THE WEEK THAT WAS

Yeh Na Thi Hamari Qismet | ARY, Mon-Thurs 9.00pm

Having set up the traditional ‘Akbari Asghari’ premise, with a sudden dulhan swap, this serial walks through some of the common “adjustment” difficulties that newlyweds face in traditional family set ups.

The great chemistry between the insecure but still-principled Ayaan (Muneeb Butt) and the designated ‘good’ sister Muntaha (Hira Salman) has viewers glued. A patient heroine who makes her own good luck is always popular, and Muntaha has viewers rooting for her. Alishba (Aiza Awan) is suitably annoying as the spoiled, uncompromising, ‘bad’ sister but her angry dialogues often point out hard truths that not even her appeasing husband (Noor Hassan) wants to hear. The biggest confusion in this drama is caused by the massive house and luxurious sets this show is filmed against, while the protagonists argue continuously over who is going to cook dinner.

Dil-i-Momin | Geo TV, Fri-Sat 8.00pm

Momin (Faysal Quraishi) teaches at a fancy private college and whose life is ruined after a student’s claims of harassment and assault against him. Faysal looks out of place as a teacher supposedly in his 20s, but his student Maya’s (Madiha Imam) obsession with him looks particularly authentic or justified.

What started out as a good story has lost a lot of impact with a long track about the situation being a spiritual test for Momin. Taking a leaf out of the mazloom aurat (tortured woman) playbook, Momin cries his way through a good 10 episodes and still fails to elicit any sympathy from the audience. From the promos of upcoming episodes, it seems as if Maya will clear Momin’s name, but how will she make up for the damage already inflicted? Will Momin be able to win back the fiancée he lost?

Sang-i-Mah | Hum TV, Sundays 8.00pm

Did Haji Marjaan (Naumaan Ijaz) murder his wife’s first husband, as his stepson Hilmand (Atif Aslam) clearly believes? So far, the story set in rural Swat hints at this baseline conflict, showing a flashback of Hakim Guru Baksh (the local herbalist) who suspects the poison Marjaan asks for is to kill a man, not a dog. Could such mostly kind and generous people really have committed such a dark deed to be together?

The parallel track of Mastan Singh’s (Omair Rana) penance for murdering a man to protect his fiancée, in a culture where dishonour is worse than death, seems to show us any contradiction is possible in the heat of the moment. In a rare display of the cultural diversity within Pakistan, the Sikh characters of Sang-i-Mah are given strong roles with complex motivations. Mastan Singh and Harshali (Najeeb Faiz) share the same wonderful, fatal screen chemistry their previous avatars shared in the first season.

So far, Sang-i-Mah lacks the raw, intense thrill of the first season, Sang-i-Mar Mar, but the tension is building. Writer Mustafa Afridi and director Saife Hasan are skilled storytellers, building up this show to an addictive watch. Hypocrisy, revenge and every human weakness in between is illustrated with each twist and turn of the plot. The only jarring note is Hilmand, who seems to have an endless supply of neatly pressed clothes and hair gel, despite supposedly living in a graveyard and regularly using recreational drugs.

What To Watch Out For

Badzaat | Geo TV, Coming Soon

Imran Ashraf takes up the mantle of action hero again, with a slightly negative edge, in the upcoming drama Badzaat. Hoping to repeat the fantastic screen chemistry of their last serial, Mushk, Urwa Hocane plays the innocent girl caught up in a wealthy, feudal family’s toxic power games.

Published in Dawn, ICON, February 27th, 2022