THE WEEK THAT WAS

Dil Moam Ka Diya | ARY, Tuesdays 8.00pm

Afzal (Yasir Nawaz) is a father figure to his four siblings who he took care of after his parents died. He wants to learn the Quran from Maulvi Feroz Baig (Qavi Khan) who has also taught the Quran to Afzal’s younger sister Kausar (Zubi Majeed). The elderly maulvi has two daughters Ulfat (Neelam Munir) and Farhat (Alizeh Shah). Ulfat is pretty, outspoken and selfish and Maulvi Feroz is concerned about her marriage. When he has a heart attack, Afzal looks after him and in a semi-conscious state Maulvi Feroz requests him to take care of his family. Afzal obliges his teacher by fixing an express nikah with Ulfat in the hospital. Ulfat is unhappy at this marriage for she thinks Afzal is middle-aged and not good-looking. While Afzal wanted a needy and caring wife to suit his soft temperament, Ulfat is going to be a handful for him and his family.

Main Khayal Hoon Kisi Aur Ka | Hum TV, Saturdays 8.00pm

Another episode where the characters are either confused or just being plain stupid. Now that husband Armaan (Alamdaar Hussain) knows that his wife Daniya (Hareem Farooq) previously loved his adopted brother Zaryab (Bilal Ashraf), he is trying to set them up together. He also wants to spend time with Daniya, yet plans to divorce her. Meanwhile, Daniya pulls sad faces for both Zaryab and Armaan. When Armaan tells her he wants her to get back with Zaryab, she aks him why he is doing this? When he holds her hand, she doesn’t respond! When Zaryab arrives at a date fixed by Armaan, Daniya walks away. Zaryab is torn between old flame Daniya and fiancee Soniya (Rucksar Khan), who like any normal person (the only one in this story) is perplexed about the whole carrying on. Good looking actors in a storyline all over the place doesn’t quite do the job, does it!

What To Watch Out For

Ab Dekh Khuda Kya Karta Hai | Geo, Tuesdays 8.00pm

Jaan-i-Alam (Danish Taimoor) is a tycoon-cum-playboy. He picks up needy women and remorselessly discards them as he pleases while, on the family front, he wants his mum to choose a traditional wife for him. Mariam (Sanam Chaudhary), a sales girl at a high-end perfume store is spotted by Alam. He manipulates her situation so that she comes to him for a job and he hires her as his personal assistant on a fat package. He also provides Mariam a loan for her father’s bypass. While Mariam totally buys Alam’s super-benevolent image, what she doesn’t know is that he has just fired his previous personal assistant Noor-us-Saba (Yashma Gill) who was also his girlfriend living in a flat provided by him. After getting her pregnant, he feeds her a bunch of lies and quickly arranges an abortion as he has no plans of marrying her, much to her dismay. Noor-us-Saba warns Mariam and later commits suicide. Alam pays off the police to stay out of trouble. Mariam is Alam’s next target and very soon, at an official meeting, much to her surprise he serves her all dolled up to the minister he wants some favours from. Rashid Farooqi donning gold-brown hair sans moustache as Alam’s sleazy driver is a joy to watch.

Published in Dawn, ICON, September 9th, 2018