Profound, dark and visually stunning — Barzakh begins on a strong note

For the longest time I’ve been wondering why Pakistan hasn’t been able to make original content for OTT. Especially when you see literally anything from across the border — their audience is massive, so that makes up for the sometimes average content — air on major platforms like Netflix or Prime. So then, why is it so difficult for Pakistan to make the kind of work that can sell on these platforms?

Watching the first episode of Barzakh made me question this even more! Written and directed by Asim Abbasi, of Cake and Churails fame, and produced by Shailja Kejriwal, the show stars Fawad Khan, Sanam Saeed, M Fawad Khan (yes, there are two Fawad Khans in Barzakh), Salman Shahid, Khushhal Khan, Sajid Hasan, Uzma Beg and Nighat Choudhry. To think that this quality of work was 80 per cent Pakistani (besides the production), I wonder when we’ll make more content for the world and not just our audience.