Posted:
The PH have referred to QH as a story about a family who happen to be Muslim. Unlike many shows on Indian television, the relevance of what any religious activities have been kept to the bare minimum. While other shows show their characters actively praying or calling on God for help or using the religious texts to find inspiration or justifying actions, QH has hardly made an attempt to show any of their characters engaging in anything of the sort.
For example, we have seen Zoya pray twice in the show - one time at the beginning and a second time when Dilshaad was injured at the hospital.
Asad was seen praying one time.
Dilshaad once went to see a priest and I believe in that episode ran into Rashid.
Asad saw Zoya at the Daargh? Is that the right word.
Ayaan went to a shrine/daargh to pray for Humeira.
Dilshaad hosted a Qu'ran Khani.
And there you go. Not one mention of the fact Ramzan is one month away. No mention or dialogue of a single character saying "I am going to pray." Or even an attempt to repeat a single line from the Qu'ran or Hadith to validate a point. The closest we got was Dilshaad blasting Shireen with "ooper vala dekh raha hai." I mean even characters who do wrong can be seen praying - it happens in Islam - believe it or not people who do wrong do pray (like those who are suicide bombers do, so why can't Tanveer and Razia 😉)
We have not even seen a creative scene where a religious act could be used within the show. Here's a simple one: Asad and Rashid are at Friday namaaz and they happen to be praying next to each other - traditonally the men hug each other, what do Rashid and Asad do at this point? Acknowledge each other, turn away. Often when you start a new set of prayers or rakat, you switch with the other person- this could be shown with Rashid and Asad. The writers could have had them listening to a Khutbah - a sermon about the importance of family and forgiveness and understanding each other - many verses in the Qu'ran and hadith talk about these values.
If Gul Khan really wanted to show Muslims in a positive light, she could have shown this by highlighting some of the values that the faith has to influence their behavior. However, I believe, because none of the writers have an interest in doing any research in the matter, nothing of this sort will be done.
So with Ramazan coming ahead will the writers even mention it or even show their characters fasting? Will they even show the traditional practices of seheri and iftar, the dishes, the parties, the taking out of new clothes, the celebrations, the parties and what it means to Muslims, OR will this completely be ignored? And after Ramazan, will they even chose to show Eid? Does the PH know when it will start, end, why it happens?
Beyond a trip to Ajmer, we will see hardly anything.
After the ignorance behind the slap and the skirt issue, I have completely lost faith in the PH and their ability to even present a liberal Muslim family. I chose to watch QH because I was excited to see a Muslim family on television, I didn't mind that they had a young girl wearing jeans etc. I would not even have minded if Zoya had had a few drinks while hanging with her friends in New York - which is more common than the wearing of short skirt - YES it is, but for me the lack of research as to what is a Muslim family clearly shows. I would strongly encourage the team to conduct some focus groups from a variety of different groups and get feedback.
Forum32 could start asking Muslims who frequent their site, FB page etc to generate ideas of what Ramazan is to them, what it means and what they do. Those ideas could be integrated into the show. I am sure many would be excited to share and a wealth of information could be derived.
Anupamaa
