With an all-star cast that includes Ahsan Khan, Bushra Ansari and Urwa Hocane, Udaaree stands out because of itsunique plot and diverse themes. Though it has potential, how the play fares will be determined by the next few episodes.
Introducing all major characters in one go, the first episode of the play divulges into diverse
themes and makes one wonder if it’ll manage to tie it all together cohesively.
At a time when Pakistani television is crowded with plays that centre upon recurrent themes of love, honour and relationships, new drama serial Udaaree caught our attention way before it began because of its unique plot; the play sheds light on child abuse. And as the first episode hit television screens this weekend, one realized that instead of airbrushing this harsh reality just to bring in high ratings and entertain the audience, the play aims for a higher purpose, and that is, to educate the masses.
Intertwining child abuse with music and a woman’s right to pursue it as a career, Udaaree opened on a musical note. Most of the characters introduced – be it Bushra Ansari, Urwa Hocane, Farhan Saeed or Ahsan Khan – seem to have some sort of a musical aspect to their personalities.
The play follows the lives of three groups of individuals. Ansari and her husband are folk music artists who earn a living by performing at different events in their village. Their daughter Meera (Urwa), a schoolgirl who has a great voice, doesn’t want to follow into her mother’s footsteps since the man she is having an affair with looks down upon them and forbids her from doing so.
On the other end is Imtiaz (Ahsan), who has just returned from Dubai after four years and visits his friend’s widowed wife (Samiya Mumtaz) and adores her daughter, which makes the woman conscious of how society would look at their relation. And finally, there is a group of students, living in a city, who have formed their own music band and are busy preparing for a competition, which will offer them more exposure as musicians should they win.
As their stories unfold, one can see how the play touches upon multiple issues concerning the lives of these ordinary people, all of whom are inextricably linked.
Music remains a binding thread and one looks forward to see how it unravels in upcoming episodes. Also, class difference turns out to be an important factor that hinders people’s growth in certain fields. Raising all these concerns in the very first episode, Udaaree seems to be ready tackle this and much more in the upcoming episodes; needless to say, the drama has a strong enough cast to support it.