THE WEEK THAT WAS

Jafaa | Hum TV, Fridays 8.00pm

With all the easy good girl-bad girl tropes that rule our television screens, it’s refreshing to see nuanced writing and layered characterisations from veteran writer Samira Fazal.

Dr Zara (Mawra Hocane) is the ideal daughter and has just entered an arranged marriage which, despite her good intentions, seems completely passionless. Her husband, Hassan (Mohib Mirza), is besotted with her but she is busy prioritising everyone but him. Hassan has a disturbing side to him but Zara has yet to pick up on the danger signals, reminding us that simply making sensible decisions or doing “the right thing” cannot immunise us from the vagaries of fate. Inspired by Zara, her cousin Deebu’s (Sehar Khan) parents have done exactly what countless message-oriented dramas and pop psychologists tell parents to do: invested in her education. However, Deebu is not career-oriented and is instead focused on a childish affair with a classmate, rather than her studies.

Both Sehar Khan and Mawra Hocane are engaging and believable, allowing us to taste the bitter and sweet of their characters without pigeonholing them as good or bad. Mohib Mirza gives us a chilling, subtle portrait of suppressed rage and unacknowledged mental dysfunction that is worth watching.

Hasrat | ARY, Daily 7.00pm

There is an unwritten rule in Pakistani dramas that a married woman with a successful career must be on the brink of a divorce. Sanaya (Kiran Haq) is just such a character, going through a troubling period in her marriage, as she tries to balance her home and work life. Her hate-filled, bed-ridden mother-in-law is constantly creating issues in her marriage and poisoning her husband Arham’s (Fahad Shaikh) mind.

Balancing work and parenting become a daily grind, wearing down the weak-minded Arham, and he starts an affair with his mother’s young nurse Fabiha (Jennifer Tessa). The story follows a well-worn trajectory of the cunning second wife edging out the resigned first wife. Fabiha is shown as a conniving gold-digger, while Sanaya is a good woman in a bad situation.

This worn-out storyline has little new to tell us and, as always, the male character is a fool. This kind of story is usually popular with the masses but, to the director’s credit, the drama has not gone “full masala” and the acting and style of execution has been kept restrained.

Shiddat | Geo TV, Mon-Tues 8.00pm

Wealthy, young Asra (Anmol Baloch) fell in love with her middle class friend’s brother Sultan (Muneeb Butt), an ambitious over-achiever. The once happy-go-lucky Asra has lost her personality and self-confidence, and all she can see is the flaws in herself Sultan keeps pointing out.

Sultan is the most obvious villain but the other guilty party is Asra’s traditional mother, who keeps pushing her to “adjust” and “ghar basao” [settle down]. Asra’s family takes the brave step of taking her to a psychologist and helping her with therapy, rather than fearing that she will forever be stigmatised as mentally ill. The psychologist explains that, while Asra needs time to recover, the only sick person is Sultan, who is a classic narcissist and is the one who needs treatment.

While many of the messages in this show are laudable, the melodrama and lack of nuance in execution show us that this is just another project using concepts of abuse to make money. Anmol Baloch is generally unconvincing but even Muneeb Butt has seemed to lose energy as this longer-than-necessary saga progresses.

What To Watch Out For (or not)

Barzakh | YouTube, Coming soon

Zee Zindagi is releasing the much-anticipated serial Barzakh on YouTube on July 19, and fans are especially excited for the return of the super-hit pairing of Fawad Khan and Sanam Saeed.

Published in Dawn, ICON, June 30TH, 2024