THE WEEK THAT WAS

Deewangi | Geo TV, Wednesdays 8.00pm

After harassing the bus hostess Nageen (Hiba Bukhari) whom he is thoroughly smitten with, Sultan Durrani (Danish Taimoor) gets into a street fight and the entire juicy happening is recorded by a goon employed by Sultan’s malicious cousin Narmeen (Zoya Nasir) to malign her eligible cousin who has rejected her love. Since he is a politician’s nephew, the video goes viral and threatens to destroy his uncle Mujaddid Durrani’s (Mehmood Aslam) upcoming election campaign. It would have been so much easier to relate to Sultan’s feelings for Nageen had Hiba Bukhari lost some weight for the role, and been styled appropriately instead of looking frumpy in a ghastly uniform. But then, they say love is blind!

What To Watch Out For (Or Not)

Ye Dil Mera | Hum TV, Wednesdays 8.00pm

Flashbacks weaken the tempo as the story reveals that the hugely successful young entrepreneur Amanullah (Ahad Raza Mir) appears strange because he is out to get Mir Farooq (Adnan Siddiqui). Mir Farooq had, in the past, shot and killed Amanullah’s parents, and Amanullah had witnessed the shooting as a child. Is marrying Mir Farooq’s daughter Aina (Sajal Aly) a part of the revenge plan or has Amanullah truly fallen for her? One can’t help wondering that how can someone as shrewd as Mir Farooq be so gullible that he would marry his beloved daughter off to Amanullah without conducting some sort of investigation about Amanullah’s parentage? Hence Mir Farooq has no inkling about their names and identities, and cannot sniff out the past enmity and Amanullah’s notorious and unscrupulous past.

Published in Dawn, ICON, January 26th, 2020