Tanhaiyan, a 13 episode TV serial that ran on PTV in 1985, has managed to hold an unquestioned legendary status in Pakistan’s Television History. It defined the perfect serial; popular to the extent of a craze, high in quality, great in acting, entertaining. It suddenly brought two people to the limelight; Marina Khan, playing the role of happy go lucky “Sania Ahmed”, and Behroz Sabzwari, whose character “Qutubuddin aka Qabacha” made people forget what his real name was. It will not be wrong to state, that Behroz Sabzwari has not been able to get out of this role, in over 20 years.
Written by Hasina Moin, the drama serial followed the same pattern as her previous write ups. But the other characters, and even the basic storyline faded away in face of the popularity of the comic scenes between Qabacha and Sania.
The basic storyline revolved around two sisters, Zara and Sania, who after losing their parents in a traffic accident, get swindled out of their property and inheritance by their father’s best friend. The elder sister, Zara, makes it the point of her life to become a ‘bara aadmi’ and buy back the house. The quest leads her to into starting off her own business, and becoming a workaholic to the extent of being totally out of touch with her sister and the rest of her family. She is constrantly reminded of the fact that her quest for money is of no value, and not worth the distance she is creating between herself and those who love her.
The leading figure in persuading Zara otherwise is her childhood friend, “Zain” (Asif Raza Mir) who keeps telling her to quit her job, and ‘have some fun’ with her family. Zara however ignores his advice as well, and keeps on working hard in getting her business to succeed. In that effort, she has to partner with Saad Salman, a successful young businessman who tries to woo Zara through his money.
Overall, Tanhaiyan had the message that money is of no consequence, and that people are most important. This idea is culminated in the scene when Zara eventually buys the house, but cannot bear to stand in there is no one there to share it with her. Tanhaiyan possibly over did this concept; surely there is nothing wrong in a person trying to make a life for themselves through hard work, and there are times, when a lot of work has to be done at the expense of family life.
The play had the basic story elements to it as well. Zain turns out to also have a fiancé, Veeda (Yasmin Ismail). Zara herself is courted by Saad Salman, and the suspense is all about how Zara and Zain will get together in all this set up. There is also the story of Farhan (Qazi Wajid) who proposes to and marries Aani (Badr Khalil) who is Zara and Sania’s aunt, effectively making most of the cast a big happy family.
Zain’s, Sania’s and Aani’s (Badar Khalil) insistence that Zara should not worry about earning money, and instead live on support by Aani, is not exactly the great advice. Still the fact that this overall plot issue was not talked about means that people were more interested in the day to day, and moment to moment activities of the characters than the overall story, or the overall message.
Qabacha was no heart throb; in fact, comparing someone with Qabacha, in popular mind was more of a light hearted insult. Even in retrospect, one has to admit that Qabacha was an extremely funny character, and despite all the slapstick elements, Behroz Sabzwari did justice to a character who could have turned out to be an overacting farce. The steps that he used to take to get closer to someone, the faces he used to make to display bashfulness, and even the manner in which he used to swing his arms, hands locked, were all trademarks of Qabacha behaviour.
One of the most memorable scenes of the play was when Zara (Shenaz Sheikh) lies paralyzed in the hospital, and Qabacha makes her laugh, setting up her path to recovery. The scene was fairly significant because of a number of reasons. Firstly, the serial had taken a serious tone since Zara’s paralysis, but this scene marked the shift back to situational comedy. Secondly, this was the only useful thing that Qabacha did in the whole serial. The scene when it aired, was considered to be the most hilarious piece of writing, and more than Zara, was making the Pakistani audience laugh; yet today, one can watch the scene without even wincing.
Marina Khan made a niche for herself as a typical Hasina Moin character, and set the tone for the ‘type’ of actress the future directors of Hasina Moin dramas were looking for. Shenaz Sheikh came out of this play making a mark for herself as a serious actress, following her popular performance in Unkahi 3 years earlier. It is strange, how she was considered to be one of the most popular actresses in Pakistan, despite her acting in only two plays throughout her life.
Another character with a somewhat famous one liner “Kehney mein kiya harj hai” was Buqraat (Jamshed Ansari) a servant for Farhan’s sister, Apa Begum. It was a tit for tat setting for Qabacha, who was Apa Begum’s spy in the Farhan residence. Apa Begum defined the ultimate miser, typified by her constant reference to “Naulakha” dinners; nine day old leftovers.
>> DaPakiGuy << 
That character and his accent 
