THE WEEK THAT WAS

Maryam Pereira | TVOne, Wednesdays 8.00pm

What began as a story that highlights important issues such as land grabbing, the lack of minority representation at all levels, and the plight of people who don’t feel safe in their own country, is now encumbered with weak direction, poor research, a script that is all over the place and immature characters. Maryam (Sadia Khan) has married Ali (Ahsan Khan), the feudal lord Hakim Khan’s (Rashid Naz) educated son in bizarre circumstances, where a strong-willed and courageous girl is shown succumbing to a ridiculously structured kidnapping and marriage outside her faith.

On finding out that Ali has a childhood fiancée Phool Bibi in the house, after a mild disapproval of the situation, Maryam urges Ali to consider Phool Bibi’s feelings and marry her. Why is a sensible lecturer, such as Maryam, nursing the under-the-weather Phool Bibi and being abused and insulted? Why does Laila Zuberi as Hakim Khan’s wife Suraiya endlessly wail over trivia? Why are we subjected to prolonged thinking sequences of Maryam and soliloquies by Sufyan (Emmad Irfani)? If Anita Camphor’s fudging English pronunciation and Goan accent don’t drive you nuts, the different background scores of tribal Pathan music interspersed with Que Sera Sera most certainly will.

Koi Chand Rakh | ARY Digital, Thursdays 8.00pm

The finale turned out totally unexpected. We thought that pretty boy Zain (Imran Abbas) would settle down with two wives and live happily ever after. But as second wife Nishal (Areeba Habib) resigns to her madness, hysteria and insecurity which she cannot control, she loses Zain who has no choice but to regret his impulsive decision of marrying two sisters.

First wife (Rabail) Ayeza Khan, whose character beautifully matures from a quiet, passive person who realises her own strengths as a capable young doctor, royally dumps husband Zain (much to his dismay) and chooses her true love, Umair (Muneeb Butt), a younger man, to be her life partner. Great to see an empowered, positive woman turning life around as she wishes, instead of the usual sacrificing, compromising, weak, sobbing woman.

What To Watch Out For (or not)

Anaa | Hum TV, Sundays 8.00pm

Daneen (Hania Aamir) loves Areesh (Shehzad Sheikh), but due to some twisted family history, an over-powering phuphi (Seemi Raheel) has made it her life’s mission to separate them. With a screenplay by Sameera Fazal and direction by Shahzad Kashmiri, the first episode was weak, overdramatic and quite the reverse of what it was meant to be.

The storyline set round a nawab family and their traditions seems redundant. One could only yawn at the furore over Daneen getting a tattoo. People wore shararas for a family picture and then lounged around in garden chairs. Seemi Raheel’s necklaces are passé and Irfan Khoosat’s fake white beard, moustache and eyebrows would put even Santa Claus to shame. The last scene, with Daneen lying in the lawn crying and daddy Raju Jamil comforting her when phuphi walks away with Areesh, was right out of a ’70s Urdu film and took the cake.

Published in Dawn, ICON, February 24th, 2019