FLASHBACK: ‘THE MOTHER OF ALL SERIALS’
Few Pakistani television serials have enjoyed the kind of iconic status that Khuda Ki Basti has, which has often also been dubbed ‘The Mother of All Serials.’ When it was telecast on Pakistan Television in 1974, it broke all records of popularity and took a firm hold on the entire nation — it was the first drama during which streets wore a deserted look during the time it was televised, as people huddled in homes to watch it. It became the centre of every conversation due to its powerful plot about the early days of Pakistan and the perils of modern society with its story of social and sexual exploitation.
Such was its legend that it was re-telecast in 1990, a full 16 years after its most memorable run. But most people are unaware that the 1974 version — which is the version available for viewing on YouTube as well — was itself a recreation of the original serial first telecast in 1969, in the very early days of television in Pakistan, and a full half a century ago. The story of why that recreation was necessary is also a story in itself.
Written by the late Shaukat Siddiqui in 1957, Khuda Ki Basti was the first ever Urdu novel to be translated into 11 languages. It was also the first Urdu novel to win the Adamjee Adabi Inaam [Adamjee Literary Prize] in Pakistan under the aegis of the Pakistan Writers Guild (PWG), in 1959.
This year marks 50 years since the late Shaukat Siddiqui’s celebrated novel Khuda Ki Basti was first adapted for the screen. Most only know the serial through its 1974 recreation and the original 1969 production was considered lost…
The story, set in the slums of Karachi in the 1950s, revolves around a poor and struggling single-parent family and the deprivations the family suffers at the hands of the corrupt and those out to exploit them. A widowed mother of three is romantically pursued by a man from her neighbourhood, but rather than becoming the family’s hope for a better life, the man has other dastardly motives. It becomes apparent that he is interested in using marriage to the widow to gain access to her young daughter Sultana and to exploit the mother for insurance. Not only does he connive with a doctor to medically murder the widow after marrying her, he then proceeds, in tandem with other shady characters from the neighbourhood, to exploit both Sultana and her younger brothers Nausha and Annu.