THE WEEK THAT WAS

Yaarian | Geo TV, Fridays 8.00pm

Finally, Umair (Muneeb Butt) accepts that he has been a total beast with wife Sadia (Moomal Sheikh), the child born is his and not Sadia’s ex-husband Ahmer’s (Junaid Khan), and Umair makes a good job of tearfully admitting all his mistakes in front of his mum and Sadia who still remains fretful for reasons best known to herself. This is perhaps the weepiest role for Moomal Sheikh so far. Sadia’s sister Zoobia (Ayeza Khan, unimpressive in her much-hyped negative role) is still in love with Umair, her ex-boyfriend and vice versa.

This is the one of the most twisted sister acts that Samina Ijaz has written, because Zoobia, on the one hand, makes a big drama out of crying and missing her sister — even on her wedding night in all her bridal finery — and, on the other hand, revengefully marries Ahmer who, interestingly, is forever telling himself that he has no place in his heart for Sadia. But every time her name is mentioned, he wears a pained expression. The situation gets even stickier when Ahmer catches Zoobia and Umair locking eyes with each other at a family dinner, and later on engaged in a comfortable tete-a-tete, which makes him a bit suspicious of them. Watch only if you have oodles of patience and nothing better to do.

Hania | ARY, Saturdays 9.00pm

The serial has gone from Thursday’s prime time slot to Saturday’s post-prime time, and there is no more juice in the story. Wicked ex-husband Junaid (Junaid Khan) has destroyed Hania’s (Zoya Nasir) husband Rohan’s (Osama Tahir) business. To save her husband from further financial loss, Hania agrees to break up with Rohan as per Junaid’s wishes.

Rising above her timid self, she pretends that she is not up to living in a small flat after a life of luxury, and leaves Rohan to go to her parent’s home, leaving everyone baffled. In the confrontation scene between Hania, Rohan and his mum Saira (Atiqa Odho), the camera swung round and round, panning the room till one felt giddier than Rohan trying to absorb his sad dismissal.

What To Watch Out For (OR NOT)

Dewar -i-Shab | Hum TV, Saturdays 8.00pm

While the promos flaunted Zara Noor Abbas as Feroza, a key character resplendent in courtesan costumes, it turned out she was actually just a cameo appearance. She dies early on in the serial, leaving us with a bewildering medley of three generations of characters at the focal kotha, and another dozen characters not connected to the kotha.

Sitara Begum’s (Bushra Ansari) daughter Feroza, who eloped with the connivance of her evil aunt Dildar (Asma Abbas), has died. Her son Khayyam (Shehroz Sabzwari) lives at Sitara Begum’s kotha as the angry young man who hates everything about it. He wants to complete his education, find a job and scoot with cousin Gaiti Ara (Sarah Khan in another soppy role), whom he is soon to be engaged to, and tries to protect her from getting involved in courtesanal activities. Gaiti Ara is Sitara Begum’s grand-daughter from Nagina (Nausheen Khan), Feroza’s sister.

The only intriguing character, if at all, is the vamp Almas (Sarah Elahi), Dildar’s grand-daughter and the prime entertainer at the kotha. She loves Khayyam while he hates her, and she has resolved to destroy Gaiti and Khayyam’s relationship.

Published in Dawn, ICON, August 4th, 2019