her boss’s crustiness, takes criticism at work in her stride and even manages fight her own corner when she feels she’s being put-upon. She is also intrepid, and persuades Mamu that they have a duty to save Maryam. It is through her initiative that Maryam is able to get away from her unhappy home life (where she is oppressed by her step-mother and step relations) and find a new family. Sana is caring towards her own family, and is particularly protective of her younger brother Gibran. It was all of these qualities that endeared her to audiences, and made her the namesake of many Pakistani girls born in the 1980’s.

After Sana belatedly finds out about the existence of Taimoor’s wife Abeer (who has been in a state of coma for several years) her response is one of despair for herself and pity for both Taimoor and his wife. Sana is increasingly sinking into her own shell, and Timmy upbraids her for what he perceives as her increasing self-absorption and disconnect from her family.

This scene can be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTSu0odSbcY

(At 9.35 mins)

The Comedy

All of the scenes rendered above may have given the impression that ‘Ankahi’ is a very serious, emotionally fraught drama. While there are several moving scenes, Ankahi’s main attraction is that it is actually a lot of fun. I’ve focused on more serious aspects of the drama in this piece, but much of the show’s charm ensues from the humorous situations the characters find themselves in and the witty exchanges that take place between them. The universally loved Mamu (brilliantly played by Saleem Nasir) is a focal point for much of the domestic humour, but Timmy, Moby and Sana are also usually key players in the creation of some wonderful comedy. Much of the serial (running for a total of almost twenty episodes) is actually very light-hearted in tone, and features an abundance of comedic scenes encompassing e.g. the rescue of Maryam, Sana’s antics at work, the arrival of Aunty and Moby, Aunty’s match-making for Mamu and the competition between Timmy and Moby for Maryam’s hand. Ankahi’s heart-warming humour is also what makes it great family viewing.

Criticisms

One criticism that can be leveled against Haseena Moin is that her serials are pretty classist in nature. ‘Classist’ not in the sense that most of her characters are usually middle class, with a few rich characters and a few poor characters thrown in, but that the serials generally exhibit a patronising attitude towards lower-class people. The peons such as ‘Latif’ who work in Sana’s office, and characters like Fazledeen who is a farmer, are all considerably older than Sana but are addressed by her with ‘tum’ rather than ‘aap’. In this it’s likely that Moin was simply reflecting South Asian culture/society of which she herself is a product and which is generally extremely classist (in both obvious and subtle ways). At least in ‘Ankahi’ there are characters like Maryam, who genuinely becomes part of the family and who is cared for and treated like an equal. I would say the classism is more pronounced in the serial ‘Dhoop Kinare’ where e.g. a ‘comedic character’ ‘Dr. Irfan’ makes light of the one of hospital cleaners beating up his wife (a very uncharacteristically distasteful line in a Haseena Moin play). Other criticisms I have are relatively minor in nature. Shehnaz Sheikh’s acting in the first couple of episodes of ‘Ankahi’ is slightly over-the-top, before the directors (Shoaib Mansoor and Mohsin Ali) probably got her to tone it down a little. Moby is far more Haseena Moin’s conception of how an American raised Pakistani would think, talk and behave, than what would be the case in reality. Finally, occasionally (particularly towards the end of the drama) the character’s lines become a little monologue-ish and you feel like you’re listening to a novel, rather than watching a serial.

Overall though, ‘Ankahi’ is a wonderful and very memorable serial. It has provided millions of families (including my own) with hours of shared entertainment and also finer points to reflect on and talk about. It features some brilliant writing, excellent performances and represents Haseena Moin at the apogee of her powers.

(1) Nudrat Kamal, “Musings of a Reader: What happened to Pakistani Television?”, Zau Magazine, August 2015. See: https://nudratkamal.wordpress.com/2015/09/10/musings-of-a-reader-what-happened-to-pakistani-television/#more-183