'I Was Apprehensive About Casting Fawad Khan', Asim Abbasi On 'Barzakh'

Eleven years after Sanam Saeed and Fawad Khan charmed audiences in the romantic drama "Zindagi Gulzar Hai," the duo made their return in filmmaker Asim Abbasi's "Barzakh.".

Set against the picturesque backdrop of Hunza Valley, "Barzakh" revolves around a septuagenarian who invites his estranged family to attend his wedding. But this is no ordinary celebration. The family's patriarch is getting married to the ghost of his first love.

Asim Abbasi has often dealt with themes of dysfunctional families and intergenerational traumas, apart from deep-rooted emotional issues in his previous works such as Cake (2018) which was also Pakistan's feature film entry to the Oscars in 2019, as well as in 'Churails' in 2020, Zindagi's first Pakistani original. Asim Abbasi confesses that Barzakh is personal to him.

"I wanted to go back to my roots and do a narrative around family as well as delve into elements of dysfunction, trauma, and grief. I wrote Cake when I was dealing with my parents aging and being in and out of hospitals. During 'Churails', my father passed away. I had not processed his passing, and Barzakh was a kind of therapy for me, where I was coming to terms with my loss as well as dealing with existential themes, more at a metaphysical level. I sort of expanded the canvas and the genre. We have a family drama, but the world is much bigger in terms of magic realism," says Asim Abbasi.

Barzakh brings Pakistani heartthrob Fawad Khan back on screen once again. The actor made his Bollywood debut opposite Sonam Kapoor in 'Khoobsurat', which was followed by 'Kapoor and Sons' and 'Ae Dil Hai Mushkil'.

Asim Abbasi confesses he was not too sure if an actor of Fawad's stature would want to be part of an ensemble cast but was pleasantly surprised.

"I think we have our preconceived notions about what kind of work actors are looking for and what might appeal to them. I thought since he had already worked in India, maybe this was not what he was looking at, and he was holding back as well for the right opportunity. I thought maybe he wanted to play a lead, and when I told him about Barzakh, he liked the script and said he was looking at experimenting. Regarding being part of a multi-starrer, he said that since he had already done Kapoor and Sons, there was no reason for him not to work on this. He is a brilliant actor and is looking for different stories to tell, says Asim.

Asim, who has worked with Sanam Saeed in Cake as well as Churails, says she is one of those actors who challenges the director and is extremely involved in the creative process.

"Sanam is one of the most versatile actors we have, and she gives it her all. She is involved and has opinions. I think it's very important to have an opinionated actor-someone who's going to fight with you, question you, and make the character they embody their own. Sanam is very collaborative in that sense, and she is a never-seen-before role in Barzakh," he further adds.

The six-episode series is produced by Waqas Hassan and Shailja Kejriwal for Zindagi, a programming block on ZEE5 Global focused on collaborations and stories from the Indian subcontinent. "One keeps hearing from Gen Z that they have nothing new to watch, and a lot of the young audience in urban centers is now exposed to content from all over the world. This has given impetus to many creators to go beyond the romance genre. Also, when you say it is a creative business, there is a lot of emphasis on the creative angle. Asim brings a lot to the table; he understands the depth of human emotion and is extremely honest with what he is writing and creating, says Shailaja Kejriwal.

As world cinema, including Hollywood, gets more inclusive, Asim says he is hopeful to see more brown faces as well as the subcontinent getting representation in the west.

"With the success of films such as Bahubhali and RRR in the west, there is a real understanding that good content is not what mirrors the content in the west or mirrors the idea of the 'country', the West has chosen to highlight. There is now real excitement about the sort of content coming from the world at large. As creative people, directors, and actors, we are desperate to tell stories and get opportunities. For example, I give my actors freedom on my projects, so they get a canvas to showcase what they want to say and stories they want to tell, which they may not find mainstream," says Asim.

So which is the one Indian actor Asim Abbasi would like to work with? He responds quickly, "Rekha and Deepika Padukone."

Barzakh premiered at Series Mania in France and will be streamed worldwide on Zindagi's YouTube channel and ZEE5 Global from July 19.