Humsafar

This article is about the Hum TV drama serial. For the novel, see Humsafar (Novel).

Humsafar
Humsafar title screen
Genre	Drama Romance
Written by	Zakir Ahmed Novel by Farhat Ishtiaq
Directed by	Sarmad Sultan Khoosat
Creative director(s)	Mirza Zeeshan Baig
Starring	Mahira Khan Fawad Afzal Khan Naveen Waqar Atiqa Odho Sara Kashif
Theme music composer	Waqar Ali
Opening theme	Woh Humsafar Tha written by Naseer Turabi performed by Qurat-ul-Ain Balouch
Ending theme	I
Composer(s)	MAD Music
Country of origin	Pakistan
Language(s)	Urdu
No. of episodes	22
Production
Executive producer(s)	Nina Kashif
Producer(s)	Momina Duraid
Editor(s)	Kashif Ahmed Tanveer Aalam Rao Rizwan Danish Usmani Faisal Saleem
Cinematography	Shehzad Kashmiri
Running time	~40 minutes
Production company(s)	Moomal Productions
Broadcast
Original channel	Hum TV
Original run	September 24, 2011 (2011-09-24) – present
External links
Humsafar.com

Humsafar (Urdu: ہم سَفر) is a drama directed by Sarmad Sultan Khoosat, based on a novel (Humsafar) of the same name written by Farhat Ishtiaq. The story revolves around the trails and tribulations of a married couple: Ashar Hussain (Fawad Afzal Khan) and Khirad Ihsan (Mahira Khan).The story of Humsafar (Novel) was laid out in retrospective manner and was mainly told in flashbacks. However the drama’s narrative is mostly linear. The drama airs on Hum TV and has gained a cult following globally and is critically acclaimed.

Synopsis

The drama begins with a glimpse into the lives of the three main characters. Khirad Ihsan (Mahira Khan) lives in Hyderabad with her mother, Maimona Ihsan, who is a school teacher and belongs to a lower middle class family. In the same frame, we are also introduced to Ashar Hussain (Fawad Afzal Khan) and Sara Ajmal (Naveen Waqar) who are revealed to be childhood best friends and belong to an upper class elite family. Sara is also Ashar's first cousin and unknown to Ashar, she is deeply in love with him. Both Ashar and Sara's mothers (Farida (Atiqa Odho) and Zareena (Hina Khawaja Bayat)) assume that Ashar will eventually propose to Sara since they have always been so close to each other.

It is soon revealed that Maimona Ihsan is diagnosed with cancer and she requests her brother to help her in this dire time of need. Her brother Baseerat Hussain (Behroze Sabzwari), out of guilt for neglecting his sister’s welfare for so long, decides promptly to bring her and Khirad to Karachi at his house and provide first class treatment for her cancer. However the doctors give up hopes of saving Maimona's life as her cancer has already progressed to an advanced stage. Maimona, in her desperate moments, who has never asked her brother for financial nor emotional help, requests that he finds a decent proposal for her daughter so she can see her happily married before she dies. Ridden with guilt at having neglected his sister’s welfare until now, Baseerat promptly decides to get Khirad married to his son, Ashar.

When Baseerat conveys his desire to his son and requests him to marry Khirad, Ashar is much taken aback since he has no plans of marrying anyone at the moment, let alone a girl who seems backwards compared to him and he has little knowledge of her characteristics and personality. When Ashar shares this news with Sara, she explodes revealing to Ashar that no one has any right over Ashar since she has loved him all her life. Ashar strictly tells Sara that he does not shares the feelings that Sara shares about him, and their relationship in his eyes has always been limited to friendship. Sara promises Ashar that she will not let him ruin his life by marrying Khirad and she will not be rejected in favour of the “illiterate” Khirad since she is better in every aspect (education, background etc). Similar woes are echoed both by Ashar himself and his mother, Farida, to Baseerat. Baseerat breaks down in front of his son, begging him to marry Khirad, as he believes that no one else could take better care of Khirad and he has complete faith that his son will not reject this proposal.

Ashar, shocked at Sara’s revelation, is torn between his wish to not see his friend heart-broken and his father’s plea for him to get married to Khirad to ease his dying sister’s angst regarding her daughter’s future. Eventually Ashar agrees to marry Khirad under his dad’s immense emotional pressure. Farida who is extremely possessive about her son, feels neglected during the whole process and lashes out her anger on Baseerat begging him to think of his son's welfare and reconsider the decision since Khirad and Ashar are such a mismatch for each other. Baseerat threatens his wife that he will divorce her if she tries to come between Ashar and Khirad’s marriage. He enforces on his wife, that this is house and whoever he decides will live in this house and he will make sure he will kick Ashar's mother out if she does not complies to his wishes and accepts this marriage without creating a fuss.

Meanwhile, Khirad is even more shocked than Ashar to hear about her proposed marriage to Ashar. She has trouble believing that Ashar accepted her right away, which is revealed to be true after Sara pays her a visit and tells her to find a guy of her own standards and that Ashar is only marrying her due to immense emotional pressure that his father is putting on him. Khirad decides to talk to Ashar but overhears Ashar conversation with a friend about her being backwards and illiterate. Khirad who is revealed to be very egoistic is deeply hurt. She is stuck between her own and her dying mothers wishes and is unable to reject her arranged marriage to Ashar. Sara tries to commit suicide and is unsuccessful at her attempt. She asks Ashar to reconsider his decision about marrying Khirad. Ashar promises Sara that he will try his best to convince his dad. However before Ashar even has a chance to talk to his father, he and Khirad, are married in a rush due to Maimonas falling health. Maimona dies a week later.

Ashar and Khirad begin their marriage on a very somber note, where both of them feel that they have been included into each others lives without consent and are being enforced on each other. None of them are happy about the union, however Ashar promises Khirad that he will try his best to make her feel comfortable and this marriage work even though he knows that it will take them a long period of time to come to an understanding.Khirad who is very proud and egoistic is deeply hurt by the fact that she has been forced into Ashar’s life and feels that her self respect has been lost.

The rest of the drama is focused and revolving around answering the question Are Khirad and Ashar able to work their marriage out? Do they eventually start to form a bond, love and respect that a marriage requires? Is it possible to form an everlasting unbreakable bond with the very person you initially did not want in your life and how fragile is this bond that takes such a long time to build. The problems that occur between Khirad and Ashars marriage, whose faults are those and can Ashar and Khirad come to a better understanding about the issues they have had to deal with during their marriage?

Characters

• Mahira Khan portrays Khirad Ihsan,

• Fawad Afzal Khan portrays Ashar Hussain,

• Naveen Waqar portrays Sara Ajmal,

• Atiqa Odho portrays Farida Hussain,

• Sara Kashif portrays Hareem Hussain,

• Noor Hasan portrays Khizar Alam,

• Behroze Sabzwari portrays Baseerat Hussain,

Cast

Main Cast

• Mahira Khan as Khirad Ihsan
• Fawad Afzal Khan as Ashar Hussain
• Naveen Waqar as Sara Ajmal
• Atiqa Odho as Farida Hussain
• Sara Kashif as Hareem Hussain

Other Credited Cast

• Behroze Sabzwari as Baseerat Hussain
• Hina Khawaja Bayat as Zareena Ajmal
• Noor Hasan as Khizar Alam
• Qaiser Naqvi as Batool Bano
• Aalia A.
• Zaida Batool
• Hadi
• Shazia Khan
• Mohsin Ali
• Sundus Khan
• Manoj
• Zaheer Haider
• Saima
• Nisha
• Faizan

Changes from the novel

-In the novel, Sarah is a very limited character and is never close to Ashar and nor is his best friend or works with him. Sara's role in the drama was expanded to a main character. Hareem was the portaganist; however in the drama she had a minor role and does not appears until episode 15.

-In the novel, Ashar and Khirad have a proper wedding ceremony and a grand reception after Maimoona's mourning period has passed. In the drama, Ashar and Khirad never have a proper wedding, instead they have a simple nikkah ceremony and soon afterwards Maimoona dies. There is no mention of a wedding nor a reception (Walima). However, in episode 19 when Hareem requests to see the wedding pictures it is never explained where the pictures of the wedding came from if the two events never occurred or weren't mentioned.

-Khirad and Maimoona reside in Nawabshah in the novel however; the drama's location is changed to Hyderabad.

-Khizar in the novel is never in love with sara but to another girl, named Mehreen and never comes back from America.

-In the drama it is never explained how or where Hareem has seen Ashars picture or why she suddenly becomes so attached to her father even though she has never met him before. In the novel, it was explained by the heart necklace that Khirad is wearing when she is kicked out of the house which contains a picture of ashar (a birthday gift Ashar bestows on Khirad). When Khirad takes the necklace out after four years before her move to Karachi, Hareem becomes interested in the picture and Khirad explains to Hareem that it is her father who loves her a lot but lives in a different city and will bring her loads of toys and dolls. Khirad does not want to instigate a bad image of Ashar in Hareems mind at such an early age. She also gives the necklace to Hareem to keep, so can learn what her father’s image looks like.

-Ashar does not bring Hareem and Khirad back to his house in Karachi (like it is shown in the drama) but rents a separate apartment for them in the novel.

-The Drama’s end was changed significantly from the novel, as in the novel the only confrontation that occurs is between Ashar and Farida before it’s concluded.

Soundtrack

The theme song Woh Humsafar Tha was composed by Waqar Ali and sung by Qurat-ul-Ain Balouch, and was written by Naseer Turabi. The lines of the song are frequently used during the course of the show.

In certain parts of the show, a track from Dexter, "Blood Theme" composed by Daniel Licht is played. However, there's no mention of credits in this regard. It is probable plagiarism.