A review on Pakistani drama series, Digest Writer (2014). This TV series is directed by Ahmed Kamran and written by Madiha Shahid. Digest Writer stars Saba Qamar in the lead role and in 2014, was aired on Hum TV.
+ Crew
- Directed by Ahmed Kamran
- Written by Madiha Shahid
- Produced by Larachi Entertainment
+ Note
The drama series dives into the bizarre, corrupt world of writing where egos play a key role in politics of the entertainment industry. Although the title of the show is Digest Writer, the show primarily focuses on the show business side of writing. The plot also indulges in the misogyny and family pressures that women have to face and eventually overcome those obstacles.
+ Main Cast
- Saba Qamar as Fareeda/Rashk-e-Hina
- Gohar Rasheed as Shaukat
- Maheen Khalid Rizvi as Jameela
- Khalid Ahmed as Mazhar Hayat
- Zhalay Sarhadi as Rida Anmol
- Farhan Ali Agha as Sikandar
- Aiman Khan as Shakeela
- Kashif Mehmood as Ayaan Junaid
- Agha Ali as Sheheryar
+ Plot
Fareeda comes from a lower, middle class part of society who loves to write stories but is too afraid to share her passion with her family due to their conservative values. Eventually, she gains enough courage to submit her story to a local Urdu Digest and becomes an overnight sensation. With success in her storytelling abilities, the opportunity of a lifetime comes knocking at Fareeda’s door…
+ High Points
i – The drama series has a very intriguing premise. It is a case study of a talented young woman who has a knack for great storytelling. Because of her success as a Digest Writer, she is elevated to writing TV series scripts and from there on, the show becomes meta commentary on show business itself. And of course, with quick success comes jealousy and sabotage. Digest Writer does a good introspection of how show business in Pakistan works and what lies beneath the facade of visual storytelling.
ii – Even when the drama is struggling to be coherent with its storytelling, Saba Qamar as Fareeda is always the highlight of the show. With each passing episode, you can notice the evolution of Fareeda growing more bitter and numb to the abuse she has to face from her family and her bosses. Saba Qamar was casted perfectly as the naive, wonder eyed writer and proved to be a memorable role for her career.
iii – For the most part, the show is bitter and pessimistic but it perfectly encapsulates the world of show business. Throughout the series, we see Fareeda’s naivety being destroyed in front of her eyes, where “you should never meet your heroes” rings true like never before. Fareeda finds herself in a situation where she is forced into making sacrifices for the sake of her loved ones in order to maintain stability within her family life. Success is not all glitz and glamour, it has a dark underbelly that we do not get to see often in Pakistani dramas and for the most part, Digest Writer encapsulates it quite well.
iv – What I really appreciate is the visual differences you see of Fareeda throughout the series. She starts off as a naive, wide eyed girl with pony tails but slowly evolves into a mature but hardened woman. Just the change in her makeup and hairstyling makes a massive difference to the viewers watching this story unfold.
v – No matter how flawed the scripts are, Hum TV dramas are always well shot, directed and framed. Every scene defines the situation the characters find themselves in. Every tight framing from the window defines the claustrophobia our protagonist is experiencing at the time. Subtle visual elements like these keep the audience engaged with the show till the very end.
+ Low Points
i – Before I go any further into the critique of the show, the “copyright” elephant in the room needs to be addressed here. The entire drama series has been uploaded on Youtube for several years now and in every single episode, certain sections have been entirely muted due to “copyright issues”. Alright but then why is the dialogue muted as well? As most of us know, dialogue and music are two separate audio files and if HUM TV still holds the original editing files, would it not be possible just to mute certain copyrighted music sequences? My guess is either the original files do not exist anymore so they decided to just use the exported files to mute out entire audio sequences OR Hum TV was just too lazy to edit out from the original files. Either way, this is incredibly unprofessional and most of all, hurts the viewing of the show.
ii – This show did not deserve 24 episodes and clearly, should have ended 10 episodes ago. The creative team uses every dirty trick in the book to stretch and prolong the drama series and it became pretty stale half way through its run. There are countless scenes of Fareeda “meditating” her thoughts, repetition of the same dialogues we heard in the previous scene, long stretches of the soundtrack playing while absolutely nothing happens onscreen. This is absolutely no exaggeration that these “nothing happens” scenes take up at least five episode runtime for the entire show and that is just ludicrous!
SPOILER!!! If you haven’t seen the show yet and do not want the plot twists to be spoiled, please skip to the ‘Overall’ section below:
iii – In the latter half of the series, the constant back and forth between Fareeda and Shaukat became so monotonous and predictable. Shaukat is a terrible husband and cheats on her, she snaps back at him and regrets her life choices. This dynamic is repeated one too many times and at least one expects a conclusion to all this but nope, nothing really happens. Fareeda accepts her misery while Shaukat somewhat (?) learns his lesson? What are we supposed to learn from all this? That success comes with a miserable private life? That people (including your own family) care for you only because of your wealth and success? Sure but where is the nuisance in all this? We know all of this. It’s not a big revelation that should make us sit through the entire 24 episode drama series.
iv – Digest Writer has another prominent side character which could have been a good “ally” for Fareeda but ends up being a disgruntled artist himself. And yes, I am talking about Khalid Ahmed as Mazhar Hayat. He starts off as a character who is being pushed around in the drama industry for being too “old fashioned” and a “has-been”. But when he finally gets a chance to show the industry what he can really do, Mazhar sahib takes his frustrations out on Fareeda instead. I do understand that there are a lot of veteran artists like Mazhar sahib who abuse upcoming artists to cement their ego but Fareeda already had numerous such characters in this show. Mazhar could have been a unique positive character in her life but ended up being exactly like the rest. This is not a knock for being “unrealistic” but lack of diversity within the show.
v – Most of the cast of characters were unlikable. They are underwritten, shallow figures who are only there to either support or abuse Fareeda. They have no characteristics of their own. I cannot, for the life of me, explain what characteristics defined any of these people. The father starts off abusive but turns a new leaf once he learns that his daughter’s “hobby” can be profitable. Shaukat starts off as a lonely heart, desperate fool who wants to win the love of Fareeda but once accomplished, he immediately turns into an abusive psychopath. These sudden “character switch” moments are too jarring and make no real sense. We never get to see the world from their perspective, we never truly understand what makes Shaukat act the way he does. The entire cast of characters act the way they do is in service of the story and not the other way around.
vi – The original soundtrack is not bad per se but its overuse with every scene made me hate it when the show was over. Every meditative moment of Fareeda had the same soundtrack blasting in the background. It personally made me feel skipping such scenes entirely as I knew nothing will happen here and it’s not worth my time.
vii – And finally, we can talk about the “secret lover” of Fareeda; Agha Ali as Sheheryar. Even though her heart wanted to marry Sheheryar, her “obligations” to her family got the better of her. Later in the series, they coincidentally meet again and once again, confront their feelings for each other. But then, it turns out that Sheheryar also is not a “good person” to be with. So Fareeda calls it off once again. As a viewer, you are kind of left scratching your head as to why Sheheryar was reintroduced to the series just to cement the fact that he is “just like the rest of the men”.
I like the fact that they bump into each other again but why not show him happily married with kids, quite possibly not in love with Fareeda anymore and that in turn, makes Fareeda realize the biggest mistake of her life. That perhaps, she should have defied her parents and went to the path of her personal happiness instead. I truly feel that Sheheryar’s character was mishandled in the end and ruined the show as well.
+ Overall
A great premise is wasted on repetitious storytelling and uninspired characterizations. Digest Writer could have been a unique show but ended up being a dud.
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