—Amjad Islam Amjad, playwright and poet, on the new age of private TV channels
By Umer Nangiana


It is 1979. A Pakistani feudal lord, Chaudhary Hashmat, rules his fiefdom with iron hand. Depicting a true feudal mentality, Hashmat is terror personified for his people. He would do everything to coerce his people into submission. And then his troubles start.
His land is proposed as a site for a dam. The ensuing struggle to hold onto his land triggers an intra-family tussle and eventually leads to the downfall of the despot. This is the story of Waris (Heir), the famous Pakistan Television (PTV) play first telecast in 1979-80.
The play shot its writer Amjad Islam Amjad, the recipient of Pride of Performance and Sitara-e-Imtiaz, two highest civil awards in Pakistan, to instant fame. Streets in Pakistani cities would be deserted when an episode hit the air.
Already established as a poet and writer, Amjad was then closely associated with PTV and went on to write many more serials besides publishing several collections of poetry. His ghazals (a lyric poem with repeated rhyme) have been sung by renowned singers in both Pakistan and India. His poetry collections have been translated into many languages including one in Italian recently.
His first love, he says, is poetry but he is known more for Waris, which has been aired multiple times since its first telecast. Who was Chaudhry Hashmat? Where did he come from and where did he go? What made the play resonate so well with its audiences in different times?  
Let’s get the answers straight from the person who created this character and penned his story.
“When you look back, you realise there were certain things that have always been there, they were not just visible then. It was a time when we as a nation were still caught in the legacy of colonial system and were confused between having a clear way of life. We were half here, half there,” explains Amjad, referring to decades following the partition of the sub-continent in 1947.
Attired in a comfortable Shalwar-Kurta (Pakistani traditional dress) at his hotel room, the 70-year-old playwright and poet is talking to Community ahead of a poetic symposium organised by Majlis-e-Farogh-e-Urdu Adab (Organisation for the promotion of Urdu literature), Qatar. Adjusting his eye-glasses, Amjad recalls his college days and finds the origins of Waris there.
“We had class fellows from a feudal background. Seeing their mentality and observing their lifestyles, we had a natural reaction which centred itself on the question as to where are we headed as a society,” he recollects.
Behind Waris, there were many such reactions that had been accumulating in his mind during all this time till he was asked to write a serial for PTV.
He instantly decided to write about the “decaying feudal system.” He feared the system would take long before it completely collapsed and “God knows how many would get buried under its rubble.” Knit around the ideas of justice and human rights, the play, he says, provided a new vision.
Amjad, however, credits the advent of TV in Pakistan for letting him discover his knack for writing plays.
“Had there been no TV then, I would not have been able to probably discover my abilities as a playwright. Before TV, there were radio, theatre and film, but all these mediums had their limitations,” says Amjad.
“TV created a new space for thinking minds, allowed them to come up with new ideas and discuss taboos in the society,” he adds. Talk of TV and our discussion turns to the current stage plays and dramas being aired from a plethora of private productions in Pakistan. And PTV, once a pioneer of TV drama, has been largely pushed in the background.
While many recent plays have gained huge popularity in Pakistan, as well as across the border in India, Amjad believes the quality of content in these new dramas is suffering in the hands of commercial interests.  
“Whatever PTV’s shortcomings are, the good thing about it was that it represented the whole country regardless of the creed, cast, or status. Now these new channels are largely producing stuff that does not represent our true problems,” opines the writer.
“They have started to make exception the rule. It happens nowhere else. Exceptions are exceptions and they should be treated as such,” says Amjad.  
But is the viewership not mature enough to judge it? The problem of immaturity, Amjad says, is widespread. Take politics, for instance. More than 80 percent of voters are not mature enough to qualify as voters according to the country’s constitution.
“A voter is required to cast his or her vote by exercising his free will after carefully and independently analysing a candidate’s previous record and his leadership qualities. How many of these characteristics can be found in our voters,” he asks, and then himself answers, “almost none.”
But he is optimistic. “All these depressing aspects aside, I believe that this is just a phase. I am confident that this country has abundance of talent. And the people who imbibe virtues and values are still in the majority,” says the poet.
While he criticises one aspect of the new TV channels, he appreciates them for creating awareness among people about issues besides giving them a voice and an opportunity to criticise and debate them.
Turning to poetry, the first couplet we take up is from one of his ghazals sung by Jagjit Singh, the legendary ghazal singer from India. Chaand ke saath kayi dard puranay niklay (With moon rose many wounds from the past). What was the context? He sits straight and smiles.
“You would be surprised to know that this ghazal is from my university days. It was published in 1968 in a ghazals magazine Funoon (Arts). Jagjit has sung it really well. I had spoken to him just a few days before his death and I told him he had done justice to it,” recalls Amjad.
It was from the early days of his poetry. Poets in their early days are like children. They imitate. Into sports as a cricketer in those days, he had no experience whatsoever with matters of love and betrayal.
“But these things were there in the poetic tradition. So we imitated and conceived such ideas. This ghazal is from the same impressionistic time,” says the poet. Poetry, he believes, is a combination of reading, observation and experience.
At an early age, you have more observation and less experience. As reading and experience grow, maturity arrives and your true personality starts appearing in your work.
However, he insists every era of his poetry is dear to him. What he wrote in his youth was appropriate for that time and he likes it, but does not want to eternally live in those days. “Poetry from that time I consider as a bridge which had my youth days on one side and the more mature poetic thought on the other,” says the veteran poet.
His most popular book, a poetic collection, Zara Phir Se Kehna (Say it again), was published in 1988. It has been published 25-30 times since then.
His recent collection, Batain Karte Din (Talking Days), was published a year ago. It is his 15th poetic collection and his 61st book overall.