It had been more than an hour that we were roaming around in the narrow streets of the densely populated area of PIB Colony trying to reach on the sets of Big Bang Entertainment’s latest play ‘Teri Chah Mein’.
Finally one of the crew members guided us on the phone and we reached to Kashan-e-Peer – an old but nicely decorated bungalow situated in the middle-class locality of Karachi.
Crossing through the big black gate we entered into a verandah and finally to an airy corridor where a young man was in a rush to leave for somewhere. He was the director of the serial, Aabis Raza. We got hold of him before he left outside.
“Teri Chah Mein is based on a true story of a woman who fights for her basic human and religious rights that society has taken from her,” the director said while explaining the story in a nutshell.
He also added that the biggest challenge for him was to convey the message in a way that audience could relate to it.
“I have tried to make it as realistic as possible to trigger my message in audience’s mind. I know it’s a rebellious move to make a drama on a taboo but we want our audience to think about it,” he added.
Aabis Raza likes to play withHuman psyche in his dramas – be it Main Deewani, Kankar or Kadurat. In Teri Chah Mein he has once again attempted to highlight a serious issue about woman’s basic rights of getting remarried after the death of her first husband.
“Our central character is a young and educated woman who decides to remarry after the death of her husband but man-made societal norms are biggest hindrance in her way. We haven’t tried to narrate our story through dialogues instead we have shown different reality-based circumstances and situations,” he added.
Written by Samina Ejaz of Dusri Biwi fame the play stars the multifaceted Maria Wasti (Mehwish) as the leading lady of the serial. The ensemble cast includes Farhan Saeed, Salman Shahid, Saboor Ali, Shakeel, Asim Azhar and Faryal Mehmood.
The first episode of the drama serial has already been aired showing a story of Salman Shahid’s middle-class family. The play kicks off with Mehwish (Maria Wasti) giving a lecture in a university on human psychology. The ultra modern and super-confident lecturer is married to an elderly man ( Salman Shahid) and a mother of two college going kids – Zara (Saboor Ali) and Kashif (Asim Azhar).
https://www.instagram.com/p/BH2cu2ZgOnu/?taken-by=asimazharyouareperfect
While Zara is a sensible young girl, her brother is a conservative boy who doesn’t like her sister coming in front of her cousin cum fiancée Faisal (Farhan Saeed). On the other hand, Faisal doesn’t have any feelings for Zara and in fact, he is interested in her mom. The first episode ends at an interesting point where Faisal expresses his love to Mehwish.
When we reached on the sets of Teri Chah Mein, an interesting scene was recorded between Saboor Ali and Maria Wasti. Once the scene was over we asked Saboor about her role in the serial.
“I am playing Mehwish’s daughter in the serial. She is artistic, sensitive and caring by nature. But her life turns upside down when her mom marries her childhood fiancé. Her personality shatteres completely and she becomes her mom’s biggest opponent,” Ali said.
She also added that her character had different shades and it also featured the touching bond of brother and sister and a love of a father for his daughter.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BH2cd8XgBd7/?taken-by=asimazharyouareperfect
Our last rendezvous on the sets was with the super-talented Maria Wasti. She has done impressed us in several diverse performances. She never hesitates to opt for out-of-ordinary scripts – be it her PTV’s popular play Kallo or Hum TV’s social issue based blockbuster serial Rehai.
In Teri Chah Mein, she again opts for a challenging role of a woman who fights for her basic human rights.
“This drama is based on an off topic so we have tried to deal with it very sensitively. The story is moving in different dimensions – the play is about a woman who gets married to her nephew but here the interesting part is that he is also her daughter ex-fiancée. Now when she is facing criticism from the society she has to face serious opposition from within the family. Her daughter and son are against her,” Maria Wasti told us about her role in the drama serial.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BHzVse6D8BR/?tagged=terichahmein
Maria Wasti added that unfortunately in our society we wanted to cage a woman in a relationship bonds and never allowed her to enjoy her individuality.
“I have seen several cases where women spent their whole life fulfilling her responsibilities as a dutiful daughter, a mother, and a wife but when her husband dies and kids settle down in their lives, she has nothing to do. She left alone as a useless being,” she said.
She added that the drama discussed this serious issues and it was an attempt to educate a man so that he could play his part in women empowerment.
“It is vital to educate a man so that he can guard her when she asks for her basic rights,” Maria added in the end.
If you haven’t watched this amazing serial yet, tune to Ary Digital every Wednesday at 8:00pm.
