Just then the royal priest approached the king and told him that a divine soul has arrived in his house. He shall help the poor, protect the weak and bring great fame to his land. Thus the priest named him Hatim. ‘but’;, said the priest, 'Just as everything else in nature exists in a precarious balance, this arrival of nobility in the world will be balanced by the arrival of some great evil'. Even as the priest was saying this, in a kingdom not far away from here, the dark clouds of evil had begun to descend, blackening out the sun plunging the kingdom into utter darkness. At that very moment in the royal palace the queen gave birth to a son. As the child was born wolves howled in the forests, fire fell from the skies, and shrieks of the dead could be heard all around. The king took the child and placed him in front of an idol of the devil and asked the devil to bless this child so that he may become the most powerful man in the world and rule the earth. The born was the nemesis of Hatim, the Son of Satan the evil prince Dajjal...
As time went by both the princes grew up in their respective kingdoms. As Hatim was growing up he was not only loved by the entire kingdom but also the fairies of Paristaan would come down to catch a glimpse of this beautiful boy transforming into a handsome young man. Whereas in the kingdom of Zaffar, Dajjal had grown into an evil Prince who for the lust of power, had dethroned his father and buried him alive. Now nothing could stop him from becoming the most powerful man in the world, or so he thought, until he learned from the royal priests of Zaffar that to rule the world, the evil power was not enough. He would have to have on his side the power of good along with the power of evil if he wanted to be all powerful and for this he would have to marry someone possessing the power of good within her like the Princess of Gulistaan, Husna Bano.
Dajjal approached Husna Bano and asked her to marry him but when she refused he turned her young brother into stone. When Hatim heard of this he came to help her. It is then that Husna Bano showed him the stone statue that was her brother. She said that unless she marries Dajjal willfully, her brother would remain a stone statue forever. ‘Is there no other way we can help your brother’, asked Hatim. ‘There is’;, replied Husna Bano. ‘You see those seven statues around my brother. They are the bearers of Seven Riddles. The answers to these riddles lie in places so dangerous that even to attempt to solve one of them would be certain death. Even if someone were to manage to get to these places, they would never be able to do it in the one year that my brother has after which no one can help him. But if some one can find the answers to all the Seven Riddles within one year, then my brother’s life can be saved.’
This is where the story starts as Hatim decides to solve the Seven Riddles and protect the good and eventually destroy Dajjal and his evil empire. Each riddle holds an entire journey that comprises of magic, of treachery and danger, of talking mountains and seas of fire, of headless creatures in the city of the living dead, of flying horses, of under water lands and genies and fairies. Hatim keeps on solving all the riddles even as Dajjal repeatedly tries to create obstructions in his path. ‘Hatim’ is the first television serial with grandeur on small screen, an epic drama made on grand scale with gigantic sets, mind-blowing visual effects, eye-catching costumes etc.
Year of telecast:
Hatim was telecasted on Star Plus in the year 2003.
Direction and casting:
This mega serial was co-produced by Prem Sagar under the banner of “Sagar Entertainment Ltd.” and directed by Amrit Sagar and Shakti Sagar. Raahil Azeem played the lead role of Hatim.
Awards:
Hatim bagged 11 awards (6 Hero Honda awards, 3 Indian Tele awards and 2 RAPA awards). The serial also had 21 nominations including the Best Director award. The serial also received a lot of press acclaims like, “Indian version of Lords of the Rings”., “One of the most stylized dramas involving special effects, majestic sets and grand locales”