TV drama Sang-e-Mar Mar paints an honest picture of Swat's culture
Filmi-style dramas have been in vogue for the past couple of seasons but Hum TV’s Sang-e-Mar Mar bucks the trend, reminding us just how powerful subtlety and detail can be.
Like the recent Udaari, this serial is set on a broad canvas, touching on social issues, exploring the lives of many characters; introducing us to a world as cold and beautiful as the marble in its title.
The recent film Janaan gave us a glimpse of the more liberal side of Pashtun society that many complain is often obscured by fundamentalist stereotypes. Sang-e-Mar Mar however, gives us a snapshot of more conservative and traditional families of Swat.
What Sang-e-Mar Mar is about
The story focuses on the family of Gulistan Khan (Nauman Ejaz), a harsh, cruel man who rules his family with an iron will and wields considerable influence in the area where he lives.
His kinder, gentler wife Shamim (Sania Saeed) is nothing more than a glorified slave who has survived by accepting her husband’s word as if it were the word of God and the good fortune of producing three sons.
The eldest son Safiullah (Omair Rana) is obedient to a fault and his father’s right hand man while middle son Gohar (Agha Mustapha) is the left hand; obedient but depraved and hot-tempered. Aurang (Mikaal Zulfikar) is the youngest, a kind and good-natured person. Just like his mother, he is often disgusted by Gulistan Khan’s behaviour. However, his sister Bano (Uzma Hassan) is as arrogant as her father.
Also part of this mix is Gulistan Khan’s nephew, Tora Khan (Masroor Paras) and his sister Palwasha (Sharmeen Ali). Tora Khan is a man haunted by the traumas of his mother’s death at Gulistan Khan’s hands, the smoldering fires of revenge burn bright in his heart with every fresh humiliation heaped on him by his wife Bano and the rest of his uncle’s family.
When Gohar starts an affair with a girl from a neighbouring village, it sets into motion a spiral of events leading to murder, revenge and even more unforeseen consequences. Saif Ur Rehman (Tipu Sharif) suspects Gohar’s love interest is his sister Shireen (Kubra Khan) and is manipulated into murdering Gohar in the name of honour or ghairat. The naïve Shireen has never even met Gohar; instead, she imagines herself in love with Aurang, who was once her childhood friend.
Shireen is just an innocent victim of circumstance in a society where women are treated like commodities to pay off debts and seal the peace.
Major themes
Writer Mustafa Afridi has given us a wonderfully nuanced and balanced story showing us every facet of the human condition. While Afridi spares nothing in illustrating the restrictive, stifling life that women lead in this highly conservative culture, he balances these realities with touches of softness that are also part of any culture.
Whether it is Durkhaney and Shireen’s sweet friendship, full of jokes and dares or Safiullah's love for his first childless wife, viewers are given a wide perspective. These people are not just cold and rigid, just like all people they are vulnerable and at times surprisingly kind.