Cabbie with a conscience makes popular TV fare

The National takes an occasional look at popular Ramadan soap operas. Today it is Abu Janty: King of Taxi.

ABU DHABI // Abu Janty's taxi blocked the motorcade of a prominent Syrian figure, a sin that would have normally landed him in the clutches of the bullies trailing him. However, 10 minutes later he and the government official were having lunch at a local street restaurant, singing and reminiscing about work troubles. The star of the Syrian soap opera, Abu Janty: King of Taxi, has a way with words.

"He is a simple taxi driver, who is like a witness to his age through the different people he meets and situations he faces," said Samer al Masri, who plays the title role in the Ramadan series, and owns Ward TV Cinema Production, the Syrian company that produces it. "The show features Damascus in 2010, in all of its contradictions and classes." It is also a dark comedy, which addresses such weighty issues as human trafficking, abusive husbands and placing parents in nursing homes. The soap gets laughs when the taxi driver, who is something of a local hero, speaks and sings in broken English.

One day he is trekking across the country to save a woman whose reputation was tarnished because she accidently called him, and the next day he is trying to find an honest job for a thief who tried to rob his house, only to get him arrested. No matter what situation he gets into or who he is dealing with, his character, principles and sense of humour win in the end. "Abu Janty is a taxi driver but you will see him as a true popular hero," said al Masri, "It is not important what the person does. You can find a street cleaner to be more manly than a minister."

Between serving shisha and food to customers every night, the waiters at Al Safadi cafe on al Riqqa Street in Dubai crowd around a television in the back, watching intently and seeing themselves in this working-class character. "He reflects our everyday lives, from the streets and from the reality of the country," said one of the waiters, Khalid Khedir, 23, from Syria. Sarah Rahal, a 23-year-old architect from Lebanon, said the only time her entire family gathered during Ramadan, other than for iftar, was to watch King of Taxi.

"This is the only show that we all agree on, because it is light and funny, and gives us a chance to gather after iftar," she said. "The character changed my view of taxi drivers. He is chivalrous and, even though he has a low income, he has a high level of self-value. It shows you that the person shouldn't necessarily have a high income in order to help people. "It is nice how he approaches things differently, for example, instead of reporting the thief he tried to help him and gave him many chances," she added.

Al Masri said he expected the show to be a hit because it attracted attention during filming. "We were shooting a scene in front of the Ummayyad mosque in Damascus this summer, and we had to go back to the location for a third time with security to be able to shoot, because a large number of fans gathered all around us each time we tried to shoot," he said. The show airs nightly from 8.30 to 9.30 on Rotana Khaleejiya until the end of Ramadan.

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