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Talking sense
A myriad of talk shows have begun to mushroom on the local satellite and terrestrial channels. The majority of these shows focus on various social, economic and cultural problems. Foresight is one such programme, the milieu of which is intellectually charged, rationally spiked and emotionally dispassionate. Telecast on ARY Oneworld, it is the brainchild of Khalid Hasan Khan, who also serves as host of the show.
The appeal of the programme lies with its euphemistic approach. That is one of the reasons why the viewer gets almost no input from the host. “We try to give the guests maximum exposure and time to express their thoughts,” Khan said. “We do not want to grill them so it’s necessary that they should feel at ease.”
The guests are selected randomly and are basically personal contacts of Khan. “Due to poor infrastructure, we do not have a proper guest list,” he commented. “I rely on my connections as I am a civil servant. I prioritize those who are not over-energized and resort to remonstrance to prove their point.”
The discussion that takes place among the guests leads to a conclusion rather than just addressing a problem. A future line of action is suggested to solve the issue in a positive manner. Thus, the gist of the show lies in its drawing tangible solutions rather than criticizing for the sake of criticism
Khalid Hasan Khan discusses issues that are relevant, and that’s where the strong point of the programme lies. All the issues that have been discussed till now have been very concrete and thought-provoking, such as foreign education – a different experience; the public-police relationship; problems the police faces and the importance of morals and etiquettes in life. Even upcoming programmes are of the same calibre, such as special education, the problems of devolution, causes of tax illiteracy, unemployment etc.
The discussion that takes place among the guests leads to a conclusion rather than just addressing a problem. A future line of action is suggested to solve the issue in a positive manner. Thus, the gist of the show lies in its drawing tangible solutions rather than criticizing for the sake of criticism.
Foresight has certain downsides as well. The first and foremost is its bland set. Nowadays, emphasis is laid on attractive, lively sets that are chic and trendy, which appear to be absent from this programme. “This is the best one in ARY. The set fell prey to lack of professionalism. They could not do better than that,” Khan explained.
Another negative aspect was the boredom created in the first couple of episodes. The show dragged, causing the viewers to switch to better options. Explaining the reason for the viewers’ possible boredom, Hasan said “in the first show, I was given 45 minutes to talk to my two guests. It was a lot of time and the result was that the show became sluggish. Even my performance wasn’t up to the mark. Furthermore, in order to prepare the first few episodes I wasn’t given much time, so I had to do some quick fixes and this led to the lack of quality.” With the passage of time, the show has improved and the environment seems to be a bit more vibrant then it was initially.
While the show seems to be clicking with viewers, there is no barometer to measure the response. “It has been taken well,” Hasan said, adding “we have received a good response from within the channel, but we do not know what the public thinks as we don’t have an e-mail address, a UAN or a fax number to gauge the public’s response.”
All in all, it’s a good effort from a novice on the small screen who has worked without much assistance and with limited resources to produce a programme that has quite a few positive aspects.
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