Every time an incident occurs, there is something hot in the news or we have a festival nearing, we think of bringing you the young guns, young celebs or our star writers, with their perspective and outlook towards it. This time around, we thought of doing the same when we realised there are people our emerging youth should know about, although we are sure some of you can already relate to them. Yes, we are talking about our television legends. Most of us have grown up watching them and getting inspired from them. These are the people who made Pakistani television what it is today; hence, their contribution to our society is immeasurable. Due to the limited space, Us brings you just some of the icons who are sharing their experiences and sentiments regarding Eid…

1        What is Eid for you?

2        What is the difference between Eid of today and Eid of yesteryears?

3        Your favourite Eid play till date?

4        How different do you think are the Eid plays now in terms of concepts or direction?

5        What is that one thing we should do on Eid?

6        What is that one thing we should not do on Eid?

7        Your favourite actor/director or writer for Eid plays?

          Anwar Maqsood

1- Eid, now, is a holiday. People have started taking it is as their day off and that’s it.

2- When I was a kid, I used to keep my clothes, shoes, socks beside my bed. We used to wake up early in the morning, get dressed and the first thing we did was to go to our elders and say salaam to them. Now, the kids don’t even go to their elders for the Eid salaam. They just sit in front of the TV, or sleep the day off.

Oh! Now look at our television channels. Ramazan is the month of love, forgiveness and piety and all we see on TV are comedy shows. The sanctity of the month has been commercialised and because of this they have even killed our excitement for Eid.

3- Siyaasi Eid, which was aired two years ago.

4- The difference is that the woman who is on one channel wearing a pink gharara is on another channel wearing a green one and on the third channel in a blue gharara. That’s the only difference; the rest is pretty much the same.

5- Remember the ones who are not with us anymore. Meet new people with love and respect. Accept and follow the orders of Supreme Court.

6- Don’t lie to people.

7- Manto.

Bushra Ansari

1- Eid is my children and grandchildren, now. It’s about being with my family, surrounded by my grandchildren.

2- With changing times, the concept of Eid has changed too. When we were young, people were simple, social interactions were easier, people were less formal. Now, you have to take appointment to meet your relatives because of the time and commitments of everyone. Sure, the social economic pressures on society have taken its toll in many ways on us.

3- Meethi Meethi Baatein. I wrote that play and Sahira Kazmi directed it.

4- Since our routines have changed, the plays on TV have changed too; their jokes have changed, the situations have changed, etc. In the past, the jokes were simple; they were about Eid cards, about relatives who give less eidi, and the sweet traditions that were targeted in a light humorous way. Things have been commercialised now, so the plots and performances have taken a slight shift, too.

5- Help others. Things have changed a lot over the years. In today’s time, it has actually become difficult for the people to even breathe. The distribution of money is so uneven that it has become scary. It’s ironic to see people spend thousands of money in one go when that much is a month’s earning for someone else. It hurts me; I don’t buy expensive stuff even when I can afford because at the end of the day it’s not really worth it. So a lot is needed to be done and we need to do it ... Now!

6- Again ... be practical while you are preparing for Eid. I understand new clothes, henna and choorian are a must but you can seriously be happy about Eid by having just one dress and spending the rest of the budget on the ones who can’t even make that one new dress. It sure gives much more happiness and satisfaction. Simplicity and practicality are the keywords ... so keep that in mind.

7- A lot of them. I can’t pin point one or two. I mean Faisal Qureshi is an amazing actor and so is Fahad Mustafa, then I really like Fawad Khan too. So, you see, there is a long list of great actors, directors and writers and I can’t pick one over the other.

Arshad Mahmood

1- It’s a very private family affair for me. I want to spend it with my close family and friends.

2- It’s the same in my family. I haven’t deviated from the traditions and have made my children follow what I use to follow when I was young. The reverence and sanctity of Eid hasn’t changed a bit in my family.

3- There was one play by Hasina Moin in which Shafi Mohammad and I played the main lead, but I am forgetting the name. Then, there was another one written by Bushra Ansari and directed by Iqbal Ansari – Waada Karo Sajna. In this play I played the lead along with Bushra. The play was about an old couple who started being romantic once again after their kids were grown up and married just to add excitement in their otherwise mundane lives. It was an extremely fun play to do and watch later.

4- I don’t think much has changed over the years. Honestly speaking, I don’t watch Eid plays anymore so I can’t really comment on it but since there is too much work going on and we get to see so many plays each year, I am sure quality stuff is being aired that has kept the audiences hooked to their television screens.

5- Be happy, and by that I mean genuinely happy!

6- Be annoyed or angry.

7- Ah! Please, don’t make me take names; I don’t want my dear friends to turn against me. There are so many of them that I can’t fit all of them in the limited space I have, so I better not start the list I won’t be able to finish.

Badar Khalil

1- As much as I would like to sleep on Eid, I don’t do that. I go to my brother’s place the first day as he holds a luncheon for the whole family. Then in the evening I meet my son’s in-laws. It’s pretty much spent with family and close relatives.

2- There is so much difference in the way we celebrate Eid now. I remember in my childhood, all my cousins used to get together so that we could all get our hands decorated with mehndi together at home. Our mothers or other elders used to put mehndi on our hands at home and then we used to compare our mehndis. Then, on chaand raat we all used to go buy bangles for our new dresses. It used to be so exciting, genuinely exciting. Now, people are less enthusiastic about Eid and think it is about shopping from one mall to another. The true spirit of the festival is lost somewhere. I am sure there must be families who follow the traditional Eid rituals and adaab but generally, it has become quite materialistic. I still try to make Eid as festive as possible, so that my grandchildren know how important it is for us. 

3- Oh! I have done so many Eid plays till date that I have lost count. I have even lost track of them. At the moment I can’t even think of even one of the interesting plays I have done. There was this Ramazan special serial Roza Kay Rozay that I did but apart from that I can’t remember any specific play.

4- I don’t see much difference. We have the same sort of plays. But there is one thing I would like to mention here ... Eid plays are not just about meeting people, chaand raat and big shopping malls, but should be about how middle class people celebrate Eid; how they renovate their homes within a small household budget and how they keep up with the traditions. It’s about spending time with your loved ones - not hopping from shopping centres to malls and vice versa.

5- Meet everyone. I call all my friends and relatives on Eid to wish them irrespective of the fact that he/she is younger than me. I don’t believe in the sms culture that type one message and forward it to all. It doesn’t show that you actually care, so I take out time and call each and every one of my relatives. That’s what you should do, too.

6- We shouldn’t breed animosity towards anyone. Forget the past differences and start afresh.  

7- I really used to enjoy Athar Shah Khan’s Jaidi and Hasina Moin’s plays but having said that I would also like to say that there are no favourites in the industry. The one who is doing well in a particular show is the favourite for the time. I wouldn’t do injustice by naming a couple and leaving the rest of the talented people out there. 

- F.Zee