August 4, 2002

It is rare these days to flip through the myriad channels and come across a teleplay that tackles issues not related to the elite of our society. The budgets for productions are becoming bigger and bigger and the topics that are tackled are becoming more and more mundane. An original plot is rare and most serials are purely romance based, and why not, nothing sells like love. Although there is a dearth of good writers there is an even stronger need for scripts that have not been done to death.

Jannat is Sultana Siddiqui’s latest project made under the banner of Moomal Productions. Akhter Rind has penned a very original story about a woman born to a corrupt fisherman father. Jannat is her name and she is lost to a man, by her father, in a gambling bet. Mohammad Baksh Samejo directs this multi-track story that sees Jannat escape from her father’s evil clutches and find a place for herself in society. The cast includes Shafi Mohammad, Nauman Ejaz, Nida Pasha, Nighat Chaudhry, Yasir Nawaz, Gulab Chandio, Mona Liza and others. Needless to say the essential glamour and glitz is present although the story is about a fishing tribe located in the Keenjhar Lake area. Locations are real and judging from the names of the seniors in the long list of the cast there will be some heavy duty acting for once, along with the pouting and preening non-actors. The play is aired every Tuesday evening on PTV network.

 

Akhter Rind has penned a very original story about a woman born to a corrupt fisherman parent. Jannat is her name and she is lost to a man, by her father, in a gambling bet
 

Recently Sultana Siddiqui opened the gates to her massive home to her friends, well-wishers and colleagues at the occasion of the launch of Jannat. The guests poured in albeit a little later than anticipated but stayed on to mingle with each other till late. The mix of people was so interesting ranging from Ayesha Alam to Mehreen Ilahi to Huma Akber that the evening turned out to be a blast for those who knew each other and also those who watched from a distance.

Sultana Siddiqui is a name associated with plays that are women-oriented. “Jannat,” she explained, “has been shot in locales that haven’t been properly tapped i.e the Keenjher Jheel. “This is a story of a woman’s struggle and of how she tries to take independent decisions and then has to pay for them in a ‘man’s’ world.” There are some characters that seem to have been made up just to add a little glitz to the whole plot but then that is the required thing to do if you want to rake in any money out of a project.

The audiences will get to see breath-taking locations and a look into the lives of poor fishermen whose livelihoods depend so much on nature and the course it takes. They become crooked enough to gamble with the most precious things in their lives in order to get financial stability.