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Man on a mission
Shahid Shafaat is casually clad in jeans and shirt as he welcomes me warmly into his quiet neighbourhood in Karachi, accompanied by his troop of Siamese cats. The bespectacled 38-year-old low key writer/director is sporting a long salt and pepper mane tied neatly in a ponytail. In his minimal yet colourful living room, he starts talking over glasses of water and tea about his current projects, his journey and the paralytic effect of soaps.
His latest directorial venture is a tele film with an interesting title, Aik Mamooli Larki (An Ordinary Girl). Having just completed its editing, Shahid narrates the story of a simple girl, Raphael, bearing a facial scar that she has had all her life and the scarring of her personality as a result. The film describes her breakthrough journey to self-discovery. Shahid is fascinated by simple people, the reason why he scripted the story of Aik Mamooli Larki.
Pursuing this thread of thought on simplicity, Shahid is currently working on his untitled TV series penned by different writers. The series will have 26 distinct plays based on a host of interesting day-to-day characters. “The attempt is to highlight all aspects of Pakistan, its people, its localities and its issues,” he excitedly states. “There is a story about the donkey races that are organised at Chakiwara, another one about the one-stringed instrument (Ik Tara) artistes play at Boat Basin in Karachi and another about violence and its indirect consequences. My endeavour is to present stories as close to reality as possible and to bring to the forefront those characters that we overlook, the ones who live with us everyday.”
Shahid’s fascination for ordinary people could be rooted in the fact that he hails from a regular middle-class background. Growing up in Karachi with two brothers, two sisters, a schoolteacher father and a homemaker mother, the family was not well off, but there was emphasis on learning. His older siblings were closely involved in politics and became his first role models.
Maternal relatives such as the late journalist Hasan Abidi and Dr Adibul Hasan Rizvi of SIUT were his other inspirations. Eventually he was drawn into leftist politics and DSF (Democratic Student’s Federation). “I took admission in the chemistry department in Karachi University after completing my intermediate. But by then, I knew that chemistry was not my future. Countless questions started to overpower my mind and my queries were mainly related to social sciences.”
‘I have no issues with commercialism, but it should not be at the cost of hurting someone. TV channels need to widen their vision and not be afraid; they have the power to refuse ads and produce quality programmes,’ says Shahid Shafaat
Joining the Karachi School of Art, Shahid stumbled upon Dastak, a theatre group patronised by his DSF friends. “I liked the atmosphere and felt that I could learn something from them. I started to get involved backstage in all Dastak theatre productions and enjoyed the experience. It stimulated me to write and direct and I went to Bombay and did some courses from Tata School of Art. I also worked with Barry John, the Indian theatre guru.”
In 1992, he went on to create his own theatre group Katha, writing and directing plays. His major theatre works include plays such as Aik Se Badh Kar Aik, Aur Khel Tamam Huwa, Balcony, Danishwaron Ki Duniya, Prem Kahani, Kaisay Bitayen Jeevan, Sketches, Aik Dehshat Gard Ki Maut, Kya Khoya Kya Paaya, Tamaseel and Khabrain Jo Chap Na Sakeen.
He proudly displays the book, Anthology of International Plays for Young Audiences, in which his play Balcony has been published; it has been edited by Roger Ellis, an American theatre teacher and director. Now, commenting upon Katha, he says, “It is still there but now it is tough to stage plays. Our team of actors have dispersed and the rent of auditoriums is rising. Earlier, we were able to get press ads and banners. But with the mushrooming of TV channels, companies have had to distribute these ads to them. The total cost of producing a play comes to a minimum of Rs150,000; it is difficult to generate that kind of money.”
In 1998, the UNDP selected Katha for a month-long intensive training at PTV. After receiving training in all aspects of TV production, Shahid plunged headlong into TV direction. Since then, his TV credits include tele films Kyoun, Jahan Rehmat Quaid Hai, Tareekyon Ke Saaye, Zulf-i-Girah Geer, Kya Khoya Kya Paaya, Zindagi Phir Muskarayee, Aik Raat, 24 Ghantay, Do Anjaanay, Suno Na, Kalapul and Bubble.
Recently, Rehan Sheikh won the award for best actor at the 2005 KaraFilm Festival for 24 Ghantay. Shahid says: “I cast him because I knew he would give or at least attempt to give one hundred per cent to the project. For four days while we were shooting, Rehan did not meet anybody and throughout the shoot, he kept a depressing appearance. On the last day of the shoot, we forcibly took him out since we were worried that he might become the real story of 24 Ghantay.”He goes on a tangent and laments, “I don’t know how and why we are eating the same kind of food that is being dished out by all our local TV channels. We are casting the same actors; soap style of acting is being encouraged and similar stories are being written.” Shahid believes that while today’s soaps are making huge profits, they are doing it at the expense of harming their audiences with their addictive appeal. He compares them with the likes of drugs. “When you are creating something as dangerous as heroin which paralyses your brain, it is wrong, and this is what soaps are doing. They are making the audience addictive. I have no issues with commercialism, but it should not be at the cost of hurting someone. TV channels need to widen their vision and not be afraid; they have the power to refuse ads and produce quality programmes.”
With an impressive body of work in theatre and television, films are next on Shahid’s agenda for which he will be travelling to Europe by the end of this year on a scholarship in film-making studies. “I want my actors to demand from me good work, not my authority. I am open to suggestions and if an idea, be it from a cameraman, makes sense to me, I will proceed with it. I don’t want to be an authoritarian figure and a symbolic director. Each one of us at the set has to work towards the final product,” he says.
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