THE WEEK THAT WAS

Khaas | Hum TV, Wednesdays 8.00pm

A beautiful girl with a mind, Saba (Sanam Baloch) nearly runs her car over dreamy painter Fakhir (Haroon Shahid), but apologises so profusely that Fakhir not only falls in love with her but also goes home to paint her portrait. Meanwhile egoistic and conceited Amaar (Ali Rehman) spots Saba when he goes to drop a relative to the university where, incidentally, she also studies. Of course cupid hits him hard as well.

Another coincidence is that Amaar’s family is all set to visit Saba’s with his marriage proposal. Although she couldn’t clearly decide for herself, Saba agrees to marry Amaar after consistent family pressure. Predictably, and as the teasers show, Ammar is going to turn into a nasty husband and Fakhir will save the distressed damsel. This one promises bucketfuls of tears and the OST hints at it too.

Siskiyaan | Bol TV, Thursdays 8.00pm

Director Mazhar Moin cleverly builds the ambience as the groom’s party arrives dancing in the narrow lane of the small lower-middle class locality with a ‘Shaadi Mubarak’ sign lit up with LED lights at the Mohammed Husain (filmstar Nadeem)’s house. Seema Ghazal’s hard-edged story takes a torturous twist when Mumtaz (Faryal Mehmood) is shown sitting resplendent in classic red bridal wear, seemingly content with the wedding taking place round her. And in the next scene, amidst the gaiety, Mumtaz’s mum Khadija (Hina Dilpazeer) bustles into her room to finds herself gawking at the horror of all horrors — Mumtaz hanging from the ceiling fan. When Mumtaz had come clean to Rafique (Ali Abbas), her husband-to-be, about her gang rape and abortion, and he had no issues with it, why did she have to kill herself? Once again, the family moves on with life but is there no respite for them from the misery that has been theirs right from the start?

What To Watch Out For

Yaarian | Geo TV, Fridays 8.00pm

Doormat sister Sadia (Moomal Sheikh) is married to Ahmar (Junaid Khan) but awaits her rukhsati. The smarter sister Zubia (Ayeza Khan) is in a relationship with Umair (Muneeb Butt), much against her family values. Sadia disapproves of their relationship but on her birthday, Zubia invites Umair over to discuss things with Sadia. A couple of weakly-directed and overdramatic scenes later, Sadia is caught by her parents and Ahmar in a compromising position with Umair, whereas Zubia bangs her head on something and loses consciousness.

Umair flees and Sadia bears the brunt of the situation, and believing that she was cheating on Ahmar, her father (Mehmood Aslam) starts whacking her while Ahmar immediately divorces her. Zubia is carted to the hospital where she conveniently goes into a coma. The much-hyped serial with a star cast, so far, has a run-of-the-mill storyline. Things will hopefully take a less predictable turn when Zubia gains consciousness.

Published in Dawn, ICON, May 5th, 2019