Dhuwan

Dhuwan
The opening title screen for Dhuwan
Genre	Action, Drama, Thriller
Written by	Ashir Azeem
Directed by	Sajjad Ahmed
Starring	Ashir Azeem Nazli Nasr Nabeel Rohi Asal Din Khan Wajid Ali Shah Zubair Khan Achakzai Nayyar Ejaz Mohamad Nawaz Salman
Country of origin	Pakistan
Original language(s)	Urdu
No. of episodes	13
Production
Producer(s)	Sajjad Ahmed
Editor(s)	Zafar Abbas Naqvi
Location(s)	Quetta, Pakistan
Camera setup	Tahir Bukhari
Broadcast
Original channel	PTV
Picture format	PAL/SECAM
Original airing	1992 (1992)

Dhuwan (Urdu: دھواں‎, English: Smoke) is a Pakistani drama serial.^[1] The play is based on a story of five friends, who take the challenge to fight against the terrorists and drug dealers. The serial known for its neat outdoor shooting and liberal use of ammunition to convey realism.^[2]

Plot

The story of this drama revolves around five young friends who want to serve their country. Azhar (Ashir Azeem) is newly appointed as ASP. He completed his engineering degree but to contribute to the society, he opted for the police duty. His first placement is in Quetta, where he finds his old friends: Dawood (Nabeel) who is a Doctor, Naveed alias Nido (Asal Din Khan) who looks after his father's business, and Wajid who is a crime reporter in a local newspaper. Naveed and Wajid train with their friend Hameed who is the owner of an arm's store.

Azhar was being monitored by an undercover officer Sara (Nazli Nasr) posing as the UN worker. She most likely was providing information to the ministry in Islamabad. Their first meeting was on a flight to Quetta, there she tells that they are neighbors. Azhar is handed over a case of narcotics by the ministry and he is advised to assemble a team to carry out operations which cannot be shared by the local police, to avoid any possible tip-offs to the criminals. These five friends begin to train as a crack squad. They also begin to create a computerized database of NIC, Passport, and vehicle data.

Cast and Characters

Main Characters

• Ashir Azeem portrays Azhar, a qualified engineer who leaves behind his job at a major corporation and enrols as a police officer. He is stationed at a precinct in Quetta as an assistant superintendent of police. While in Quetta, he meets his old friends from college and teams up with them to rid the city of major crimes, such as drug trafficking, extortion and similar terrorist activities.

• Nabeel portrays Dr Dawood, a medical doctor working at a local clinic. He rents a house along with Azhar and joins his team. He later falls in love with Uzma, a girl they rescue from Abdul Salaam’s hideout in Afghanistan.

• Asal Din Khan portrays Naveed, and is known to his friends as Nido, a reference taken from a popular powdered milk supplement produced by Nestlé Pakistan. Naveed is employed at one of his father’s factories.

• Wajid Ali Shah portrays Wajid, a journalist working for a local newspaper reporting on crimes.

• Zubair Khan Achakzai portrays Hameed, an local arm’s dealer who owns an arms and ammunition shop in Quetta.

Other Characters

• Nazli Nasr portrays Sara, a female undercover agent keeping an eye on Azhar and his team. She works for an official ministerial oversight committee tasked to keep Azhar’s operational activities under review and poses as a United Nations worker.

• Nayyar Ejaz portrays Salman, a business tycoon and drug kingpin who has connections to narcotics and other criminal activities.

• Rija Amir portrays Rija, who works for Salman.

• Rauf Bhatti protrays Ajmal, the station house officer at the precinct Azhar is stationed at. A seasoned police officer, Ajmal is unnerved to corrupt practices in the police advising Azhar to give in to the same.

• Fayyaz Ahmed Parwana portrays Bashir, the ‘singing’ housekeeper at Azhar and Dawood’s residence.

• Azra Aftab portrays the character of Dawood’s mother.

Production

Development

Ashir Azeem wrote the script for Dhuwan during his time at the Civil Services Academy where he met several police personnel. Being inexperienced at writing scripts for television, Azeem initially wrote the story in the form of a novel and later developed it into a formal script on the advice of a television executive. Azeem’s work was primarily written in English and PTV's in-house screenwriters had to translate it into an Urdu script. Azeem later revealed that the translated screenplay couldn't completely realise his conceptualisation and he had to rework some parts.

Music

The background score is composed by Farrukh Abid. The serial also features a popular Punjabi song of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, "Kise da yar na vichray (کسے دا یار نہ وچھڑے)".

Reception

The drama serial was praised for its effective use of cinematography in conveying realism, especially for its live action sequences. Its popularity even compelled the Pakistani youth to join up with the police in serving the country.^[3]

Trivia

The five letter Urdu word Dhuwan (دھواں) forms an acronym of the names of the five friends in this order: Dawood, Hameed, Wajid, Azhar, Naveed. Ashar Azeem is a serving CSP officer and as of March 2013, he is working as Director of Custom Intelligence in Karachi.

References