THE WEEK THAT WAS

Ishqiya | ARY, Mondays 8.00pm

Despite being married to the younger sister Rumaisa (Hania Aamir), Hamza (Feroze Khan) uses every opportunity he gets to harass his sister-in-law Hamna (Ramsha Khan) who was his university sweetheart. Surprisingly, Hamna’s response is a mysterious silence, instead of putting him in his place. We understand that director Bader Mehmood loves suspense and thrills (Cheekh) but the background music here doesn’t have to go crazy every time antagonist Hamza is in the frame. However, what promises to be the best part is the intrigue and jealousy between Hamza’s firecracker wife Rumaisa and Alishba (Maha Hasan), who has a thing for Hamza and is having trouble coming to terms with his marriage to Rumaisa. Actors extraordinarily comfortable in their roles here are Gohar Rasheed as Hamna’s huband Azeem, and Hania Aamir as Rumaisa.

Hamari Kahani | Urdu1, Mon-Wed 9.00pm

Eighty-something episodes in and there is never a dull moment for the Elibol family. Fiza Elibol (Hazal Kaya) deals with one family catastrophe after another as her father Fakhri (Reha Özcan) gets a liver transplant, but his kidney gets stolen. Soon after that, her younger brother Hikmat (Nejat Uygur) tries to commit suicide. Fakhri decides to propose to his friend Saima (Evrim Dogan), but Saima’s daughter Maria (Serra Pirinç) throws a fit because, if the proposal is accepted, she and her boyfriend Rehmat (Yağız Can Konyalı), who is Fakhri’s son, will become half-siblings! Alas, what Fiza finds most traumatic is Basit’s (Burak Deniz) indifference towards her, and the disturbing presence of the gorgeous Dr Soniya (Basak Guroz) who seems to be spending a lot of time with Basit. The love triangle gets juicier when Dr Soniya walks up to Fiza’s doorstep to clear some niggling doubts in Fiza’s head.

What To Watch Out For

Pyar Ke Sadqay | Hum TV, Thursdays 8.00pm

It’s a sheer joy to see a smooth Omair Rana in his role as Abdullah’s (Bilal Abbas) deceitful step-father Sarwar, who falls in love with his employee’s daughter Mahjabeen (Yumna Zaidi) at first sight. But in an unexpected and sudden twist of fate, Mahjabeen ends up marrying Sarwar’s stepson Abdullah. While on the one hand, Sarwar decides to take advantage of Mahjabeen’s presence in the house, and tries to win over her love and trust, on the other, he maligns Mahjabeen in front of Abdullah, so that Abdullah mistreats Mahjabeen who can then fall for Sarwar’s love and affection. But Mahjabeen has already started to feel uncomfortable with her father-in-law’s unwelcome love.

Published in Dawn, ICON, May 3rd, 2020