THE WEEK THAT WAS

Raaz-i-Ulfat | Geo TV, Tuesdays 8.00pm

The serial flaunts a star cast in a story by Maha Malik (award-winner Mere Meherban) where Yumna Zaidi as Mushk is a middle-class girl from a conservative family. Her strict father Iftikhar (Tanveer Jamal) hardly gives his daughters any breathing space. After considerable begging and pleading, he agrees to allow Mushk to attend university where she meets Zuby (Komal Aziz) who is from a wealthy and liberal background. They become friends and, in a small traffic accident, they meet the rich and suave Irtiza (Shahzad Sheikh, in a lilac suit!) who falls in love at first sight with Mushk. If this is yet another storyline where besties become horrible with each other over a man, then the serial probably has nothing new to offer.

Kashf | Hum TV, Tuesdays 8.00pm

The magical Sun Yaara team is back with Hira Mani as Kashf, Junaid Khan as Wijdan and Danish Nawaz as the director. The leads are in their fourth project together, but somehow the chemistry went amiss after Sun Yaara, so we hope this serial gives us some sizzling moments between Kashf and Wijdan. Kashf is a sensitive, middle-class girl who dreams about people around her, and is often ridiculed about it. Her father (Waseem Abbas) doesn’t work, and hence there are financial issues in the family. Kashf is engaged to Wijdan, the boy next door (with bad hair) whose mother (Lubna Aslam) can’t stand Kashf. Throw in an unmarried, breadwinner phuppi (Hajra Khan) who is a teacher and concerned about her brother’s — Kashf’s father’s — errant ways. The phuppi is harassed by Salim Mairaj who seems to be playing an interesting character. There is more than one reason to watch this serial.

What To Watch Out For (Or Not)

Jhooti | ARY, Saturdays 8.00pm

Believing that she is way too smart for the rest of the world, the manipulative Nirma (Iqra Aziz) has carefully dug a ditch for herself to fall into with the help of Ali (Yasir Hussain), the con-artist who is brazenly fooling her into marrying him. Nirma can’t wait to be married to him, and bullies her family to cut short all formalities entailed in the wedding and expedite the proceedings. Little does she know that this time, when things go wrong, there will be no one to turn to, and she will have lost much more than the stash she has collected from her first husband.

Published in Dawn, ICON, April 19th, 2020