It took me almost an hour and ever-escalating Careem’s rent to locate the bungalow in the posh area of Defence Phase 2, where Na Maloom Afrad jodi – Mohsin Abbas Haider and Kubra Khan – was busy recording their scenes for their upcoming drama serial, Muqabil.
Produced by Fahad Mustafa and Ali Kazmi of Big Bang Entertainment, it has been directed by Ali Hassan of Be Aib fame.
Sangaat writer Zafar Mairaj has penned down the script with veteran Asif Raza Mir and Saba Hamid in pivotal roles.
After a hectic chase, when I reached to the venue, the assistant producer immediately took me to the room where Mohsin Abbas Haider was getting ready for the scene.
Wearing denim jeans with an over-sized shirt and rimless glasses on the face, Mohsin was looking a tad different than his late-night satirical show, Mazzak Raat’s persona. We were quick in pointing it out.
“You are absolutely right. there is nothing like Mazzak Raat here,” he said.
For his debut drama serial, Mohsin Abbas opted for a script which was close to his real personality.
“People often consider me as a talkative, sociable and out-going person but I am not like it. I am a little shy, introvert and extremely private person who doesn’t want the world to know much about him. Same goes with the hero of Muqabil – he is restrained, solemn and extremely reserved,” Haider added.
Mohsin Abbas Haider played Asif Raza Mir’s son and Kubra Khan’s husband in Muqabil.
“The hero(Mohsin) in Muqabil has genuine feelings for his wife(Kubra) in drama but she has actually entered his life with a purpose to take revenge from someone in his family,” he added.
To know more about that revenge, we approached the director, Ali Hassan – who despite being ill (suffering from the high fever) was all charged up to finish the shoot on time.
“It’s a story of a girl who has been a victim of child molestation. She is a grown up individual now but sufferings of past still haunt her,” he said.
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So what were the challenges of dealing with the sensitive topic of child abuse?
“Well, it was certainly not easy to translate her pain and misery on screen – we play around expressions to bring out the right feel. It was, indeed, a nerve-wrenching process” he said.
The director also showed us a small clip in his mobile where Asif Raza Mir confessed his crime and was looking up to the girl for forgiveness. She, however, looked at him with a dead face.
Last but not least, the gorgeous actress, Kubra Khan, talked to us about Muqabil.
“It was a complex role of a girl whose soul is destroyed because of some horrible incident in past. She reacts to situations in a weird manner – she is happy at times and suddenly behaves likes psychopath. The moment you sympathize with her, she deceives you with manipulating schemes,” she stated.
Read: Kubra Khan plays victim of child molestation in Muqabil
Kubra Khan, who won our hearts with an amazing act in Hum TV’s successful drama serial, Sang-e-Marmar, put a loft effort to get into the skin of this role.
“It was not easy to do a role of a girl carrying the baggage of horrid past. We can’t use the disturbing visuals to convey her pain, instead, we use certain gestures and expressions to show her disturbed feelings,” she added.
Muqabil teasers have already been out and the drama is expected to air on ARY Digital in December.
