A review on Pakistani telefilm Comedy, Do Bata Aath (2021). The TV film is directed by Kamran Akbar Khan and is written by Rizwan Hassan. The telefilm stars the comedian Ahmad Ali Butt and Maria Wasti as leads with Ahmed Hassan and Zhalay Sarhadi serving as supporting cast. As the name suggests, the telefilm also includes eight child actors. Do Bata Aath is a Momina Duraid/ HUM TV Production and was aired on the 3rd Day of Eid-ul-Fitr 2021 Special.
+ Crew
- Directed by Kamran Akbar Khan
- Written by Rizwan Hassan
- Cinematography by Abdul Qadoos
- Editing by Sheeraz Fayaaz
- Produced by Momina Duraid
- Production House: MD Production
+ Note
Do Bata Aath serves essentially as a 75 min situational comedy, where the comedic antics are always connected to the vast number of children that the married couple has. The premise can be attributed to a Hollywood comedy classic of the 2000s Cheaper By The Dozen (2003) starring Steve Martin and Bonnie Hunt. The telefilm also creates hilarious situations out of handling day to day life in the Faraz Family. Do Bata Aath is presented as the “lighter side of Life” and was a special broadcast on the 3rd day Eid-ul-Fitr 2021.
+ Main Cast
- Ahmad Ali Butt as Faraz
- Maria Wasti as Aleena
- Ahmed Hassan as Faraz’s Boss
- Zhalay Sarhadi as Biloo
+ Plot
There’s always fun and trouble brewing in the Faraz Family. While handling eight kids simultaneously with his wife, Faraz (Ahmad Ali Butt) struggles to make ends meet… or even remember the names of his kids or who came before or after. After not being appreciated enough for her efforts, Aleena (Maria Wasti) decides to take an indefinite hiatus off her motherly duties and let Faraz take her place in taking care of the kids instead. Hijinks ensue and now Faraz needs to find a balance between family life and maintaining his sanity in the process.
+ High Points
i – Maria Wasti was probably picture perfect casting as the grizzly, overworked mom of eight children. She not only looked the part but her performance matched well to her character. Probably the least offender from the whole bunch of terrible performances.
+ Low Points
i – Do Bata Aath had ONE joke throughout its entire runtime; “Hey, isn’t it funny that the family consists of EIGHT children?”. And five minutes into the telefilm, this joke got old real fast. For a comedy, there was absolutely nothing funny about this. All the jokes and setups were lazy and uninspired. The writer Rizwan Hassan probably wrote the script in an hour’s time as I refuse to believe any effort was put into this project. It’s nonsensical and unfunny throughout its runtime. You can find more comedy in the evening news than this pile of garbage.
ii – The performances are just way too ridiculous and over the top. Since the dialogue is so abhorrent, the actors are directed to over exaggerate their acting to compensate but ends up making it much worse. I don’t understand what people see in Ahmad Ali Butt but he’s not a good comedian by any stretch of my imagination. When it comes to comedy, Pakistani TV shows/ telefilms just fail miserably at it. Subtlety is not even in the cards, every performance needs to be like they are on an Umer Shareef Theater show. While Theater thrives on exaggerated performances, Television/ Film needs subtlety because the camera is much closer and personal to the actors. Why is this such a difficult idea to comprehend for Pakistani Television Production?
iii – Also the whole family dynamic makes no sense. Unlike Cheaper By The Dozen, all the children are more or less the same age. How is that even possible? Did they adopt kids in between? Were they born in pairs? What possessed them to have so many children if they clearly can’t afford all of them? It also seems obvious that there is no real ‘fatherly love’ to the kids as Faraz half the time doesn’t even remember their names or birthdays. Some context or backstory was needed for this comedy to work but the audience is given no explanation. The idea was there but absolutely nothing was built upon it. The whole telefilm relies on cheap comedy antics from its co-stars.
iv – Of all the performances, Ahmed Hassan as Faraz’s disgruntled boss was the worst. I felt literally embarrassed whenever he was onscreen. I hope he made some good money from this telefilm because this is one performance he can never live down.
v – NOISE. That’s what this telefilm is. And I don’t mean just the kids shouting all the time (although that would’ve been fitting to the premise). NOISE equals Background music here. By having constant Music running in the background of every single scene without a second’s rest, the telefilm made it perfectly clear that they had absolutely no faith in their writing and performances to maintain their audience’s attention span. It’s the “shaking of the keys in front of a cat” syndrome, HUM TV knows its garbage television and they have to try everything to keep viewers from changing channels.
vi – Speaking of Production, the camerawork and editing is just awful and unpleasant to look at. Most scenes just begin with a closeup on the actors without giving any indication to the audience where exactly the scene is supposed to be taking place in.
+ Overall
Do Bata Aath is just another uninspired mess of a telefilm which is neither funny nor creative. Its 75 minutes of my life that I will never get back.
Rate: 0.75 out of 5 stars
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