I have a confession to make - Mr. Ashar Hussain, of the drama serial Woh Humsafar Tha, currently being aired on Hum TV and watched by millions, is one hell of an attractive man to look at (yes, at times I do make that concession.) And this got my interest piqued in him and the series itself. As I hate sitting in front of the TV for hours I chose the less tedious options of watching the play episodes on You tube. It is an interesting drama, tight characters, well defined roles, excellent direction.
What I liked about the play is the near perfect description of the Pakistani oxymoron - educated macho males, they are foreign educated, have very liberal ideas, wear couture and designer clothes, have money, but when it comes to their wives they prefer them to be "seedhi saadi" and very innocent. Ashar (whom I don't quite find so attractive after all by the 10th episode) is a life-like description of this spilt-personality, this complete psychosis, this break from what they portray to the world about themselves and what they actually are from within. Our macho man is consumed of jealousy, he simmers in anger at his wife now enjoying a little bit of his 'given' freedom, her interaction with other men is so not tolerable and makes the marriage a living hell, while the wife is expected to accept his very open relationship with the vamp Sara who has been and is rude to the wife many a times.
What is it with our men? They want their wives to behave a certain way and when they do that they come to resent the wives for following their dictates! The unreasonable jealousy and fear of the wife cheating on him with her classmate may be understandable (I'm not saying its acceptable) but the rude way he starts to behave with her on the assumption that she is being over friendly with another man is totally infuriating!! What is wrong with the man? Why does he not tell her what's bothering him? Perhaps, because, it is way too petty? he is in all honesty ashamed of feeling this way, and is angry at himself and her for making him feel this way. I feel the reason he cannot be open up to her is his inability to confront his own dark nature, he wants to suppress that and is somehow ashamed of suspecting his wife, of his own double-standards, of not having enough reason to treat her in this beastly way, and yet, his ego, his deep belief in his own righteousness, his convinced stance of being correct because he is now the master of the house - is what is his undoing. The role of a good and responsible husband and the son, that his dying father wills him to perform with credibility - he has failed to do, and failed miserably. In his relations with significant women in his life he is ambivalent, indecisive, unmanly and simply a wimp!
What a loser!
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