Azfar Rehman has made quite the name for himself in the past ten years. From being the comedic side character in telefilms and an infrequent model, to being the main lead in dramas and films and being a anti-hero who outshines the cookie cutter good characters.
And not just his work ethic and consistent quality, what also makes him a breath of fresh air is that he’s funny and lights up a room with laughter and jokes. People only have good things to say about Azfar, and we are no different.
But what really makes him a star is that he gets the audience to like characters that are unconventional, against the norm , fallen and troubling. It’s revolutionary even, that in an industry that mostly tips the center stage to female leads and their stories, we can have an actor that is able to make both the invisible guy and the bad guy stand out and keep the plot interesting.
Mr. Not-So-Nice
Azfar Rehman’s most memorable and recognizable roles are his bad guy or malicious ones. His portrayals of these twisted and overbearing characters is what always makes the drama interesting and suspenseful, we want to see him get punished for the crimes that he commits, but also end up feeling slightly sorry for him.
This is seen in dramas like ‘Adhi Gawahi’ in which he plays a rich heir who tricks a friend into marrying him and makes her life miserable. Or in ‘Nazr-e-bad’ where he jumps into the trap of black magic to get the girl he wanted.
Especially in ‘Nazr-e-bad’, Azfar Rehman had a chance to stand out and shine because he was carrying the whole drama on his acting shoulders. No one else in the cast was acting as well as he, and a badly put together cast doesn’t leave a drama with many prospects but thankfully Azfar kept all the attention on himself.
He was able to be the unlikable and infuriating as Hamdan in ‘Adhi Gawahi’ and the somewhat charming but fallen from grace Pervez in ‘Nazr-e-bad’.
And we would like to see him as a villain on the big screen also.
Defying Societal Standards
There is this running joke in the industry that Azfar Rehaman is the typical male lead we tend to see on the little of big screen. They don’t see him as stereotypical masculine and often refer to him as a ‘puppu bacha’ or a ‘burger’, but that doesn’t bother him or come in his way.
Azfar Rehman lets his talent and acting do the talking and everything else follows, he is able to come off as mature or menacing, despite his friendly and harmless demeanor and that does well to break convections in the film or media world about the images of men.
The people in ARY productions got a good plot out of his image in two of their movies ‘Punjab Nahi Jaungi’ and ‘Chhalawa’. In ‘Punjab Nahi Jaungi’ he plays the unreliable love interest to Mehwish Hayat as Vasay who is the Expat Burger of the masculinity scale compared to her main lead Humayun Saeed who is your Punjabi Pindi Boi wadera. We got a good laugh out of it, and Azfar made it all the more funny.
This was later contrasted by his appearance as the main lead in ‘Chhalawa’, where is again opposite to Mehwish Hayat, and the Burger joke still makes its way into the narrative because again he was up against a hyper masculine pujabi pindi boi.
But either way Azfar Rehman makes everything worth watching and doesn’t let anything get in the way of an amazing acting opportunity.
Aatish:
Aatish was another show that allowed the actor to showcase his charming/aggravating anti-hero skills. The drama did become fan favorite and amassed views in the millions, but was a bit lack luster compared to his other dramas. The talented Hina Altaf was a nice meek contrast to Azhar’s high strung character.
And it was definitely insightful about the imbalance between the classes in Pakistani society. Like a realistic Cinderella story.
This performance was on the unlikable bad boy side, which again showcases how he is able to twist and morph into pretty much anything.
It’s an incredible sight, and I wasn’t really expecting to actually get a happy ending but he what’s good for the characters and good for ratings, is good enough for me.
We hope that he shines on the future and gets to do some really iconic roles that we can watch for generations to come, or maybe just more fantastic villain roles.
Maheen Ahmed – Writing to create culture
@lahore_la_notte
