Mawra Hocane has delivered one of her career-best performances in the recently finished drama serial Sabaat. The drama was highly praised for having a female protagonist that was truly progressive and empowering. Anaya, the character played by Mawra in the drama, gave the Pakistani audience the kind of female lead that had been missing from the screens lately. Educated, sensible, well-loved and supported by her parents, and being empowered enough to face all the challenges life threw her way without compromising on her self-respect, Anaya was a rare character and Mawra did complete justice to her with her performance in the drama.
In an interview given to BBC Asia, Mawra talked about how she felt lucky to have been given the chance to play Anaya as it was a character that the audience could look up to for positive influence. However, she also thinks how the burden of always playing the progressive and ideal characters shouldn’t always fall on the actors.
Art and responsibility
The host Haroon Rashid talked about how Mawra herself is an independent and liberated individual in her real life and questioned whether that puts a responsibility on her to choose the roles that reflect her real-life individualistic traits? Mawra replied that as she is growing as an actor, she is starting to realize that there is a responsibility that she has to fulfill on her part. She talked about her roles in Sammi and Aangan where through Sammi, the drama gave an important social message, and Aaliya (Aangan) was a strong character for the time period the drama was based in. So, she is well aware of the responsibility of an actor.
“But you cannot let the responsibility overpower the art. You also have to enjoy the characters that might not have a big lesson to teach to the audience but just entertain them.”
Mawra further elaborated how the time at which a person chooses which character to play also matters.
“Sabaat happened at a time where I really connected to Anaya. But similarly, I had fun playing Zoe (Jawani Phir Nahin Ani 2) and there was not any lesson I was giving with that.”
Freedom to play different characters
According to Mawra, it matters more about how an artist presents themselves as an individual on social media or the practical things they do for the betterment of society. But when it comes to their artistic endeavors, actors might not always want to do the right and progressive kind of a role, and that they should be allowed to choose characters that they want to play.
“I may want to do a negative character with no values whatsoever. But that does not mean I want to influence society in the wrong way. That just means that I want to play different characters.”
Mawra said that artists shouldn’t always be expected to do the right things and that they should be given the chance to experiment.
