Khawaja and Son

About This Drama

Khawaja and Son (1985) was one of PTV's most warmly received domestic comedies — a series built around the particular challenges facing a widower of considerable dignity raising one son and nine daughters in a society with firm views about both family structure and patriarchal responsibility. Written by the poet and columnist Ata ul Haq Qasmi and directed by Ayub Khawar, the drama gave Ali Ejaz — one of the great comic actors of Pakistani television — the central role that most fully showcased his gifts: a man simultaneously pompous and tender, principled and hapless, who meets the complications of his unusual domestic situation with a mixture of bluster and genuine love. The series was warmly received for the honesty of its observation of Pakistani middle-class family life and for the quality of the ensemble around Ejaz, who brought the Khawaja household to life with complete conviction.