Re: female models and actresses or singers
*While I am to soon respond to No.55's submission above..which is indeed a good one...but does need some fine tuning..on certain misconceptions.. she may have on some models, I would like to copy-paste an article published today in DAWN's IMAGES which may..I repeat MAY have a close call to this thread....also. *
Khush rahein, Raju Jamil
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Much ado about nothing
By Fouzia Mapara
Entertainment they can make a mockery of, fashion models can become character actors, actresses can sing — all is acceptable because the poor viewer does not have a say in such matters. Production companies and TV channels are after financiers and sponsors so it is their sense and sensibilities that presently become the norm for television entertainment in our setup
SOMEONE once said on The Oprah Winfrey Show that “we are all spiritual beings going through a human being phase in this world.” I, for one, can be profiled as an average Muslim who is struggling in this ‘human being phase’, fighting satan against temptation every now and then, trying to be good and to perform my obligations to my best possible abilities.
I feel that I primarily have my grandmother, Amma, to thank who taught me how to pray, Maulana Wali Razi who taught me Islamiat in school and my Ustaniji who taught me how to read the Holy Quran. One of the few things that I am proud of is my unshakeable faith in the Almighty — perhaps the strongest drug that keeps me moving forward in my day-to-day existence.
But if I were to reconstruct, renew or revamp my religious values for some reason, or just on the pretext that progress is integral to life and for anything to live it must continually refresh itself, I do not know where I would stand today watching the endless fare of religious programmes on local TV channels.
Let’s face it: I am not a fashionable intellectual who opposes all kinds of religious activity just for the sake of appearing ‘cool’ and ‘with it’; nor am I a bigot and certainly not sanctimonious as I have little patience for them. However, this is the holy month of Ramazan, one where my patience and endurance are put to the test. So let me share with you my enlightenment, discoveries and dare I say entertainment while watching the fare on television in the name of all that’s holy.
Come Ramazan and everyone turns into a religious authority, each having the right to condone you, condemn you and take you on to
the righteous path, irrespective of the fact whether they have ever taken to it themselves. From Sola Singhar host Amber Wajid to
comedienne Zeba Shahnaz, from Saadia Imam (with an eyebrow lifted at a precisely pious angle) to pizza fellow Mohammed Essa who has suddenly appeared in a series on a dedicated religious channel as an ‘Islamic scholar’, beard, cap, et al! Did somebody say at the beginning of the year that strange things will begin to happen from the year 2007 onwards? Oh my God, Dr Shahid Masood and his hypnotic qiyamat ki nishahiyaan is probably what is happening to me, too.
Every prime channel as well as the lesser prime ones has their own Ramazan kareem bumper theme, song and menu which mainly consists of feeding not just the soul but the body as well. So primarily all Ramazan programming focuses on special cookery and religious shows. Nearly all channels have cookery shows sponsored by the makers of different brands of cooking oil, and so dish out food that uses plenty of the greasy liquid as the chefs dunk and deep fry like crazy. Who cares if it goes against your health regimen?
But the worse is yet to come in the form of heartburn, acidity and indigestion that is a by-product of enduring these food shows which, they say, are meant to feed the soul.
Let’s talk about the better stuff first. Instead of their usual shoddy fare, surprisingly a popular channel has come up with a neatly packaged show called Ramazan-ul-Mubarak with hosts Shazia Marri and Ali Hassan discussing a variety of lifestyle issues with a well-selected line of speakers such as Shua-un-Nabi and Professor Jahanara Lutfi. The content is stimulating, enlightening and interestingly adds value to one’s life.
Another premier channel puts forth pretty decent fare with religious scholar Ghamdi in Deen-o-Danish and Dr Khalid Zaheer in Safr-i-Hidayat doing a fabulous job with tafseer — very relevant and making a lot of sense. The same channel also has Bollywood star Kader Khan doing his bit by talking on various socio-political happenings in the Islamic world today and for those who are particularly receptive to things coming from the other side of the border, the show makes sense. Mera Roza, where celebrities speak about their
first day of fasting, is quite interesting.
Junaid Jamshed’s most recent rendition playing across the board, including music channels, is certainly inspiring and pleasing to the ear, a far cry from the rhythmic concussions presented on a dedicated religious channel and of course those by Aamir Liaquat Hussain whose role in religious programming probably requires a special edition, not just a mere comment. But let’s revisit him later.
Islam aur Naujawan, Falsafa-i-Ramzan, Ahadees-i-Nabwi, Deen Kay Taqaze Aur Hum and Reading Room, wherein they explain simple aspects of religion to children, are all commendable shows, where content is paid attention to.
Faiz Manzil Ke Rozadaar, a teleplay series being aired daily throughout Ramazan is a fine effort by the same popular entertainment channel, a la Haseena Moin, light sit-com based on day-to-day Ramazan activities of an interesting family of lively characters, one who is a cable TV victim, speaking Hindi and being rebuked by the rest of the family is especially commendable.
What really damages my sensibility is a religious authority of sorts on a dedicated religious TV channel in a religious talk show.
Recently, while answering a live caller’s query about some misdeed with his so-called pearls of wisdom, the gentleman said that only if God has put an animal’s soul into a man’s body will he do something so bad! I’m still trying to figure out where he was coming from and what angle of religion he was talking about.
Sitting on rose petals, he makes an aesthetically pleasing picture, but on giving new meanings to morbidity, Aamir Liaquat Hussain in the Shaban 15 special Shab-i-Barat transmission, sat inside a freshly dug grave in dim light, in the backdrop of what looked like a graveyard or maybe it was a studio. Watching him do that neither left one with the heart nor soul to tune into another show that he had anything to do with (which is quite difficult because there is a lot of him happening on TV — from talk shows to monologue to musical and non-musical naats). The man seems to enjoy a cult following, if you go by the number of “Amir bhai mujhe aap ka programme bohat pasand hai” calls he gets. In Ziyafat, he cooks with a maulana standing around — Zubeida Tariq and Mehboob Ali should pack up their pots and pans.
Entertainment they can make a mockery of, fashion models can become character actors, actresses can sing — all is acceptable **because the poor viewer does not have a say in such matters. Production companies and TV channels are after financiers and ***sponsors so it is their sense and sensibilities that presently become the norm for television entertainment in our setup. *
Can an untrained person with proper aesthetics call himself a fashion designer, a housewife well-versed in the culinary arts call herself **
*a professional chef, or a quack call himself a medical doctor? So how come the media boom has given birth overnight to so many *news anchors, commentators and religious scholars?**
Can we fool around with religion like we do with everything else that gets aired on TV? Is anybody monitoring them, is anyone held accountable for what gets transmitted by these so-called religious authorities with little or no credibility whatsoever?
There is a lot of meaning to the freedom of media but with responsibility, which sadly, is still quite misunderstood.
Moreover, our state-owned channel has just revamped its look and perhaps nomenclature, but the content remains as insipid as ever. I haven’t broken my idiot box yet, I am enduring and I am still flicking channels. Ahhhh, here come Ghamdi…
-end