‘Yaar Julahay’ is a project of 12 episodes of a dramatic reading of top stories written by legendary Urdu and Hindi writers like Gulzar, Saadat Hasan Manto, Ismat Chughtai, Munshi Premchand, Amrita Pritam, Qurratulain Haider, Balwant Singh, Asad Muhammad Khan, Ghulam Abbas, Rajinder Singh Bedi, and Intezar Hussain. ‘Yaar Julahay’ aims to bring lifen to the stories of these writers.
This series will feature Maira Khan, Sarmad Khoosat, Sarwat Gilani, Nimra Bucha, Yasra Rizvi, Fawad Khan, Sania Saeed, Irfan Khoosat, Samiya Mumtaz, and Faisal Qureshi who will be dramatic reading the stories. This series is directed by Sarmad Khoosat and Kanwal Khoosat. The first episode will be aired on 15th May 2021 at Tata Sky Theatre at 2 pm and 8 pm.
A treat for your eyes, ears, and mind!
Watch Yaar Julahay, a series of dramatic readings of pure delight featuring scripts by legendary writers, starting from 15th May on #TataSkyTheatre. pic.twitter.com/Da0sMekNyf— Zee Theatre (@Zee_Theatre) May 7, 2021
Maira khan will be reading Ahmed Nadeen Qasmi’s classic story ‘Guriya’ which is the story of two buddies Mehra and Bano. The character of Bano has a doll that impersonates Mehra while Mehra does not like the doll in any way. With time their fondness and hate for the doll raise to many folds. Towards the end comes an unusual twist to the storyline that delicately unfolds the mystery around the doll.
Indian filmmaker and a senior official of ZEE Entertainment, Shailja Kejriwal, says that all of the episodes of the series feature the immersive reading of an incredible story that is as distinctive and complex as the subcontinent we live in.
Adding that all of the writers have tried to achieve realism through characters that we can still identify with. It was a pleasure to work on these classic tales because we have collaborated with them before and they always finished their task with artistic compassion and deep respect for the material they are working with. Their emotional connectivity was needed for a project as unique as this, Kejriwal added.
Pakistani actress and host Sania Saeed while speaking with Pakistani newspaper Dawn said, she considered the series much diverse as dramatic readings have not ever been done back in the day. A lot of people would not connect with reading. You know like me, Sarmad, Nimra, Yasra — people would say okay they can do elaborate readings — but a lot of other actors are also doing a few stories, she further added.
Writers give their best for the project as the dramatic readings in ‘Yaar Julahay’ is the celebration of the writers who dared to unleash the outlawed topics of the subcontinent. They are a celebration of the works that remind us to look beyond what is shown to us, Saeed added.
