THE WEEK THAT WAS

Baandi | Hum TV, Fridays 8.00pm

The serial is watched more because of the popular, real-life newlyweds Aiman Khan and Muneeb Butt playing the leads and not because of the clichéd story. As the pitiful maid Meeru’s (Aiman Khan) ‘vacation’ at Shahida’s (Kaysar Siddiqui) place is due, cruel employer Faiza Begum’s (Hina Dilpazeer Khan) son and Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Wali (Muneeb Butt), who has a soft corner for Meeru, decides to protect her from Shahida’s prostitution racket. Without his mum’s knowledge, he sends her to stay at his friend Farhan’s (Daniyal Raheel) house.

It is only later when Shahida calls Faiza Begum to ask her for some money and says that Meeru must say with her on her next ‘vacation’ do they realise that Meeru must have gone somewhere else. It is enough to rouse anger and suspicion in both the evil women. While Faiza Begum vows to go on another torture spree, Shahida wastes no time to call the evil wadera Talwar (Yasir Hussain) and apprise him of ASP Wali’s interest in Meeru since he is helping her. Next, ASP Wali arrives at Shahida’s place in all his uniformed glory with an arrest warrant in her name.

WHAT TO WATCH OUT FOR

Balaa | ARY, Mondays 8.00pm

Zanjabeel Asim’s story of jealousy and revenge came to a gripping finale. If Nigar (Ushna Shah) was a ruthless monster behind her sympathy-evoking disability, her husband Taimur (Bilal Abbas), after suffering at her hands, made sure that he takes organised revenge for all of her connivances. Once he finds out how she was the prime accessory behind the deaths of his mum and two sisters, he turns into a relentless beast, vowing to destroy her. The settling of scores may not have been all that ethical as he begins with attacking Nigar emotionally by marrying Saba (Azeka Daniel), his ex-fiance. When she retaliates, he goes further to create a hallucinating, deranged person out of the cold, composed Nigar who ends up in a mental asylum.

With minimal dragging, most episodes remained pacey and the serial brought forth moving performances by Bilal Abbas, Ushna Shah, Asad Siddiqui (Nigar’s brother, Junaid) and Sajid Hasan (Nigar’s father, Taya Abbu). Balaa is another feather in director Badar Mehmood’s cap after the success of Aisi Hai Tanhai.

Published in Dawn, ICON, January 20th, 2019