The season seems to be of Zeinas (Xenia) and I don’t mean the flower in the literal sense – or it can be if our female names can be Nargis, Chambaeli, or Gulabo. The name Xenia is given to a many petaled, mauve coloured flower. The word Xenia (Greek, means hospitality, courtesy, affection and warmth etc. shown to guests from far away. A beautiful host-guest relationship. Can be written with a ‘Z’ or ‘X’ as ‘X’ stands for ‘S’ as in saviour, Xavier or ‘CH’ as in Christmas (Xmas). So as I was saying, it seems to be the season for Xenias or Zenias on our TV channels. Since only a few channels have lawns and gardens the rest are planting Zenias on the telescreen in form of the female human species which, being the sanf-e-nazuk, is conveniently comparable to the equally beautiful flower, wujood-e-zan sae hai tasweer-e-kainat main rung. Zan (woman) and Zenia (the flower) – though the Urdu word phool is much sweeter and descriptive. So talking about flowers in Telemix makes any sense or does it sound ‘Greek’ to you too’? Why this apparent irrelevant thought process? And you know by now that I am one given to apparently irrelevant thought processes which ultimately lead to relevance. And in this case the relevant fact is that two of our current drama serials namely Barish Kay Ansoo and Malal have two women named Zenia and now our state owned channel (government not to be left behind) is very shortly coming with another Zenia in its coming to-be-launched drama serial Baar. So much for Zenias. To avoid confusion in the storyline and relationships, as I am a typical drama viewer – I’d rather be planting the Zenia flower and watch it grow single-mindedly. TelemixThe new serial to be dished out from last week of October is titled Baar (the hedge) – again horticulture! Hafeez Ahmed, an industrialist and his wife Saira, a beautiful and loving personality have two young offspring, Eeman and her elder brother Shehryar. Hafeez Ahmed and his wife have also brought up – and here comes – Zenia – and Tahir, the children of Hafeez Ahmed’s dead brother. Zenia is already engaged to their son Shehryar. Her brother expects to marry Eeman but Eeman has a soft and loving corner in her heart for Ali. Ali is the son of Nadira – not NADRA, widow of Imtiaz Ahmed, a retired bureaucrat who left behind considerable lands and properties (naturally) and is a Masters in Fine Arts, having many painting exhibitions to his credit. His sister Rubab (now a musical instrument) wants to go for a job after her MBA but her mother Nadira wants her to get married. Tahir not liking Eeman’s inclination towards Ali, plans to eliminate him. He (Tahir) plans a shikaar party in Bahawalnagar near the Indian border. As planned, during the shikaar dacoits attack them with the intention of killing Ali. Ali is wounded and trying to escape, crosses the border and enters India where he is caught by the Border Security Force. Tahir comes back to tell everyone that Ali is dead and succeeds in marrying Eeman. In the meantime, Ali is tortured physically on a typical Indian allegation of being a Pakistani jasoos. A psychiatrist of their intelligence agency takes Ali in hand trying to coax him into working for them, as being a landscape artist, he can sketch locations of vital and strategic importance for their agency. Ali being mentally and physically strong does not break and ultimately escapes and comes back to Pakistan. From here onwards there are many twists and turns that the viewer will get to know on a weekly basis. This serial has been penned by Azmi Ali Khan and Kazim Pasha has directed it. The cast includes Imran Abbas, Savera, Naheed Shabbir, Saba Faisal, Qazi Wajid, Mira Khan etc. Another play which is on air these days on Geo TV is a social family soap titled Kahe Ko Biahi Bedas. A young, good looking and intelligent girl Mehru wants to go for higher studies but her family wants her to get married – a typical tend in our society. She secures first position within her division. In this family tussle, her aunt comes to her aid and brings her to the city so that she can achieve her ambition. She helps her out in getting an admission in a university. After initial problems of so different natures with her aunts family and fellow students she befriends Fatima whose mother Salma is a politician. Not welcoming Mehru at her home, Salma creates problems and stress for her which she is not capable of dealing with. By accident, a workshop owner Wajahat gets close to Mehru and they tie the knot. This character, Seth Wajahat, is an extremely jealous chauvinist husband. Mehru’s cousin Saleem being always interested in her and wanting very hard to impress the girl, takes the undesired direction and becomes a pawn of low class to Salma’s high level politics. The events take a turn – Saleem kills Wajahat and makes off to save himself. Meanwhile, Mehru is accused of killing her own husband and is sent to serve a sentence. What these complexities and turbulations hold in store for her will be unfolding weekly with the airing of this dramatic presentation. The production mix consists of Beenish Chouhan, Suhail Asghar, Parveen Akber, Shehzad Reza, Naeema Garaj, Shabbir Jan, Rubina Ashraf, Ahsan Khan, Kanwal and others as players of Ghazala Naqvi’s story working under the direction of Siraj ul Haq.The season seems to be of Zeinas (Xenia) and I don’t mean the flower in the literal sense – or it can be if our female names can be Nargis, Chambaeli, or Gulabo. The name Xenia is given to a many petaled, mauve coloured flower. The word Xenia (Greek, means hospitality, courtesy, affection and warmth etc. shown to guests from far away. A beautiful host-guest relationship. Can be written with a ‘Z’ or ‘X’ as ‘X’ stands for ‘S’ as in saviour, Xavier or ‘CH’ as in Christmas (Xmas). So as I was saying, it seems to be the season for Xenias or Zenias on our TV channels. Since only a few channels have lawns and gardens the rest are planting Zenias on the telescreen in form of the female human species which, being the sanf-e-nazuk, is conveniently comparable to the equally beautiful flower, wujood-e-zan sae hai tasweer-e-kainat main rung. Zan (woman) and Zenia (the flower) – though the Urdu word phool is much sweeter and descriptive. So talking about flowers in Telemix makes any sense or does it sound ‘Greek’ to you too’? Why this apparent irrelevant thought process? And you know by now that I am one given to apparently irrelevant thought processes which ultimately lead to relevance. And in this case the relevant fact is that two of our current drama serials namely Barish Kay Ansoo and Malal have two women named Zenia and now our state owned channel (government not to be left behind) is very shortly coming with another Zenia in its coming to-be-launched drama serial Baar. So much for Zenias. To avoid confusion in the storyline and relationships, as I am a typical drama viewer – I’d rather be planting the Zenia flower and watch it grow single-mindedly. TelemixThe new serial to be dished out from last week of October is titled Baar (the hedge) – again horticulture! Hafeez Ahmed, an industrialist and his wife Saira, a beautiful and loving personality have two young offspring, Eeman and her elder brother Shehryar. Hafeez Ahmed and his wife have also brought up – and here comes – Zenia – and Tahir, the children of Hafeez Ahmed’s dead brother. Zenia is already engaged to their son Shehryar. Her brother expects to marry Eeman but Eeman has a soft and loving corner in her heart for Ali. Ali is the son of Nadira – not NADRA, widow of Imtiaz Ahmed, a retired bureaucrat who left behind considerable lands and properties (naturally) and is a Masters in Fine Arts, having many painting exhibitions to his credit. His sister Rubab (now a musical instrument) wants to go for a job after her MBA but her mother Nadira wants her to get married. Tahir not liking Eeman’s inclination towards Ali, plans to eliminate him. He (Tahir) plans a shikaar party in Bahawalnagar near the Indian border. As planned, during the shikaar dacoits attack them with the intention of killing Ali. Ali is wounded and trying to escape, crosses the border and enters India where he is caught by the Border Security Force. Tahir comes back to tell everyone that Ali is dead and succeeds in marrying Eeman. In the meantime, Ali is tortured physically on a typical Indian allegation of being a Pakistani jasoos. A psychiatrist of their intelligence agency takes Ali in hand trying to coax him into working for them, as being a landscape artist, he can sketch locations of vital and strategic importance for their agency. Ali being mentally and physically strong does not break and ultimately escapes and comes back to Pakistan. From here onwards there are many twists and turns that the viewer will get to know on a weekly basis. This serial has been penned by Azmi Ali Khan and Kazim Pasha has directed it. The cast includes Imran Abbas, Savera, Naheed Shabbir, Saba Faisal, Qazi Wajid, Mira Khan etc. Another play which is on air these days on Geo TV is a social family soap titled Kahe Ko Biahi Bedas. A young, good looking and intelligent girl Mehru wants to go for higher studies but her family wants her to get married – a typical tend in our society. She secures first position within her division. In this family tussle, her aunt comes to her aid and brings her to the city so that she can achieve her ambition. She helps her out in getting an admission in a university. After initial problems of so different natures with her aunts family and fellow students she befriends Fatima whose mother Salma is a politician. Not welcoming Mehru at her home, Salma creates problems and stress for her which she is not capable of dealing with. By accident, a workshop owner Wajahat gets close to Mehru and they tie the knot. This character, Seth Wajahat, is an extremely jealous chauvinist husband. Mehru’s cousin Saleem being always interested in her and wanting very hard to impress the girl, takes the undesired direction and becomes a pawn of low class to Salma’s high level politics. The events take a turn – Saleem kills Wajahat and makes off to save himself. Meanwhile, Mehru is accused of killing her own husband and is sent to serve a sentence. What these complexities and turbulations hold in store for her will be unfolding weekly with the airing of this dramatic presentation. The production mix consists of Beenish Chouhan, Suhail Asghar, Parveen Akber, Shehzad Reza, Naeema Garaj, Shabbir Jan, Rubina Ashraf, Ahsan Khan, Kanwal and others as players of Ghazala Naqvi’s story working under the direction of Siraj ul Haq.
