Ashfaq Ahmad

Read the detailed article by Sheraz Haidar which was published on 15.9.2004 on Pakistan Film Magazine.

Ashfaq Ahmad - the renowned short story writer, playwright, broadcaster and intellectual was born on August 25, 1925 in village Muksar in Ferozepur in India, migrated to Pakistan at partition, completed his Masters in Urdu literature from the Government College Lahore and delivered lectures in Italy and France on Urdu literature. His best known Radio programme was Talqeen Shah which was broadcasted more than 30 years. Ek Mohabbat So Afsaney was a super hit TV seriel by Ashfaq Ahmad. He died on September 7, 2004 in Lahore.

Ashfaq Ahmad and his film Dhoop aur Sayay

Ashfaq Ahmead wrote and directed Urdu film Dhoop Aur Sayay in 1968. The cast included Atiya Sharaf, Ejaz, Qavi and Taufaiq. Muhammad Afzal is credited for composing music for Dhoop Aur Sayay. However some individuals believe that it was Tufail Niazi who did music for this film. The film was released on March 22, 1968 but did not run for more than three days in Lahore. After the failure of his film, Ashfaq Ahmad never turned to cinema. In a interview to Pakistan Television Corporation in 1992, Ashfaq Ahmead, while answering a question to Mustansar Hussain Tarar, said that not the individual characters but dialogue responds to dialogue in Urdu films but he wanted to create a film where human beings talk to each other in local idiom, in a language which was spoken in streets and houses, in a tone which was real and not artificial so he brought out Dhoop Aur Sayay.

Ashfaq sahib admitted in this interview that the film was very weak in technical aspects owing to lack of finances. He mentioned that the camera that they used for film was old and faulty to the extent that they used to tighten a chord around it to make it stable. It took the producer Rs. 80,000 in 1968 to produce this film.

Ashfaq Sahib used to say that Dhoop Aur Sayay was produced ahead of the times. But he believed that it was his film that inspired the emergence of parallel cinema in India.

After the failure of Dhoop Aur Sayay, Ashfaq Ahmed concentrated on writing fiction, and drama for television and radio. He ruled over mini screen for three decades. Mustansar Hussain Tarar, the eminent Urdu novelist says, Pakistan Television will find it difficult to find a playwright matching Ashfaq's genius. Undoubtedly, his intellectually enriching dramas of 1970s, 80s heavily compensated Pakistanis for the absence of a parallel cinema in Pakistan.

The film is not available in Rainbow Center, Karachi, Hall Road, Lahore and Imperial Market, Rawalpindi. It may be available with some individual collector.