Finding Fawad Khan in the midst of India-Pakistan crossfire
Fawad Khan, who turns 35 today, conquered the hearts of millions of women, and not a few men, across India when his shows started appearing on Zindagi, a Zee channel that began operations in 2014.
In these fraught times, when infiltration from across the border has spiked and Zindagi itself has ceased all Pakistani programming, it is easy to forget what a smashing success Pakistani shows were for Zindagi in those halcyon days. And Fawad was their unrivalled star.
In Humsafar, he played a brooding man whose love for a woman is defeated by the shenanigans of his mother. In Zindagi Gulzar Hai, he must contend with a lover whose self-esteem routinely runs up against the demands of tradition. And in Dastaan, his love is tested by the brutality of Partition.
Fawad excelled in each of these roles, his smoldering intensity and striking good looks churning out television gold. Sharing the frame with some of Pakistan’s most commanding female acting talents, he outshone them all.
When he spoke on camera, it was impossible to take one’s eyes off him, as if he were the voice of God, dispensing the wisdom of the ages. Besides, his choice of roles indicated a willingness to portray progressive men who, even when they are struck down by the vicissitudes of social sanction, refuse to go down without a fight.
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| In Humsafar, Fawad Khan played a brooding man whose love for a woman is defeated by the shenanigans of his mother. |
Fawad unleashed the sort of frenzy that few Pakistani men have enjoyed this side of the border. Imran Khan comes to mind, his dashing good looks and performance on the cricketing field feeding into his legend. But that was the ‘80s. Few, if any, players after Imran attracted even a modicum of the attention he drew.
As India became world champions, Pakistani cricket became synonymous with the hilarious antics of Shahid Afridi. Into this gap walked Fawad. With his athleticism and poise, he would have been right at home on the field but his talents lay elsewhere.
No wonder, Bollywood beckoned.
He debuted in 2014’s Khoobsurat, a remake of the 1980 film of the same name, with Sonam Kapoor reprising Rekha’s playful character. Fawad played her love interest, and it was left to viewers to question the choice of actors for both roles — Sonam was no match for Rekha’s infectious energy, while Fawad bettered Rakesh Roshan from the earlier film by several orders of magnitude.
Fawad won the Filmfare Best Male Debut award for Khoobsurat, but it was with this year’s Kapoor & Sons that he established himself as a truly formidable presence on the big screen.
As Rahul, the closeted gay man whose truth is accidentally revealed to his mother, Fawad displayed a sensitivity that beat all acting competition – within the film and without – hollow. His careful parsing of the character, with just the right amounts of pathos and cheer, saved that important role from drowning in cliché.
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| Fawad unleashed the sort of frenzy that few Pakistani men have enjoyed this side of the border. |
He followed that up with a minor role in Ae Dil Hai Mushkil, a travesty since the film may have been watchable with more Fawad in it. But the real storm hit much before the movie’s release, as the terrorist attack in Uri led to calls for boycotting Pakistani actors.
With Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) threatening violence if the film was allowed to release, it was left to chief minister DevendraFadnavis to broker peace between MNS chief Raj Thackeray and Karan Johar, the film’s director and producer. While the movie was greenlit, Fawad’s career had aborted before it was allowed any real chance to take off.
Terrible, yes. Avoidable? Not entirely. The Pakistani deep state’s continual proxy war against India has vitiated the atmosphere too much to permit space to the salubrious effects of healthy cultural relations.
When diplomacy fails, sterner actions - including, unfortunately, the cessation of cultural exchanges - become the only viable tool. Beyond the arguments, the threat of physical and monetary damage is enough to scare producers off hiring Pakistani actors - and Fawad is not the only one engaged in Indian productions - in future.
Unless things improve - which, this being Pakistan, they are unlikely to - we may have seen the last of Fawad on our screens, big or small.
While Pakistani TV scores above its Indian counterpart, Bollwood dwarfs that country’s film business. Without our film industry to showcase his many talents, Fawad is unlikely to strike the big league. And that, more than the broken hearts of his millions of Indian fans, may be the real tragedy of the ongoing state of affairs.
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