Maa was the fifth drama serial directed by Zulfiqar Sheikh and produced by Tasmina Sheikh after Des Pardes, Ansoo, The Castle and Thori Khushi Thora Ghum made by the couple for Pakistan Television.
Maa was a bilingual drama serial, making use of both Urdu and Punjabi language in its script and had some of the best actors of Pakistan in its cast such as Uzma Gillani, Sajid Hassan, Nighat Chaudhry, Talat Hussain, Aijaz Aslam, Javeria Jaleel, Rehan Sheikh, Suhail Asghar, Hassam Qazi, Sonia Rehman, Maria Wasti, Zulfiqar Sheikh and Tasmina Sheikh.
The significant roles of mothers were played by Uzma Gillani and Nighat Chaudhry. While the former was shown to be a greedy woman for whom money matters more than her own children, the latter was shown as an ideal mother who would speak Urdu at times, and at times Punjabi, and both in a sweet manner. The role of mother which Nighat Chaudhry played was of a mother who, by her loving and caring disposition, would make every person, whether acquainted through blood relation or not, fall for her and call her his or her own mother. One fine example of it in Maa was the character of a Sikh played by Ashraf Khan, who expresses his respect and love for the Punjabi speaking mother belonging to Pakistan in one of the episodes.
Uzma Gillani’s role of a mother was more of a narcissistic one. She played an insensitive and an emotionless mother for whom giving time to her children is not a very important act to perform. As a result, she is left alone to die in the end of the drama serial, when no one is ready to accept her owing to her selfish acts.
While Maa is a serial to be admired for its wonderful cast and breath-taking locations, it must also be praised for presenting a rich variety of the characters, two of which were also those played by Sonia Rehman, who as a pregnant woman, dies in an accident and by Tasmina Sheikh, who turns out to be brave enough to abandon her child due to unforgiving circumstances. However, in comparison with the roles played by Uzma Gillani and Nighat Chaudhry, these did not seem to be very important, for the roles from which one could learn how to bring up children and how to shower love upon them were those played by Uzma Gillani and Nighat Chaudhry, for it was on Uzma Gillani’s following statement that the serial ended.
Aulaad ko seene se laga kar rakhna chahiye. Buht bari jaldi ho jaati hai yeh fasal.