Who does not remember ‘Marvi’, the progressive drama serial from the 1990s about a Sindhi girl who manages to attain education by overcoming countless hurdles, both social and cultural?
This modernised version of a Sindhi folktale was dramatized by Noor-ul-Huda shah and directed by Sultana Siddiqui, and gained so much fame that there are few people who know the protagonist by her real name which is Ghazal Siddique. To date, Ghazal Siddique is Marvi for most of the Pakistanis and they have not forgotten her grace and her soft style of speaking. Ghazal Siddique did a few more works after “Marvi”, one of the popular ones being “WohKaun Hai” with Arjumand Rahim, Yasir Nawaz, Rehan Sheikh and Badar Khalil. Then she also did HUM TV’s morning show for three consecutive years, but continued to remain in people’s hearts as the innocent, struggling Marvi.
Unfortunately, Ghazal Siddique disappeared from the Pakistani television screen and has still not made her comeback on the medium. However, it is through her newly made YouTube channel that she has reconnected with her fans and has reached more than 50,000 subscribers in no time, who in the comments section, lavishly bestow their respect and love for her as her admirers from the golden days of PTV. While Siddique shares her lifestyle, her likes and dislikes and her various other talents apart from acting on her channel, she has also told in one of the videos the reason for her staying away from television for quite a long time.
The fans were told by the actress that she had shifted to Canada and since her son was in an age in which children needed the attention of parents, she decided to shift her focus from TV to her child’s upbringing
The fans were told by the actress that she had shifted to Canada and since her son was in an age in which children needed the attention of parents, she decided to shift her focus from TV to her child’s upbringing.
“I did not want to have any regrets in life. I never wanted my son to be disconnected from his cultural values, and that is the reason why I decided to stay with him while he was attaining education in a foreign country. And with the grace of God, I have succeeded in inculcating the sense of right from wrong in him. I have tried very hard to chisel a good person out of him,” she said.
Siddique also said that the need to get back to her fans arose when she felt that she had done the best she could for her son’s well-being.
Since the actress has managed to keep her beauty and freshness intact, she also shares the recipes and formulae she has been using herself with her fans so that they can benefit from them. It is reflected from Ghazal Siddique’s videos that she has been following nutritious diets, mostly based on natural food, for her channel has a large number of videos based on the ways to prepare pure fruit juices, herbal teas and detox drinks along with tips to keep the skin and hair clean and health.
The fan-following of Ghazal Siddique’s YouTube channel tells how people were badly missing the actress while she was away from media and her comeback, though through social media yet, has made them quite happy. While some people are in nostalgia of the charm Siddique created in the ’90s, some are taking interest in how she’s carrying herself in modern times.
The writer is a freelance journalist and can be reached at [email protected]