THE WEEK THAT WAS

Mubarak Ho Beti Hui Hai | ARY, Wednesdays 8.00pm

The husband of a woman who has four healthy daughters marries his elder brother’s widow for a male heir and what follows is the whole shebang about how girls are considered a liability in our male-dominated society until they are married off. There is nothing new to offer in terms of storyline but the screenplay by Faiza Iftikhar and direction by Badar Mehmood highlights the struggle of a woman who has only been blessed with daughters. Sajid Hasan and Saima Noor seem unconvincing as a couple to begin with but as the serial progresses, Noor appears fit to play the battered mother of four girls. Sajid’s immaculate performance is no surprise. The story has dragged on for a few episodes but with Saboor Ali (Sajal Ali’s sister who stole the show from Shaista Lodhi in ARY’s Waada with her powerful performance) playing the defiant daughter Amber, the serial might still pick up pace and TRPs.

Mohabbat Tum Se Nafrat Hai | Geo TV, Fridays 8.00pm

Writer Khalil-ur-Rehman Qamar gets through a dozen episodes around the engagement of Ayeza Khan as Maheen Aurangzeb who takes her time to choose a beau between Shehzad Sheikh as Gulrez and Imran Abbas as Waqar. The latter sets a record for being repeatedly slapped across his pretty face in the serial. Farooq Rind has us glued to the telly on Friday nights with the taut love triangle, a stellar cast and finally, some progress in the twisted matriarchal stronghold. The characters continue to spew the philosophy of broken hearts as Khalil-ur-Rehman entwines us in wordplay.

What to watch out for

Pagli | Hum TV, Mondays 8.00pm

A bubbly girl with luggage and an attitude bursts into a train compartment occupied by a guy travelling alone. We are not talking about Kareena Kapoor in Jab We Met but Hum TV’s new serial Pagli based on Shaukat Thanvi’s novel and a screenplay by Khurram Abbas. After convincing performances in Bilqees Urf Bitto and Sun Yaara, Hira Salman (no longer just a tag-along with husband Mani) emerges as a rising star and is well cast in the title role of a girl who suffers memory loss and leaves her home to embark on a crazy adventure to sort out other people’s lives, while oblivious of her own reality.

Published in Dawn, ICON, September 17th, 2017