THE WEEK THAT WAS

Bewafa | ARY, Mondays 8.00pm

Ahaan’s (Ali Rehman) wife Kinza (Naveen Waqar) arrives at Shireen’s (Ushna Shah) house enraged and not only confronts her about seeing Ahaan on the sly, but also slaps her in front of her astounded family, who are torn between taking a stand for Shireen and embarrassed that on the pretext of working and supporting them, their daughter was breaking up a marriage. Shireen is grounded but not deterred. She calls Ahaan and feigns severe distress (Ushna at her best) and says that she is about to take her life because of what has happened. Like a complete fool, Ahaan falls for it.

Meanwhile, things get worse for Kinza on the home front and she moves her stuff to the guest room as Ahaan refuses to apologise. On the contrary, he is more concerned about how upset Shireen and her family are and, instead of fixing his marriage, he wants to make things better for Shireen. Writer Radain Shah’s storyline may not be new but director Aabis Raza’s craft makes the serial an intriguing watch.

Khaas | Hum TV, Wednesdays 8.00pm

When Saba’s (Sanam Baloch) father Faraz Ahmed (Behroze Sabzwari) barges in on Amaar (Ali Rehman Khan) trying to bully Fakhir (Haroon Shahid) into backing out of his proposal to marry Saba, he realises that Fakhir is not a fraud, nor is he trying to harm Saba. Faraz Ahmed gives a piece of his mind to the embarrassed Amaar, who quickly leaves. Fakhir marries Saba and at last she is happy.

Shocked at Amaar’s indifference to her phone calls, his second wife Salma (Hira Tareen) makes a sensible move to return to her susraal but with no less attitude. While Saba and Fakhir are cherishing marital bliss, what karma has in store for the narcissistic and shrewd Amaar is what the viewers can’t wait to see.

What To Watch Out For

Alif | Geo TV, Saturdays 8.00 pm

Flaunting a dream cast, the much-awaited first episode was an introduction of its rich characters. The writer Umera Ahmed has a thing about the name Momin here. The serial begins with artistic scenes shot in Turkey, where a child Momin (Pehlaj Hassan) lives with his mum Husn-i-Jahan (Kubra Khan), and cycles down hills to post letters written to God for his father to return. Grown up, he becomes Qalbe Momin (Hamza Ali Abbasi), an arrogant film director.

Momina (Sajal Aly), a middle-class girl who is an aspiring actress (and a calligrapher) wants to earn money to get treatment for her brother Jahangir (Hadi Bin Arshad) who suffers from kidney disease. But Momina’s career is not going anywhere, and takes an even bigger dive when she meets Qalbe Momin for an audition and they clash over what each of them thinks is morally right or wrong. Later, Qalbe abruptly proposes to Neha (Sadaf Kanwal), adding to all the intrigue in the story.

Published in Dawn, ICON, October 13th, 2019