{"id":10275,"date":"2025-05-14T12:49:43","date_gmt":"2025-05-14T07:49:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/habib.edu.pk\/HU-news\/?p=10275"},"modified":"2025-05-16T11:44:43","modified_gmt":"2025-05-16T06:44:43","slug":"meet-ali-murtaza-sohail-the-visionary-creator-of-the-popular-khayal-series","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/habib.edu.pk\/HU-news\/meet-ali-murtaza-sohail-the-visionary-creator-of-the-popular-khayal-series\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet Ali Murtaza Sohail: The Talented Creator of the popular Khayal Series"},"content":{"rendered":"

Over 15 years ago, Harvard University uploaded the first lecture in a series from the course Justice: What\u2019s the Right Thing to Do?<\/em> by Michael Sandel on YouTube. Today, the video sits at 39 million views\u2014and I was one of the many who watched the series in its entirety, telling myself I had availed an incredible opportunity: learning from a Harvard professor without having to pay anything.<\/p>\n

In 2022, when I arrived at Habib University, I was surprised by how well-constructed, dense, and critically engaging the Liberal Core syllabus<\/a> was. It was during the course What is Modernity<\/em><\/a> that I came to a realization about just how unique my undergraduate education was. In seminars with Dr. Nauman Naqvi,<\/a> I learned an immeasurable amount\u2014ranging from ideas about post-colonial history to the hegemony of the West in modern epistemic structures. It was during this time that I noticed Habib wasn\u2019t sharing much of what was happening in its classrooms with the public. There was a gap\u2014between the intellectual work being done here and its presence on the larger screen.<\/p>\n

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Ali with Dr Nauman Naqvi, Associate Professor in the Comparative Humanities program, and the founding faculty of Habib University\u2019s flagship Liberal Core curriculum.<\/p><\/div>\n

I entered the Communication and Design (CND) program with nothing but four years of experience watching films. I didn\u2019t have the promise or motivation of a traditionally \u2018grateful\u2019 student\u2014I was not adamant about staying at Habib University, as I wanted to pursue a film degree abroad. But the CND program ended up offering me something unique. I would sit in on film courses and simply listen to instructors talk about Nosferatu<\/em> or modern-day classics like The Dark Knight<\/em>. Then, in my sophomore year, I enrolled in a filmmaking course focused on the technical side of production, which was the first time I had ever handled a camera\u2014albeit, not very successfully.<\/p>\n

At the same time, I was enrolled in Hikma<\/em>, another segment of the Liberal Core focused on Islamic philosophy. That\u2019s when I realized I needed to bridge my education in film with the Humanities. I wanted to reflect what I had learned through my interdisciplinary education on screen. So, in August 2024, I decided to create a show titled Khayal<\/em>.<\/p>\n