Adil Najam
The legendary PTV (Pakistan Television) comedy skit-show from the 1980’s Fifty-Fifty may well be the greatest (one of the greatest?) PTV shows ever. Based loosely on US comedy show Saturday Night Live, it was a revolutionary concept and literally ruled the airwaves like very few shows ever have, before or since.
This is my continuing testimony to the brilliance of Shoaib Mansoor, but in this case it was also the writing excellence of Anwar Maqsood and the versitality of the acting trio Ismail Tara, Majid Jehangir and Zeba Shahnaz which made this show a must-see every week. Here is a short clip from the show. Enjoy!
Click twice on arrow at center, or view it directly here.
See more video clips from Fifty-Fifty here.
I was too young to remember this show properly, but I do remember my parents used to watch it regularly. I also seem to recall a show that was loosely based on Alfred Hitchcocks thrillers, could anyone please tell me its name?
Also I really like the Army show Alpha, Bravo, Charlie.
They don’t make em like that anymore in Pakistan.
I am looking to get Ashfaq Ahmed’s Aik Muhabbat Sau Afsanay aired by PTV in 1975.
Can someone direct me to a link or contact address where to get them?
It could be one of the best comedy shows but not THE best ever.But credits must go to Anwar Maqsood and Shoaib Mansoor to have craeted this for us in the 1980s.
Each episode was only 20 mins and aired just once a week.Hardhitting punches at the government departments but nothing changed.As someone said,if satirical shows could have changed things,the world would have been paradise by now.Instead things got worse in Pakistan.
It is sad to see that bad quality pirated VHS prints are being passed off as ‘DVDs’s and sold expensively everywhere.
PTV has no mechanism and system in place to market its gems in high quality DVDs.Hence the edge PTV once had has almost faded away in the past.
can somebody please tell me who was the actress in the rano scene when her husband says “RANO DON’T CRY RANO, I WILL BE BACK” and she replies “PANCHI TE PARINDEY I MEAN BIRD AND PASSENGERS ARE NEVER BACK VE YOU ARE A GREAT LIER I DONUT BELIEVE YOU!!” and he says “RANO YOU JUST SHUT UP RANO” and she says “VE YOU SHUT UP VE!!” I think it was zeba but others think it was bushra ansari. Please please if anyone can answer this question correctly and surely I would realy appreciate it. thanx
Fifty Fifty is definetly one of THE best shows PTV produced along with dramas like Angan Terha (by Anwar Maqsood) and Ankahi (Haseena Moin) among some others which we still watch like every other Sunday :). Its just really sad the quality of dramas produced now a days is so bad… I can harldy watch anything without getting irritated at the unnecessary glamour and bad acting and usually bad story lines.. *sigh*
If any of you have GEO TV on Dish Network, do check out a show called “Ulta Seedha”. I find it really funny. Its a production out of Karachi, do check it out.
This post is interesting timing as I had already been thinking about the sorry state of comedy programs in Pakistan now. Though I do happen to think there also have been other great comedy shows on PTV by Anwar Maqsood, such as Showtime etc. Will do a blogpost upon it soon. But this clip was a good idea.
Definitely the best Comedy to come out of Pakistan yet !!! Anybody know if there are more on the web ?
Owais sahab, thank you for rekindling those faded memories of Fifty Fifty…My personal favourite is about the cop pulling over the motorbike rider for speeding and the biker said that his name was “Mustansar Hussain Tararr” !!!