Dr. Irfan's Humour and the ability to laugh

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   Meet Dr. Irfan.  He’s a funny looking fellow who is frequently found lurking in the corridors of the unnamed hospital in Dhoop Kinaray. He flirts with any and every woman, recites terrible poetry, spontaneously cracks jokes and is funny even when he’s serious. Zoya rightly comments that were it not for him the hospital would have been a very boring place. At some points his jokes like the singing of “Mukhray pe sehra dalay aa jao aana walay” is predictable but at others he is satirical and always, always extremely witty.

      In his dealings with the janitors, Dr. Irfan mocks not only their laziness and lethargy but also his own role of an administrator where he is expected to establish order and deal strictly with this lethargy.  When scolding the sweepers about uncleanliness, he says “itna saaf karo key shakl nazr aaye” and when the poor sweeper smiles he says “tumhari nahin, Dr. Ahmar ki”. When one of the sweepers makes an excuse for an absence Dr. irfan tells him “12 mahenay tumhari biwi bemaar rehti hai, aik dafa maar kar key jaan jhurao”.  To another sweeper he says “Aap nay zehmat kyon ki aanay ki main hospital aap key ghar par utha kar ley aata”. Even with the clean uniforms issue, he tells the janitors “kitni dafa kaha hai keh wardi par nihari roti rakh kar mat khaya karo”. Thus through these situations where Dr. Irfan is to act out the role of the administrator and reprimand people, the entire situation becomes amusing. We laugh at not only the ineffectiveness, the “nihari roti” on the “wardi” but also the inability of Dr. Irfan for the role that he’s put in.  He then becomes a caricature of the administrator figure.

    Dr. Irfan is also ill-suited for the role of a quintessential lover. His chance meetings with Anji are downright comical. He tells her “Farmabardar bachyon ko aisa hi hona chahiye”. The cliché encounter of the “meeting the girl’s father” is uniquely presented through which Haseena Moin pokes fun at the whole scenario. Dr. Irfan asks Anji “ye kon hain?” to which she replies “daddy” after which he mumbles “itnay barhay daddy”.

A figure like Dr. Irfan would be extremely displaced in later Pakistani dramas, somehow we've lost the ability to laugh and you can’t have a comic figure in a ‘serious’ drama. The important question then is that why is there no place for people like Qabacha and Dr. Irfan in recent Pakistani dramas? Have we really lost the ability to laugh at ourselves?