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THE WEEK THAT WAS
Mera Khuda Jane | Geo TV, Wednesdays 9.00pm
Despite Waleed (Ali Abbas) being a supportive husband, his mother (Nida Mumtaz) threatens to leave home unless her daughter-in-law Roohi (Hira Salman), unable to bear a child, allows Waleed to remarry. Under severe pressure to save her marriage Roohi agrees. The relentless mum-in-law now wants her to come along on the tea trolly trips to choose the girl for Roohi’s husband.
A tearful Roohi, with a nose redder than Rudolph the reindeer’s, tries to drum some sense into her own head in the mirror, but in vain. Ally Khan plays an elder cousin Shafiq and, knowing his history of turning into a villain halfway through a serial, his role so far seems surprisingly positive. But who knows what will happen later.
The writer Samina Ijaz (Gurya Rani, Doosri Biwi, Zinda Dargor) has a penchant for weepy women-oriented stories where husbands cheat or remarry for the sake of having offspring. Keep a tissue box handy.
De Ijazat | Hum TV, Mon-Tues 9.10pm
Working in an indecent commercial proves to be disastrous for Soha (Ammara Butt), and the disgrace it brings her makes her mentally unstable. In one scene Soha puts a (blurred) gun to her head so the overly-sensitive viewer could imagine it’s a shoe sneaked out of her brother’s closet that she is trying to kill herself with and, next, she is clapping away at a happy thought!
Dua (Zarnish Khan) has a mysterious disease that threatens her life and her unborn baby’s which she is miscarrying yet again. The hospital report saga is half-baked as hospitals do not courier reports to patients with serious issues. So it isn’t the mum-in-law Salma (Ayesha Sana) who is unbelievably cunning at what she does, it is the rest of her family members who are unbelievably stupid for not sussing out who the troublemaker is.
Sadia Akhtar’s plot is believable but director Asim Ali’s treatment is not up to the mark.
What To Watch Out For (Or Not)
Khasara | ARY, Tuesdays 8.00pm
Unambitious (and dumb) husband Monis (Junaid Khan) is clueless about the romantic sparks between his city-slicker buddy Mohtasim (Mikaal Zulfiqar) and his wife Sila (Sonia Mishal).
Mohtasim’s jealous wife Linta is busy interviewing girls for the position of her husband’s secretary. Why not interview boys if she is so over-protective? And, by the way, which back-office position requires “attractive dress” and what “club dancers” does Linta refer to when she criticises a candidate’s western outfit? Last we heard those sort of clubs were phased out in 1979!
The storyline is intriguing but digest writers popping out of the woodwork to write screenplays need to get out there for some real-time exposure — this kind of vocab is too seventies-filmi to digest!
Published in Dawn, ICON, May 20th, 2018
