Between Takes #1
Alien Kulture, Shakespeare, Maggots, and More.
So, I’ve been thinking a lot about what to do with this Substack of mine. We’ve had a good couple of months since I moved here from my old WordPress blog back in September. I’ve shared creative works, essays on storytelling, and my deepest traumas. But now, I want to share more.
Recently, I’ve been thinking of ways I could be more accountable to my creative ambitions, especially as I approach the end of my Master’s. Naturally, I thought what better way to be accountable than to share my creative journey with you, my Ghaniators (yes, I’m going to try to make that stick), as it happens in real time: the highs, the lows, the wins, the losses, and everything in between. And so, I present to you…
*Insert dramatic drumroll into your imagination*
Between Takes!
A new quarterly series here on Ghaniations, all about the creative development of the handsomest legend-in-the-making, uniquely fashioned from star dust, that is the one-and-only Aqil Ghani, known for his extreme humbleness and not-at-all grandiose statements about his own significance.
Over the course of this series, I’m going to share with you behind-the-scenes insights into my latest endeavours, including but not limited to my creative inputs, processes, and outputs. The aims being:
To hold me accountable for my delusional fantasies about being an actor-writer.
To give a realistic picture of the troubles and joys of being a creative.
To share with you the works of other creatives that have inspired me.
There’s also the added benefit of future historians having an abundant archive of information to write the numerous biographies that will inevitably be written about me until the end of time (I write this with the utmost humbleness, of course). Anyhow, enough of my chronic main character syndrome, let’s get right into it!
Inputs
Being a creative is like being a bodybuilder. It’s not just about the gains, nor is it just about the workouts. It’s also about the food you put into your body. So, what has my creative diet been looking like as of late?
Literature
This past quarter, I’ve read a whopping thirteen books, putting me five books ahead of schedule for my annual goal of forty-five. To give a detailed review of each would take up too much of your precious time. I’ll just expound on the highlights.
The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam by Muhammad Iqbal
This series of lectures really opened my eyes to the intellectual breadth of the Qur’an. In it, Muhammad Iqbal attempts to reconcile Islamic thought with modern philosophy and the latest discoveries in quantum physics. Or at least whatever the latest discoveries were by the 1930s.
I’ll be honest: I didn’t fully grasp everything he was saying, and it’s definitely a book I’ll have to revisit in the future. What is clear, however, is that Iqbal was an extraordinary freethinker seeking to advance Islamic philosophy rather than simply preserve it. Reading his work, it’s no surprise his ideas carried enough intellectual force to help inspire the creation of Pakistan.
Majma-ul-Bahrain, or the Mingling of the Two Oceans by Dara Shikoh, translated by M. Mahfuz-ul-Haq
I got my hands on this book to better understand Dara Shikoh, one of the characters in my play, Shah Jahan. In this relatively short treatise, Dara draws parallels between Islamic Sufi philosophy and Hindu spiritual traditions, arguing that both ultimately point to the same metaphysical truths.
Having already spent a fair bit of time exploring religious texts myself, I didn’t find anything in it that felt personally groundbreaking. However, what makes the work remarkable is its historical context. This was the book that ultimately led to Dara’s execution at the hands of his brother Aurangzeb.
Christopher Marlowe: Four Plays by Christopher Marlowe, edited by Brian Gibbons
Reading Christopher Marlowe’s plays was part of my effort to better understand the history of British theatre. For those who don’t know, Marlowe was the preeminent Elizabethan playwright before his early death and the rise of William Shakespeare. His works essentially kick-started the British theatre industry.
Interestingly enough, his play, Tamburlaine, the first popular success of London’s public stage, centres on Timur, an ancestor of the aforementioned Shah Jahan, who built the Taj Mahal. And so, in an ironic historical twist, one of the foundational moments of the Anglophone entertainment industry grew out of a story loosely – and I stress the word ‘loosely’ given its egregious inaccuracies – based on a Muslim ruler from Uzbekistan.
Despite their significance in Britain’s theatrical inheritance, Marlowe’s plays certainly reflect the prejudices of his time. Many of his characters lean heavily on Islamophobic and antisemitic stereotypes. Reading them today is both illuminating and uncomfortable. Unfortunately, not much has changed since then.
For a more detailed record of my literature consumption, feel free to check out my Goodreads.
Cinema
This past quarter, I watched twenty-two films. Of those, three stood out, and they all begin with the letter H. I guess you could say, “they are the game… and they are that damn good!”
*Crickets*
Cos, you know… Triple H (one of my friends recently introduced me to WWE).
Haq, directed by Suparn Verma
I was pleasantly surprised by Bollywood for this one, especially given how it deals with the controversial issue of triple talaq. Where often Bollywood has been quick to demonise Muslims with little nuance, Haq does something far more interesting by suggesting that a deeper and more sincere engagement with the Qur’an can actually be a source of justice and empowerment for women. It was refreshing to see a story where Islam was not treated as a villain, but as part of the solution.
Hamnet, directed by Chloé Zhao
Hamnet is absolutely devastating in the best possible way. There wasn’t a single dry eye left in the room. The entire cast delivered phenomenal performances, but Jessie Buckley was the clear standout for me. Her performance carries so much emotional weight that it’s impossible not to be drawn completely into the grief and love at the centre of the story. She deserves every award she’s won for this role and more; a once-in-a-generation performance.
Hamlet, directed by Aneil Karia
Anyone who knows me knows I’m a big fan of Riz Ahmed’s work, and Hamlet is no exception. It’s a bold and masterful adaptation the Bard himself would be proud of, reimagining the Shakespearean classic within a British South Asian context that feels both fresh and completely natural. The famous play-within-a-play scene was hauntingly executed, and Ahmed’s performance anchors the whole thing with intensity and charisma. It’s a real shame the UK release was so poorly handled.
With series, I’ve been having a bit of a Shondaland fest.
Grey’s Anatomy Universe, created by Shonda Rhimes
I’m currently working my way through Grey’s Anatomy and Station 19 for the first time. I did try Private Practice, but got too bored with it halfway through season two. What I like about these shows is that every episode tackles a different crisis while still developing and balancing the key character arcs.
Bridgerton, created by Chris Van Dusen
I also took a trip back to Grosvenor Square to catch up with the latest season of Bridgerton. And oh boy, did my guy Benedict make a fool of himself. My favourite thing about this show is the soundtrack, set design, and costumes. It’s no surprise that when I was put in charge of my sister’s baraat playlist last year, I just channelled my inner regency pop artist. Also, they really gotta bring back tailcoats.
Fallout, created by Graham Wagner and Geneva Robertson-Dworet
The one other show I’ve been watching outside the Shondaland umbrella is Fallout. Movies and series based on video games don’t tend to do quite well, but Fallout breaks that curse. It’s funny, action-packed, and has a great storyline with unforgettable characters. The best part is: you don’t need to have played the games to understand what’s going on. So, if you haven’t seen it, watch it.
If this post isn’t enough for you and you wish to further invade my cinematic privacy, by all means, stalk me on Letterboxd.
Theatre
So far, I’ve seen two theatre shows this past quarter after managing to scam my older brother into buying me the tickets. Needless to say, I look forward to scamming him for more tickets throughout the rest of the year.
Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo at the Young Vic
Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo left me with quite a lot to chew on. Set during the early years of the Iraq War, the play blended dark comedy with philosophical musings about guilt, violence, and the afterlife. It doesn’t shy away from portraying the brutality of Saddam Hussein’s regime and the excesses of his son, Uday Hussein (the actor portraying him, Sayyid Aki, did a tremendous job, considering the role).
However, at times, it did feel like it reflected the familiar white liberal lens of post-9/11 America, where the horrors of the Iraqi dictatorship are foregrounded more forcefully than the devastation caused by the American invasion. That said, the titular tiger was genuinely hilarious and oddly profound.
Maggots at the Bush Theatre
Maggots was an absolute masterclass in dramaturgy. It’s no surprise the show racked up so many five-star reviews. Farah Najib’s writing is razor-sharp, and the cast brought it to life with incredible energy and precision. Special shoutout to my acting instructor, Sam Baker Jones, whose performance proved to me why he’s the teacher and I’m the student (you can catch him in Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man). There’s so much I learned from this play, especially concerning my own work in progress, Once Upon a Time in Pakistan…
The night also had a personal milestone: it was the first theatre show my dad had ever seen. Now he’s asking me to take him to more shows. Poor guy. Who’s going to break it to him that most theatre isn’t this good?
Music
It’d be impossible to give a complete survey of all the music I’ve listened to this past quarter, nor any quarter for that matter. You’re reading the words of someone who racked up 54,420 minutes on Spotify last year, after all (gotta get your money’s worth out of that subscription, am I right?). Instead, every quarter, I’m going to share with you a single song, new or old, that I’ve recently been jamming to.
This quarter’s choice of song is…
Culture Crossover by Alien Kulture.
Alien Kulture is a niche band. So niche, in fact, they’re not on Spotify. Don’t let that fool you, though. They may never have topped the charts, but their very existence represents a fascinating patch on Britain’s cultural tapestry.
There is an Asian band in South London called Alien Kulture who take gangs of Asian youth with them wherever they play. Mark had said he thought ‘n*****s are okay, I like the music.’ But he just shakes his head about Alien Kulture: ‘I don’t think they’ll last. I don’t think they’ll last five minutes. A P**i band? I never heard of such a thing.’
A Skinhead, interviewed in a New Society article from 26th June 1980, entitled Skinheads: The Cult of Trouble by Ian Walker.
Alien Kulture was formed in South London in 1980 at a time when Britain was grappling with economic decline, rising racial tensions, and the growing far right. The year before, Margaret Thatcher had warned: “People rather fear being swamped by an alien culture.” Ausaf Abbas, Azhar Rana, Pervez Bilgrami, and their token white guy, Huw Jones, were that “alien culture”.
Drawing inspiration from politically charged punk bands like The Clash and supporting movements such as Rock Against Racism and the Anti-Nazi League, Alien Kulture used music as a form of resistance. Their songs confronted racism, identity, and the realities of growing up as second-generation South Asians in Britain, long before British South Asian voices were visible in mainstream music like they are today; it wasn’t until 1996 that BBC Asian Network was launched. The sad thing is, most British South Asians have never heard of Alien Kulture.
And that’s what makes Culture Crossover such an interesting song to revisit today. Even though the song was written over forty years ago, it feels eerily contemporary. The opening lines capture generational tension with simplicity:
First generation: illegal immigrantsSecond generation: juvenile delinquentsTorn between two culturesCaught in a culture crossover
In just a few lines, Alien Kulture describe the double bind many children of immigrants grow up with. Our parents arrived in Britain under suspicion, portrayed as outsiders or invaders. Then we grow up here, only to be treated as if we don’t quite belong either. Later in the song, the lyrics also describe the all-too-familiar push-and-pull between tradition and self-definition that second-generation immigrant kids will recognise immediately.
For me, what makes the song remarkable is the fact that someone was saying these things out loud, in punk form, in 1980s Britain. These guys are from my dad’s generation, and I thought my dad’s generation was supposed to be boring. Listening to Alien Kulture today feels like I’ve discovered a relic that connects me to the struggles of previous generations. Lo and behold, they’re not that different.
If you consider yourself intrigued and want to give Alien Kulture a listen, then check out alienkulture.org.
Wow, that was quite the slog, wasn’t it? We’re not done yet, though. I still have more yapping to do.
Processes
So, we’ve covered the diet, but how have my creative workouts been looking?
Acting
On the acting front, auditions have been fairly quiet lately, but I’ve been keeping myself busy with workshops at The Open Space. Our most recent session led to a breakthrough in my craft.
The substitution method has always been tricky territory, as I often find myself either choosing the wrong personal memories to feed into a character or struggling to find an emotional truth vivid enough to inform behaviour. This time, however, I finally managed to get it right.
I was able to perfectly shape a memory to align with the character’s emotional state while keeping the performance flexible enough to pivot with our coach’s direction. At one point, my stomach rumbled mid-scene (a long day of fasting will do that to you), and instead of breaking, I folded it into the moment. It wasn’t my stomach rumbling anymore; it was the character’s.
Moments like that remind you how alive a performance can become when you’re truly inside it, as well as the importance of living your life to the fullest so you can create a well of memories expansive enough in their emotional range to draw upon. The good, the bad, and the ugly; it’s all important.
For any actors looking for a space to train, I’d highly recommend The Open Space. I started working with them a few years back, and my acting is all the better for it.
Writing
On the writing front, I’ve been continuing work on Shah Jahan, a historical two-part play exploring the story behind the Taj Mahal. Set within a lavish court governed by prophecy, ruthless tradition, and clashing visions of faith, the play follows a destined prince navigating love, loyalty, and the brutal calculus of power to claim a throne that could either fulfil his cosmic calling or destroy everything he cherishes.
I began the year with table reads of the third draft. Shout out to all the special people who took part. You know who you are. It’s always a pleasure to hear your work read aloud, especially by an audience whose enthusiasm for the work rivals my own. Overall, I got some very encouraging feedback and great insights to fuel me as I move on to writing the fourth draft. I’ll admit I’ve been procrastinating slightly on that next step, though fortunately, it’s been for a good reason.
Last year, I performed a solo storytelling piece called Once Upon a Time in Pakistan… at the Spirit of Pakistan finale hosted by Soul City Arts. The audience response was so positive that they invited me to develop the work further this year. I’m happy to say I’ve now found producers to help bring the project to life, which means I can focus fully on writing while they handle the admin.
The piece, originally based on my travels to Pakistan and my attempts to reconnect with family history, language, and creative inheritance, will now be developed into a full-length two-hander during Pakistan Independence Week. The project will also explore the poetry of Shakespeare and Mirza Ghalib, examining how different literary traditions can coexist on stage without hierarchy, a reflection of the polycultural world many British Pakistanis grow up navigating.
If you want to see the original performance, then become a paid subscriber (your boy has got to make money somehow), and you can check it out here.
Other
Aside from the acting and writing, I’ve also taken up guitar. I’ve been playing the ukulele for years, but for my last birthday, my younger brother bought me a guitar with his first paycheck. Big up my man. He’s an engineer now, which takes a lot of parental pressure off my back. At least one of us kids made it.
I’ve been practising on and off for the past few months, learning from YouTube videos. I just about mastered the C, A, G, E, Am, and Em chords as I work towards the dreaded F chord. Haven’t learned any songs yet, though; just some improvised strumming patterns. All good things in due time, they say.
I also completed several online Urdu courses, so I can finally shake off the label of being a coconut. I can now read and write Urdu and have recently been experimenting with writing my own Urdu poetry. Who knows, maybe some of them may make their way onto this Substack.
If you want to learn Urdu, I’d recommend taking Rekhta’s Rasm-ul-khat course first before trying some of their other courses.
We are nearly at the end of this yap session. Gold star if you’ve made it this far.
Outputs
You’ve seen my diet. You’ve seen my workouts. Now it’s time to pree my gains.
Writing
I think people often forget I’m supposed to be doing a Master’s. Hell, even I forget that all this writing I’m doing is supposed to be going somewhere sometimes.
Last semester, we did a module called intertextuality, which was all about adapting original texts to fit different contexts or to shed new light on aspects of the original text. Take Hamnet, for example: it’s an intertextual movie which explores the history behind Shakespeare’s Hamlet.
For that module, I wrote a retelling of Four Weddings and a Funeral called Four Nikkahs and a Janazah, reimagining the beloved classic in a British Muslim context. This quarter, I continued working on the script and completed the pilot episode. I plan to write another seven episodes over the coming months to submit this year’s BBC Writers Open Call. Of course, I’ll only start cracking on with those once I finish Shah Jahan’s fourth draft and Once Upon a Time in Pakistan…
Recently, in class, we’ve also been thinking about our writers’ manifestos. I feel like I’ve always had clear ideas about why I tell stories, but I’ve never really collected all those ideas into a single, coherent piece. So that’s exactly what I did, which birthed my previous post, Why I Tell Stories.
I hope to honour that manifesto as I continue on my journey, returning to it whenever I’m in need of direction. I encourage my fellow writers to write their own manifestos, too. It’s a reflective process that can really ground you in your creative practice.
Acting
Not many gains on the acting front, other than the release of my first commercial for Chaiiwala! I worked on this project with New Lions Films, who were an absolute blast. Arun Kapur, Gurjant Singh, and Omar Parvez are the Wolverhampton dream team. Go grab a chai (preferably Kashmiri) in my honour and show the advert some love.
We’ve finally reached the end of this waffle. It’s been a long one. I’ll try my best to be more concise in the future, but, alas, I cannot make promises I cannot keep.
Thank you for reading the very first Between Takes. We’ve had a relatively good start to the year here. Let’s hope I can keep the momentum going.
Catch you in the next one!
Peace be with you.
Quote of the Quarter
“A Journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”
Laozi
oh my God hamnet destroyed me i could never watch that again. disappointed to see no wicked mention. but it’s lovely reading about the different forms of art you’ve been engaged with and also writing lately though!