Guest House (Urdu script: گیسٹ ہاؤس) is a 1991 Pakistani comedy-drama series directed by Rauf Khalid which was produced and shown by PTV in the early to mid-1990s. The setting is a fictional guest house named Guest House located in a posh area of Islamabad. It is run by Mr. Shameem and his wife with the help of three permanent regular employees, Naveed, Murad and Rambo.
Plot
Every episode starts with the arrival of new guests and the involvement of the guest house's employees in their comic and tragic situations. Almost all the episodes end with the guest's problems solved by the help of all-too-readily helpful employees and reluctant owners of the guest house.
Pilot episode
The pilot episode introduces the janitor of the guest house, 'John Rambo', in a very dramatic way. He is holding a janitor's wiper like a rifle or machine gun and thrilling background music is playing. The camera moves in a way that the wiper actually looks like a rifle at the beginning of the scene. Later it turns out that 'John Rambo, Cockroach Killer' is inspired by the main character of the Hollywood movie First Blood.
The character of Rambo was an instant hit and played a vital role in the popularity of the series. Producers wanted to remove the character after the pilot episode, but his success made them decide otherwise. One of the producers admitted on TV that after the success of Rambo in the pilot episodes, he was the focus of every episode.
Characters
All the main characters associated with the guest house are shown as very simple people and, on several occasions, have been fooled by charlatans posing as PEERS (fake jogis) or film directors. They tend to get involved in personal matters of their guests and try to resolve their issues.
Mr. Shameem
Mr. Sharneem (played by Khalid Hafeez) is the founder and owner of the guest house. Although he is very faithful to his wife, she always suspects him of having an affair or having another wife mostly because he likes to flirt and has been caught doing so on many occasions, especially with small-time female celebrities who stay at the guest house. He is very stingy and doesn't like his wife's occasional shopping sprees, which are the main cause of their domestic problems.
Mr. Shameem is a good businessman. He is always ready to please his guests and tries to meet their often outrageous demands. He is a strict taskmaster and often deducts small amounts from the salaries of his employees in order to punish them.
Unlike his employees, he does not like to get involved in his guests' personal problems. However, he often finds himself in situations where he has to get involved to bail out his employees and save the reputation of his guest house.
Mrs. Raheela Shameem
Mrs. Shameem (played by Sarwat Ateeq) is the wife of Mr. Shameem and is always addressed as Mrs. Shameem, never by her first name, except in episode 3, where an old college friend reveals her first name to be Raheela. She is very outspoken and has no qualms expressing her opinions, even if it means disapproval of the guests. She has almost the same powers in the matters of the guest house as her husband, but she scarcely uses them. She loves shopping and complains that her husband is stingy and doesn't support her shopping. She is often nostalgic of her youth and remembers the long hair she used to have. She is compassionate and easily gets involved in the personal matters of the guests. She often takes sides with the women in huests' domestic disputes. She can easily find the reflections of her own personal life in the personal problems of others.
She is very soft on the employees, often takes their side, and tries to stop her husband from punishing them. She even hid Rambo in a room when he was fired by her husband. Later she persuaded Mr. Shameem to rehire him.
Murad
Murad (played by Tariq Malik) is the 'bell boy' of the guest house. He hums "TIP TIP karta mein kumray mein aata hoon" when walking around the guest house, meaning, "I am entering the room singing, TIP TIP". He drops subtle hints to the guests in order to get tips from them. He often starts a conversation with a guest asking if they know English and then proceeds to ask if they know what T-I-P stands for. His other pet phrase is "Easy Feel" which he uses in many different contexts.