Kamal El A’adad + 1 : A Lesson In Loyalty

Kamal El A’adad was a huge hit in its first season, the family drama/romantic comedy was a much needed genre in the Ramadan Marathon of TV series and when it ended people were eager for a second season. But off screen the cast faced a very testing period, as one of the stars of the series and a much loved character, Mustafa Darwish, passed away in his sleep soon after the series had finished. It was a big shock not just for the entire cast but for the acting industry and the general public who had genuinely grown attached to the late actor over the years.

When it was announced that Kamal El A’adad will return for a second season, the main question that everyone had was how are the writer, director and production team going to explain Darwish’s absence and whether he will be replaced by another actor to keep the flow of the plot moving. Before the first episode was aired the star of the series Dina El Sherbinystated in an interview that Mustafa Darwish will be present in every episode and a special tribute will be dedicated to him. This made the audience more intrigued as what this tribute will entail.

As soon as the opening credit of the first episode had finished, a dedication to Darwish appeared that read “Mustafa Darwish, the absent yet present, we miss you immensely, the entire cast of Kamal El A’adad”. But the tribute didn’t stop there, from the first scene ‘Omar’ was present as Layla played by Dina El Sherbiny had named hers and Ahmed’s (Shareef Salama) son after the character of Mustafa Darwish, then we see a photo of Darwish in the twins; Hassan and Hussein’s room and that is when the audience is informed that Omar had died in his sleep, a direct reflection of reality. Its often said that arts imitates life, and never a truer word had been said when it comes to this incident.

As the episode progressed, there was a touch of artistic irony incorporated in the storyline, when Ahmed went to visit ‘Omar’s’ grave and was telling today is supposed to be a happy day as it is Ahmed’s birthday, just like the first episode should have been a joyous occasion but its marred by the death of Mustafa Darwish. 

The entire episode was quite an emotional 40 minutes, its almost reliving the death of Mustafa Darwish, and seeing the impact be it in a fictional setting, still affected everyone that watched the first episode.

Unlike most TV series that also had lost cast members, Kamal El A’adad’s tribute to Darwish is more than a solitary token, as each of the six episodes that have aired so far, feature ‘Omar’ in way or another, and that is a rare occurrence of loyalty in the times we are living in.