Feeling misfit in harsh environment of a municipal school, he often used to bunk off his classes and left his academic studies after his high school.

A promising scriptwriter and filmmaker, Mudassar Mahmood Naaru, was born to a working class family in 1984 on the outskirts of Faisalabad.

Soon, he started living on his own by working for a publishing house, run by famous Punjabi poet Anjum Saleemi.

“My circle of literary friends, poets and short storywriters like Khawar Jillani, Nazar Javaid and Riaz Majeed groomed me as a mother institution. It was the turning point in my life,” he admits.

Later, he developed a passion for literature and resumed his academic studies. After doing FA in 2004, he moved to Lahore and met renowned poet and scriptwriter Khalid Ahmed.

“I would sit regularly with my friends in a tea shop at Lakshmi Chowk. I developed a friendly relationship with Khalid Ahmed and he was kind enough to teach me technical aspects of scriptwriting for television,” he recalls.

He worked for PTV as a content writer for a couple of years, and then started writing poetry and short stories. All his writings were appreciated and published in reputed literary magazines.

A couple of his short stories in Urdu and Punjabi were awarded as the Best Short Story of the Year in 2005 and 2006 by literary organisations.

He worked as a presenter for ‘Mast FM 103’ for two years. “Interaction with callers during live shows helped me a great deal in building self-confidence,” he says.

He was an active member of the writing fraternity and was elected as the Joint Secretary of ‘Halqa Arbab-e-Zouq’ for five consecutive sessions from 2006 to 2010.

“Supported by likeminded people, I tried to rebuild the organisation,” he said.

After doing his Masters in Mass Communication in 2008, he joined the National College of Arts for a video editing course. “I developed keen interest in films after realising the power of this medium and started watching movies analytically,” he says.

He served as part of the visiting faculty of the Film and Television Department at the NCA for almost a year. The first documentary he made on the life of Muhammad Ali Jinnah from 1947 till his last breath was aired by a private TV channel.

He worked as co-director to produce another documentary portraying the hardships of powerloom workers of Faisalabad. ‘Lazzat-e-Sang’ is one of good works to his credit.

He conceived the script and worked as co-director of the short film, based on the discourse of Saadat Hassan Manto’s opposition by the conservative circles.

“I think the issues Manto dealt with and the way society reacted to them are still valid in our socio-political scenario. The film was well received at public screenings, the response especially from Manto’s family was quite encouraging,” he says.

After working as production associate for a leading TV channel for three years, he set up a studio of his own. Currently, he is working on scripts and doing research for his short films.

“With the help of a strong script, one can produce extraordinary films, like the Iranian filmmakers, with limited resources. We failed to create an identity of Pakistani cinema because we lacked in content,” he believes.

“It is the responsibility of young filmmakers to come up with strong scripts and pro-people narratives to produce quality films,” he concludes.

Published in Dawn, June 29th, 2014