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Last of the greatest
While Ashfaque Ahmed started his literary career as a short story writer of high talent and soft fragrance, the electronic media made him a household name as early as the start of the 1960s with Talqeen Shah, a bi-weekly radio programme in which the writer himself featured as the central character who took up day-to-day issues in a light, critical manner, setting the stage for his dominance over the electronic media for years to come.
Soon after, television arrived in Pakistan and Ashfaque became one of the first writers of the country to adapt himself to the new medium with Punjabi serials titled Ucche Burj Lahore De and Naeen Reesan Shehr Lahore Diyan that won audiences with their simple communicative strength and down-to-earth, realistic depiction of local life.
It would not be wrong to say that his serials and Kamal Ahmed Rizvi’s Alif Noon contributed significantly towards establishing television as a medium in Pakistan. They made the small screen an important social appointment in the Lahore lifestyle, television being limited to Lahore and a radius of about 30 miles at that time.
In a manner of speaking, the electronic media undermined Ashfaque Ahmed’s literary career because the short-story writer receded into oblivion once he became associated with television. While literature lost a writer of tremendous promise and moving romantic flavour, the electronic media gained a prestigious and creative writer who quickly comprehended the demands and possibilities of the medium and exploited them to the hilt with brilliant and exciting plays.
Punjabi serials played their part, too, in training him in the technique of writing required for the mini screen. And within no time, he had mastered it and came up with the series Aik Mohabbat Sau Afsanay, based on his first collection of short stories and Hairat Kada, another series that dealt with the unpredictability of life and the vagaries of fate and fortune, injecting a measure of the supernatural in some episodes and a touch of wonderment to its overall content.
Two producers, Nisar Hussain Mir who produced Punjabi serials and Mohammad Nisar Hussain, substantially enhanced Ashfaque’s stature as a playwright in Aik Mohabbat ..., Hairat Kada and then teleplays. Their contribution towards emphasizing the dramatic impact of the plays was significant and added a dimension of technological craft to Ashfaque’s intellectual range. Neither of them is with us anymore.
In the meantime, a metamorphosis seems to have taken place in Ashfaque’s personality. The seeds of religiosity and sufism that were present in his earliest short stories sprouted in Hairat Kada but without impairing his strength as an absorbing and exciting storyteller. The streak became more pronounced in his next two series, Aur Dramay and Tota Kahani. But it left many viewers wondering how the writer, who could transport viewers into a world of romance, curiosity, disbelief and enlightenment with images of innocence and simplicity, had shifted to the pulpit.
The monologue content of his later plays lacked dramatic content and interaction between characters, merely expressing a point of view without leaving room for debate. They hardly fitted the definition of plays attributed to Ashfaque Ahmed as a writer and intellectual, identifying him as a crusader for the revival of lost causes and bygone glories.
Apparently, he also realized this and when some of his plays were produced anew by the Indus TV network, he did not select any work from Aur Dramay and Tota Kahani, and opted for the more popular plays from Aik Mohabbat. He may have had a sufi’s soul but he also had his feet firmly on the ground.
Many felt that he had become a full-time preacher, a trait that became boldly pronounced in his last work for PTV, a talk show that had him disseminating wisdom backed by religion and religious history, references to Muslim personalities, legend and folklore, and that captivated a segment of viewers.
There can be no disagreement that he had the gift of eloquence, full command over his subject, a vast and expressive range of vocabulary and speaking with conviction. The faith in the viewpoint he projected was unshakable. He had developed theories about the negative influence of the West on the East, specifically on Muslim culture through a flamboyant lifestyle.
He strongly felt that there would be no redemption and no revival of the lost glory of Islam unless the people practised their original faith, imbibed a simple lifestyle and revived abandoned values. He talked with innocence-based folksy wisdom and often asked questions that could not be answered even though the examples he posed had scant relevance and meaning to present-day compulsions.
There can also be disagreement about his views on life and his approach towards resolving issues. One may even have doubts about his brand of conservatism, but there can be no two opinions regarding his status as a playwright for the electronic media, particularly television.
While his contribution as a role model for writers has never been discussed, let alone evaluated, one is certain that he inspired many young writers and influenced them to turn to television as their medium. The writings of some relatively younger playwrights of Lahore carry clear imprints of Ashfaque’s influence.
He was not only one of the first writers, but the very first major writer to assimilate the possibilities of the new medium of television and adjust his talent for using the medium initially as a vehicle to entertain people, to enlighten them as per his own sights and finally to try to bring them round to his way of thinking.
The latter two roles may not receive all-round commendation but his contribution to the electronic media, particularly to television as a playwright, will be described as a distinguished chapter in the history of the medium in Pakistan.
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