THE WEEK THAT WAS

Darr Khuda Se | Geo TV, Tuesdays 8.00pm

Despite her sister Afreen’s (Sana Javed) warnings that ex-boss Shahwaiz (Imran Abbas) is a total weirdo, the shallow and greedy Tamkeen (Kiran Haq) still goes ahead and marries Shahwaiz for his money. Only to realise soon enough what a terrible mess she has landed herself into in the form of Shahwaiz, who is unscrupulous, psychotic and violent. Initially, Tamkeen tries to hide the physical and verbal abuse from her family but, when she tries to show Shahwaiz her real arrogant self, it backfires and Shahwaiz sends her marching back to her parents’ house.

Sana Javed is deadpan but perhaps that’s what her role of a dull, traditional girl demands. Imran Abbas remains unimpressive in his negative role. Mariam Mirza as Shahwaiz’s bed-ridden first wife Gul seems to be the only one having fun lying in bed grunting, pulling faces and spitting on her caregivers.

What To Watch Out For

Hamari Kahani | Urdu1, Mon-Wed 9.00pm

An all-out Turkish entertainer with every rich and realistic character laced with an intriguing story within the main framework of the young and responsible Fiza (Hazal Kaya) looking after her five siblings and tackling day-to-day challenges thrown her way by their alcoholic father Fakhri (Reha Özcan). Fakhri shocks his family once again by doing a begging stint on the street to make some easy money using his toddler Ismet (Ömer Sevgi) to garner more sympathy from people.

Fiza’s younger sister Kiran (Zeynep Selimoğlu) succeeds in her sneaky mission of finding out the truth behind a random woman’s message on Fiza’s boyfriend Basit’s (Burak Deniz) mobile phone. Fiza’s best friend and neighbour Tulay (Nesrin Cavadzade) discovers she is pregnant while Basit and Fiza’s romance continues to be subtle and sweet. With slick production and solid content, this serial is truly addictive.

Published in Dawn, ICON, December 29th, 2019