Teesra Kinara (Urdu: تیسرا کنارا, lit. 'The Third Edge') is a 1980 Pakistani television series written by Rahat Kazmi and was based on Ayn Rand's novel The Fountainhead it was produced and directed by Shahzad Khalil.^[1][2]

The story is about Ali (Rahat Kazmi) who is expelled from the architecture department because he is not following the traditional architecture designs. His friend Raheel Obiad joined a popular architecture firm and is achieving traditional success. Then he meets Mehreen (Sahira) a newspaper reporter and has a hard time with Babar Kamal (Shafi) a businessman. Shazia (Badar) a famous actress asks Raheel (Usman) to become friends with her daughter Salma (Saba) who lives in a girl hostel.^[3]

Characters, Themes and Motifs:

Just like in The Fountainhead; Teesra Kinara explores the themes of Individualism vs. Collectivism under the pretext of primarily Architecture and secondarily Journalism profession.

Ali the protagonist is a brilliant individual who does not feel he has to earn his degree although the Dean offers him to come back after 1 year after he is expelled. He creates designs that do not conform to traditional designs and it does not sit well with experienced professionals and professors. He struggles to get work even after proving himself to be brilliant in the market.

Raheel Obaid (Usman Peerzada) on the other hand enjoys the benefits of collectivism. He gets the first position in the university; gets hired immediately by a famous firm and is well-liked and respected in his community.

Meehreen is the daughter of a famous businessman (owner of the firm that employs Raheel Obaid) and is a critic too. She is unhappy in her profession, and routine and is fed up with reviewing similar projects. She is approached by multiple men in her life but she is only interested in Ali. In her own way, she believes in individualism but she is bound by her Newspaper agency named (Jazbat).

Self-awareness is also explored as In Teesra Kinara characters are surprisingly self-aware of their abilities, shortcomings, and public perceptions.

• Rahat Kazmi as Ali^[2]
• Sahira Kazmi as Mehreen^[4]
• Usman Peerzada as Raheel Obaid
• Saba Hameed as Salma
• Badar Khalil as Shazia
• Shafi Muhammad Shah as Babar Kamal^[5]
• Tani Begum as Begum Aziz
• Khursheed Shahid as Mrs. Zaidi
• Badi Uzzaman as Haleem Hafazi
• Jameel Fakhri as Khatir
• Khalid Butt as Sikandar
• Asim Bukhari as Ameer-ud-Din
• Atiya Sharaf as Mehreen's mother
• Abid Kashmiri as Banker
• Munir Nadir as Sultan
• Abid Butt as Khawaja
• Irfan Hashmi as Worker
• C.M Munir as Professor
• Altaf-ur-Rehman as Qasim Jaffery
• Mirza Ghazanfar Baig as Chairman

The music of drama was composed by Khalil Ahmad and was performed by Nayyara Noor.^[6][7]