THE WEEK THAT WAS

Mehr Posh | Geo TV, Fridays 8.00pm

Real-life celebrity couple Danish Taimoor (Shahjehan) and Ayeza Khan (Mehru) return to the mini-screen after 2015 (Shareek-i-Hayat), as leads for Misbah Nausheen’s screenplay. After several mediocre productions, Sky Entertainment has roped in Mazhar Moin to helm the project, so you can be sure that the story will be intriguing, the cast handpicked and the direction immaculate. Jahanzaib (Rehan Sheikh) and Nusrat’s (Sania Saeed) daughter Mehru is engaged to be married to the idealist Naeem (Ali Abbas) whom she has never met before. Shahjehan, who lives in the neighbourhood, does chores around Mehru’s house. On a shopping trip for the upcoming wedding, Naeem spots Mehru with Shahjehan and gets jealous. Naeem’s aunt Shakeela (Iffat Rahim) is very unhappy about Naeem marrying Mehru because she wants her son Waqas (Syed Arez) to marry Mehru. She resolves to create problems around Naeem and Mehru’s marriage, and it doesn’t take her long to find an opportunity to make trouble, and lots of it too.

Jhooti | ARY, Saturdays 8.00 pm

Domestic politics, including the done-to-death gag where the evil woman in the family spills cooking oil on the floor so that the clueless one skids over and loses her baby, while the innocent woman becomes a scapegoat, is too predictable. The evil Nimra’s (Iqra Aziz) antics continue against her bhabi Zubia (Madiha Rizvi), while Nimra is fast falling into the con-artist Ali’s (Yasir Hussain) trap, and that is the angle the story should majorly focus on.

What To Watch Out For

Sabaat | Hum TV, Sundays 8.00pm

So far it’s more gloss than story and the start has been rather flat, but a cast that includes Usman Mukhtar, Sarah Khan, Ameer Gilani and Mawra Hocane in lead roles keeps our expectations high from this Momina Duraid production. Good to see Sarah Khan as the wealthy brat Meeral after the series of doormat roles she has played. Meeral loves belonging to the upper class and has a clash with her younger brother Hasan (Ameer Gilani) who wants to break away from his fancy life and do something for himself in life. He has been inspired by his idealistic middle-class college fellow Anaya (Mawra Hocane). All eyes on Usman Mukhtar (Altamash of Anaa) to finally make an appearance, as he has been notably absent in the first two episodes.

Published in Dawn, ICON, April 12th, 2020