Shahrzad And Its Vibrations

I’ve recently watched a show that I really liked, an Iranian one. And by “recently”, I really mean to say “a few months ago”. It is not often that I enjoy watching Iranian shows. In fact, I don’t watch them that often unless by recommendation, just as I saw this one. It is quite marvelous. It is set in the past, which is always something I enjoy, and it’s a very powerful love story. In addition to the main love story, there are several other love stories that are taking place throughout the show, which starts get annoying after a while because it seems like everyone is in love in that show! Oh and the show’s name is "Shahrzad."

This is one of those stories that does not bore you. In fact, throughout the entire show, every time one episode ended, my sister, grandmother and I (we were all living together at that point and watching the show together) would need to talk about it for several days before we can continue with our lives so we can have less days to wait for the next episode. The show came out with a new episode once a week, on Mondays. In fact, I got into this show pretty late with my sister; my parents and several of my friends were already into this show since the first few episodes. We got into this show when it was already in its 16^th week!

In any case, it was a brilliant show and because it was so popular among the people of Iran as well, they are already thinking of making the second season in this series. This makes me very happy since it is just such a good show. On the other hand, yes, it’s a good show, but how many of these really good shows are shown in Iran? To me, it seems like once a few years, a really good show comes out like this one that wows everyone and interestingly, they are all from the same director/writer! It seems like there’s only one “Hassan Fathi” and only he knows how to make TV shows! He uses the exact right balance between love, betrayal, and portraying society in all its ugliness and beauty at the same time. He has done this previously with the shows “Zamaneh”, “Miveye Mamnooe”, “Dar Masire Zayande Rood”, and there’s another one that I haven’t seen named “Madare Sefr Darajeh”.

Every time, he hand-selects the best actors and actresses to make his show and every time, it wins! For the first time, with Shahrzad, it became the type of show that couldn’t make it on the “public networks” and were instead shown in “home cinemas” a.k.a. you had to purchase the DVD week by week. It didn’t cost a whole lot—4 Thousand Tooman, which is equivalent to a little over a dollar. However, you have to understand that the Iranian people are not used to having to pay extra for the show they’re trying to watch week by week unless it’s a foreign show! At first, people were hesitant to purchase it week by week and watch it but soon enough after the third and fourth episodes were out, more and more people have borrowed the one DVD that was purchases and it had circulated enough among friends and family that more and more people had seen it and were already dying to know what happened next. And that’s how people went from considering 4 Thousand Tooman as very expensive to standing in line on Monday evenings to purchase the newest DVD.

Most Iranian shows are about 10-15 episodes long and they end there’s no such thing as going on to the next season and the one after that until it’s “finished” or “cancelled” like here in the U.S. However, recently a couple of shows that was also one where people had to purchase its DVD week by week that continued on to up to four seasons! This is a first for Iran. More importantly, the shows wouldn’t get stupid as it went but more and more interesting with slightly different plots each season! As for Shahrzad, I’m sure it will be very good and hope so as well because it has definitely left its mark.

Those that have been touched by Shahrzad and its beautiful love story have forever changed, and not just people in Iran, but here abroad as well. In fact, when I saw one of its actors (Shahab Hosseini) among a huge group of friends who have been living in the U.S. for 30+ years and saw how much this show has effected them, I was sure that Shahrzad and its vibrations have reached Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York and surely many other states and its homes along with other countries as well. Hassan Fathi is an amazing writer and director and everyone who has seen his works know this, but I wonder, how does it feel to be able to be responsible for touching so many people’s lives by your art?