Udaari


Udaari is an Urdu and Punjabi language social Pakistani television series that was created and co-produced by Kashf Foundation and Momina Duraid for Hum TV. It focused on the social and economic marginalisation of citizens in Pakistani rural society alongside highlighting deep-rooted issues such as child sexual abuse, gender discrimination and violence against women. It was originally aired from 10 April 2016 to 4 September 2016. The show is written by Farhat Ishtiaq and directed by Mohammed Ehteshamuddin. The plot of Udaari centres on the families of two Punjabi villagers Sheedan and Sajida. Sheedan faces discrimination as she is in the performing arts and is looked down upon as belonging to the "Marasis" which is a derogatory term when referring to musicians. Sajda is a widow and a struggling single mother working as a maid for her daughter's upbringing, she decides to marry Imtiaz for her daughter's wellbeing. The story takes a turn when Sheedan's daughter Ameera accuses Imtiaz of sexually harassing her.
Udaari has an ensemble cast with Bushra Ansari as Sheedan, Samiya Mumtaz as Sajida, Urwa Hocane as Ameera, Farhan Saeed as Arsh, Ahsan Khan as Imtiaz, and Hina Altaf Khan/Areesha Ahsan as Zebo. The show is set in the village of Mirpur and urban areas of Punjab.
Udaari received positive reviews from critics and audiences throughout its broadcast, critics considered the sensitive issues within the story's arc well-drafted and well-composed, and also lauded the entire cast's performance, it also scored highest ratings in 2016 and was ranked as the highest rated TV series of 2016 season. At the 16th Lux Style Awards, the series won the most for the ceremony including, Best TV Actor for Khan, Best TV Director and Best TV Play for Duraid.

Plot

It is the story of two different worlds, the urban and the rural as well as highlighting prevalent issues in modern society. The series depicts the lives of two neighbouring families in a village, and the struggle of a group of four friends living in the city, trying to pursue a music career. In the village, it focuses on two close neighbours, Rashida and Sajida. Rashida along with her husband Maajid, daughter Meera and son Ejaz are local musicians who earn through singing and entertaining people at weddings, because of which they are discriminated and criticised in the society, being termed as Marasi. Whereas Sajida, Parvez's widow, works as a maid in a distant house. She runs the household, cares for herself and her 10-year-old daughter, named Zebo. Simultaneously, in the urban city of Lahore, resides a group of four students, Maleeha, Haris, Arsh and Farwa who want to pursue a music career. Meera is in a complicated relationship with Illyas who happens to be Sajida's nephew. He always warned her to stop singing or he will break his relationship. Imtiaz, Parvez's best friend, proposes to Sajida for marriage who first shows reluctance but later marries him for Zebo's sake. On their wedding, Majid passes away which makes Imtiaz closer to Sheedaan's family resulting in his negative sexual desires for Meera. One day, when Sajida and Zebo are not home, Imtiaz attempts to sexually abuse Meera, but she escapes from there. This results in a dispute between Sajida and Sheedaan where Sajida claims Meera's intentions were wrong, refuses to believe her and supports Imtiaz. After this Sheedan breaks off all her relations with Sajida and Illyas breaks off his relationship with Meera. On the other hand, Farwa is forced by her parents to bid adieu to her music career. Milli and her mother Muneera visit the village for a wedding where she sees Meera tearfully singing and recording her music. The band then visits Meera's house and takes her on as a replacement singer for Farwa. After immense arguments and disputes, Arsh and Meera grow close to each other. The band successfully wins the music competition, leaving the village shocked to see Meera on Television. Complications begin when Imtiaz's sexual desires arise for Zebo. One rainy afternoon while Sajida is at work, Imtiaz lures Zebo into a room and rapes her, she is threatened to keep silent otherwise he threatens to kill Zebo herself and her mother. Back in Lahore, Meera gains fame and recognition all over the country, she earns enough money to purchase a house and settles in Lahore with her family.

Cast

  • Samiya Mumtaz as Sajida Bibi; nicknamed as Sajo
  • Bushra Ansari as Rasheeda Bibi: nicknamed as Sheedaan
  • Ahsan Khan as Imtiaz Ali Sheikh
  • Urwa Hocane as Ameera Majid; nicknamed as Meera
  • Farhan Saeed as Taimoor Arshad nicknamed as Arsh
  • Hina Altaf as Zeb-un-Nisa Pervaiz; nicknamed Zebo
  • Laila Zuberi as Muneera Khalid
  • Malika Zafar as Maleeha Khalid
  • Maryam Fatima as Farwa Murad
  • Ins-e-Yazdan as Ejaz Majid
  • Adnan Saeed as Haris Khalid
  • Aqeel Abbas as Iqbal
  • Haris Waheed as Ilyas
  • Rehan Sheikh as Majid
  • Behroze Sabzwari as Khalid
  • Ambar Wajid as Afrooz
  • Aliya Jamshed as Razia
  • Arjumand Hussain as Ahmad
  • Rashida Tabassum as Durdana
  • Saife Hassan as Malik Iftikhar Hussain
  • Akbar Islam as Imtiaz's Lawyer

    Child stars

  • Areesha Ahsan as Zebo
  • Saad as Ejaz

    Special appearances

  • Hassan Sheheryar Yasin as himself
  • Hadiqa Kiani as herself
  • Emo as himself
  • Babar Zaheer as himself

    Episodes

Production

Development

Udaari was developed by Hum TV's senior producer Momina Duraid of MD Productions, the channel hired the award-winning director Mohammed Ehteshamuddin to direct the series. Story of serial is written by award-winning writer Farhat Ishtiaq. It was Ishtiaq's first screenplay without a novel release, she has previously worked thrice with Momina, when she wrote mega-hit drama serials in Pakistan television history Humsafar, Mata-e-Jaan Hai Tu, and Diyar-e-Dil.
Song composition is done by Sahir Ali Bagga and Sohail Haider while background music is given by Mohsin AllahDitta who chose singers like Bushra Ansari, Hadiqa Kiani and Farhan Saeed for singing. It was Insari and Kiani's second collaboration after Pakistan Idol. Kiani and Saeed collaborated on the title song and also provided the vocals for the characters of Meeran and Arsh. There were discussions laid on its time slot, previously it was announced that the show will air on Saturdays replacing Durad's Gul-e-Rana. However, due to promotional reasons and Slot importance the show was given time slot of Sundays, 8:00 pm, whereas the long running series, Abroo was given a time slot of Saturdays. Udaari was initially planned to be released in 2017 after completion of filming but Duraid decided to release it in 2016 to For higher ratings to her channel. It was released in April and was planned to end along with Hum TV's Mann Mayal thereby both the shows were slotted to maintain Sunday and Monday slots to bring higher Television Rating Points to them for the future.

Casting

Producer, writer and Director mutually chose the cast which includes Bushra Ansari, Samiya Mumtaz, Ahsan Khan, Urwa Hocane, Farhan Saeed and Hina Altaf Khan and Areesha Ahsan to play the leading roles of Sheedhan, Sajida, Imtiaz, Meera, Arsh and Zebo.
Veteran Actress Bushra Ansari was cast to portray the role of Rashida Bibi after her appraisal for her role in Kis Ki Ayeegi Baraat series, and Bilqees Kaur. The actress received critical acclaim within the pilot episode, according to her, this role was a challenge.
Urwa Hocane and Farhan Saeed marked their second appearance together as a couple being previously acted in Ary Digital's Mere Ajnaabi.
Udaari was Samiya Mumtaz's second collaboration with Momina Duraid and Mohammed Ehteshamuddin, she previously acted in drama-serial Sadqay Tumhare after which she was finalised to portray the role of Sajida. Alongside Mumtaz, actress Hina Altaf Khan was cast to portray series's the pivotal character of Zebo. Zebo's role was initially portrayed by Areesha Ahsan as child artist.
Udaari was Ahsan Khan's first portrayal of a negative role. Khan was cast to portray the role of 'Imtiaz a pedophile, this role was initially offered to actor Mikaal Zulfiqar who rejected it due to its grey personality. Speaking about difficulty in portraying this role, Khan states that Even while reading the script, I could not digest these scenes. It is definitely the most difficult character to portray on-screen, further sommecfting on his role Khan states Such abuse leaves the child traumatised forever. My maid's child was suffering from it and that's what made me realise that I need to spread awareness.
Production also chose Behroze Sabzwari, Laila Zuberi, Maryam Fatima, Rehan Sheikh, Haris Waheed and Aqeel Abbas for the supporting roles of Khalid, Muneera, Farwa, Majid, Illyas and Balay respectively. Sabzwari received critical acclaim for his role of Tajamul in Duraid's Diyar-e-Dil, he was selected to portray Khalid alongside Zuberi who joined the series after her previous project Mann Mayal with Duraid.

Music and sound

All the music and songs of Udaari were composed by musician Sahir Ali Bagga and Sohail Haider with Mubarak and Zahid being the sound engineer. The background score is given by Bilal Allahdittah, the lyrics for the OST were penned down by Imran Raza. The OST Sajna Ve Sajna was sung by Farhan Saeed and Hadiqa Kiani. It marks the return of Hadiqa Kiani to Hum TV, since she performed for the channel's hit drama series Zindagi Gulzar Hai's title song. Veteran actress and vocalist Bushra Ansari performed only Punjabi music for various episodes. Rahat Fateh Ali Khan's Samjhawanki was taken and performed by Hadiqa Kiani for the series.
Udaari's full OST was released in May 2016. Saajna Ve Saajna received critical acclaim for Sahir Ali Bagga and Sohail Haider for comping and Hadiqa Kiani and Farhan Saeed for vocals. The Series dominated the Top No.1 rank according to Pakistan's Official Music App Taazi. "Mein Tenu Samjhawanki" received critical acclaim and success.