THE WEEK THAT WAS

Kabhi Main Kabhi Tum | ARY, Mon-Tues 8.00pm

Sharjeena (Hania Aamir) is an achiever, set to marry another focused achiever Adeel (Emmad Irfani), but he dumps her a week before the wedding for his boss. In a moment of desperation, Sharjeena marries Mustafa (Fahad Mustafa) Adeel’s, lazy, always “second place” brother.

It is obvious that Farhat Ishtiaq and Big Bang productions have worked very hard on this script; each episode is detail-oriented and content-heavy. The cast is well-picked but what seems to be missing is the essential chemistry between the leads, which is not helped by the stunted thinking of their characters. Neither Sharjeena nor Mustafa is thinking beyond the next moment, or pleasing their parents. Despite his immaturity, Mustafa quietly supports his new wife with genuine kindness and care.

Fahad Mustafa is an expert in bringing out all these nuances with humour and restraint, while maintaining his character’s lack of confidence in himself and his new relationship. Director Badar Mehmood has kept away from his usual tendencies to highlight confrontations and melodrama in every episode, and it is paying off with a well-rounded, entertaining show for the masses and the classes.

Tark-i-Wafa | ARY, Fri-Daily 7.00pm

Mohib Mirza seems to be the favourite choice for terrible husbands that begin to rot like bad fruit a minute after the nikaah. In this iteration, he plays Sibtain, an otherwise intelligent businessman who knows how to run a company but is a puppet on a string when it comes to his three “evil” sisters.

An only brother raised to support his bitter, unfulfilled sisters is a seasonal motif in drama stories because it resonates with the masses. However, what few of these series explore are the psychological wounds and cultural imperatives that create such dysfunction. Sibtain’s elder sister, Sajeela (Zaynab Qayyum), is possessive because she has no resources of her own, her personality has been stunted and she fears losing power. Instead of creating any understanding or presenting solutions, this show, like Mannat Murad before it, treats the sisters as psychotic trouble-makers, leaving the women to fight it out on screen in the hope of maximising ratings.

How will a girl such as Maryam (Hina Chaudhry), who is an educated, civil engineering graduate and hails from a gentle, reasonable background, deal with this toxicity? Will she take part in the turf wars or rise above them?

Mann Jogi | Hum TV, Saturdays 8.00pm

Like most Kashif Nisar projects, the story opens on a dark note of pain and loss, as Aliya (Sabeena Farooq) sits forlornly in an empty kitchen, waiting for her suddenly ex-husband, Chaudhry Shabbir (Gohar Rasheed), to marry her off.

Nisar’s signature style of raw, ugly truth is meant to bring home the ignorance and cruelty of the situation. Violence and anger lie bubbling just beneath the surface of every action Shabbir takes. Despite his ignorance of religion or Shariah law, Shabbir knows the greatest punishment he can inflict on Aliya is divorce. He pronounces three statements of divorce, in a fit of rage, over a minor issue. Now Aliya is forced to marry Shabbir’s trusted “adopted” brother Ibrahim (Bilal Abbas) in the dead of night as halala. Aliya is supposed to return before dawn, with a divorce in hand, but she chooses suicide.

This is not a commercial project and a difficult watch, raising the question that, while such an unfiltered style brings impact, does it reduce the audience the message can reach?

What To Watch Out For (or not)

Biwi Ho To Aisi | Geo TV, Coming soon

Good news for Mikaal Zulfikar fans, as he will soon be seen in a new serial on Geo TV opposite Amar Khan.

Published in Dawn, ICON, August 11th, 2024