Sarmad Sultan Khoosat seems to have the Midas touch. After giving Pakistan (and the world) the heartbreaking love story called Humsafar, Khoosat took a 360-degree turn and brought Urdu literary giant Saadat Hasan Manto to the big screen last year.
Sarmad Sultan Khoosat seems to have the Midas touch. After giving Pakistan (and the world) the heartbreaking love story called Humsafar, Khoosat took a 360-degree turn and brought Urdu literary giant Saadat Hasan Manto to the big screen last year.
These days, Sarmad is making Pakistan curious with the upcoming fantasy period drama, Mor Mahal, which he describes as “the story of resilient, fiercely powerful women”.
Recently in India for the second edition of Jashn-e-Rekhta, a three-day festival (held in Delhi, India) that celebrates Urdu and “its richness through various forms like mushaira, qawwali, dastangoi, ghazals, film screening, dance and plays”, Sarmad, alongside fellow Manto co-star Sania Saeed and Indian actors Kanwaljit Singh and Lubna Salim featured on a panel Zindagi Ki Soorat-Giri: TV Par Urdu Ke Rang and shed light on television in both countries.
“Progress happened on Indian TV faster and earlier than us. So, I find this a little surprising that in a scene, where cinema is saying so much, an advertisement can break boundaries, stereotypes... Then why do marketeers bring regression in television dramas. The narrative here offers nothing new,” Sarmad said.
Sarmad didn’t play it safe though as he also spoke about regression in Pakistani television and remarked: “Characterization and storytelling have suffered so much that the language is left much behind. The depth is missing in characters on both the sides.”
Emphasizing on the importance of diction and control over language, Sarmad noted further:
“Not speaking in one language without bringing in another is an expression of today but the dialogue has suffered because of that... We never read badly or loosely-written novels but to make dialogues comprehensible to all we have taken a lazy approach. I have seen this happening both in India and Pakistan.”
Sarmad, alongside Nandita Das and Bimal Chaddaha, also served on a panel called Manto Ab Tak Ham-Kalaam and jokingly noted: “If Manto was alive today, he wouldn’t just have cases of obscenity. They would range from warrants of sedition and blasphemy as well.”
