THE WEEK THAT WAS

Mohabbatein Chahatein | Hum TV, Tuesdays 8.00pm

Apparently, it does take a solid antagonist to rev up a lame storyline. Because if it weren’t for the saucy vamp Tara (Armeena Khan) and her freshly cooked wicked plans to totally destroy anything positive from happening in Sneha’s (Hira Mani) life, all we would have is the half-brained husband Faraz (Junaid Khan) and his confused wife Sneha fighting over their little boy Shehroz. With Sneha’s husband Faraz living under Tara’s roof, Tara finds out about the new guy Minhaj (Ibrahim Alvi) in Sneha’s life. She puts all her energy into weaving a brand new story around herself to get sympathies out of Minhaj. From tying rope around her wrists to get bruise marks to sticking plasters on her face, Tara feigns a domestic violence scenario and gets Minhaj to rescue her. Of course, all other characters in the story are extremely gullible to Tara’s antics, who’s the only one with a brain in her pretty little head.

Mushk | Hum TV, Saturdays 8.00pm

The wrap-up was quick and unprecedented and some tracks were wound up prematurely, as though writer Imran Ashraf ran out of long-winded dialogue for his story. One episode had Malik junior (Hassan Ahmed) avenging the world and in the next, he was arrested by the police with evidence surprisingly collected by his otherwise daft brother-in-law. Malik’s wicked wife (Zara Tareen), a powerful character in the first few episodes, just vanished into a shelter home. Adam (Imran Ashraf) romances and marries Guddi (Urwa Hocane) with such fervour as though he never had any feelings for Mehek (Moomal Sheikh), who finally finds her long-lost love Shayan (Osama Tahir). Poor old Chaudhry Malik (Manzoor Qureshi) dies without anyone even pretending to call for medical help, but of course the village doctor (Raja Haider) was murdered by Malik junior! The evil Muqaddar Khan (Ahson Talish) ends up paralysed and in a wheelchair, as his previously subdued and sobbing wife sat literally laughing out loud. The leftover airtime in the last episode went to pointless wedding footage. YouTube at your own risk.

What To Watch Out For

Khuda Aur Mohabbat | Geo TV, Saturdays 8.00pm

All new characters in a fresh story kicked off the much-hyped and anticipated KAM Season 3. Fahad (Feroze Khan), a middle-class college student in Lahore, cheats and flunks while the pampered Mahi (Iqra Aziz in a role similar to what she has done so far) is from a well-off family from Bahawalpur, and has come to Lahore to attend her friend Rida’s (Meherbano) wedding. Also on Mahi’s train was the feudal dude Taimoor (Mirza Zain Baig) whom she spots accidently walking away with her luggage. In a cupid-perfect moment Taimoor falls in love with Mahi. However, this happens right after he bumps into a dervish (Noor-ul-Hassan), who randomly predicts the start of a spiritual journey for Taimoor. The camerawork is interesting but the whole scene where Mahi creates a big fuss about her blue dupatta getting lost, goes out with Rida to buy a new one, walking right past Fahad twice as a meaningful innuendo in the story, but wears nothing blue on the mehndi, didn’t quite make sense.

Published in Dawn, ICON, February 21st, 2021