Ariel Maa (translation: "Ariel Mother") is a television talk show and travel program hosted by Sania Saeed and directed by Kamran Qureshi. The show was sponsored by Procter & Gamble. The Ariel team also did a social welfare service by presenting cheques to deserving mothers struggling to provide for their children.
The programme was telecast every Saturday on PTV between 2000–2002.
Overview
The program focused on the efforts of mothers in Pakistan in raising their children. The program showed hundreds of mothers nurturing their children, across different classes, families and religions.
Episodes featured mothers making every effort to either save the life of an ailing son or daughter or trying to counter the financial problems in order to secure a good future for their children. It also highlighted in cases how men were deficient in regards to the responsibility of sharing the burden of raising a child with their wives.
The show featured multiple outdoor segments. At first, the writer Sania Saeed traveled through different areas of Pakistan, visiting her mother in the final episode. In another segment, the host discussed culture and history of the village of the week, standing next to a landmark and then meeting that city's mothers on their doorsteps. In the last segment, during interviews on set, members of the cast gave their experiences with their mothers.
Production
A recruiting company was hired to go around cities and villages looking for cases of mothers who have faced hardship or sacrifices for their children.
Cast
Salman Ahmad
Ali Haider
Marina Khan
Anwar Maqsood
Mahmood Ali
Imran Aslam
Ali Azmat
Fatima Surayya Bajia
Shagufta Ejaz
Sajid Hasan
Noman Ijaz
Shabbir Jan
Latif Kapadia
Ardeshir Cowasjee
Yasir Nawaz
Arjumand Rahim
Afshan Ahmed
Behroze Sabzwari
Tina Sani
Jamal Shah
Shafi Muhammad Shah
Adnan Siddiqui
Nida Yasir
Sajjad Ali
Jamshed Ansari
Talat Hussain
Savera Nadeem
Humayun Saeed
Sultana Siddiqui
Soundtrack
The theme song, Maa Jaise Hasti (English: Dear Mother...) was sung by Khalid Waheed, composed by Farrukh Abid and written by Mujeeb Syed.
Award
Ariel Mothers (Maa) won the National PTV Award in 2002 for the best programme in private productions.