THE WEEK THAT WAS

Saaya | Geo TV, Wednesdays 8.00pm

Although her husband Rashid (Sohail Sameer) loves her, Sualeha’s (Maham Amir) horrid mother-in-law Ateeqa (Sumbul Shahid) emotionally tortures her for having two daughters. When Sualeha’s new-born son gets swapped in a hospital and she brings home a third daughter, her evil mum-in-law and sister-in-law resort to black magic (which floats around the house as powdery black smoke) to get rid of Sualeha so that they can marry Rashid off again.

Blood oozes, bats fly, parental guidance advisories flash on the screen and the malicious mother-and-sister-in-law combine to push Sualeha off the roof.

Visaal | ARY, Wednesdays 8.00pm

Aku (Zahid Ahmed), a hoodlum, gets out of jail and boards the train to arrive in a new place — presumably Hyderabad — where he meets and impresses Maulvi Ghufran (Firdaus Jamal) who brings him home for tea. Saboor Ali plays the Maulvi’s daughter.

When her friend Pari (Hania Amir) answers the door for the Maulvi and Aku, it’s love at first sight for Aku who assumes that she is the Maulvi’s daughter. Tauqeer Nasir plays Pari’s father, who is a tad too protective about her. The story by Hashim Nadeem may lose impact because of slack direction. Zahid Ahmed sports a special long-hair look for this serial but his acting is slightly over-the-top.

WHAT TO WATCH OUT FOR

Ustani ji | Hum TV, Saturdays 9.10pm

With a reputation of directing thought-provoking plays around taboo subjects (Kitni Girhain Baqi Hain), Angeline Malik teams up with Yasra Rizvi for her new venture. Yasra has not only written the scripts for these realistic stories but also plays Ustani ji, the central character of the upcoming drama series. 

Ustani ji is a psychology teacher in her mid-30s who solves issues of the women living in her neighbourhood. The idea for the series was Yasra’s brainchild which was taken forward by Angeline Malik. The cast includes Minal Khan, Aly Khan, Mehmood, Saleem Miraj, Saman Ansari, Samina Ahmed, Farah, Aijaaz Aslam, Ghaana Ali, Hamaad Farooqi, Imran Ashraf, Sana Askari, Sara Khan and Imran Aslam.

Published in Dawn, ICON, April 15th, 2018