THE WEEK THAT WAS

Serial Killer | Green Entertainment, Concluded

The story began when a dead girl’s body was found in a suitcase. SP Sarah (Saba Qamar) is put on the case to improve the image of the force and the chief minister. Despite a strong start, both director and writer failed to create any connection between the characters and the audience. The interrogation scenes were particularly weak and, while Punjab Police has a deserved reputation for not being ideal, making all policefolk look like idiots, apart from the heroine, was unrealistic.

The story reached a climax as the beautician Barbra (Faiza Gilani) was unsurprisingly revealed as the murderer, but the deeper motivations and imperatives behind the series of poisonings remained unexplored. On the plus side, the cinematography captured the misty, cold winter of Lahore and the alienation of big cities well.

The supporting cast gave us some excellent cameos and kept the show watchable. Another plus was, despite clumsy dialogues and a lack of pivotal interactions that actually moved the story forward, Danyal Raheal and Saba Qamar as the crime-solving partners. They were a pleasure to watch and left us hoping for a better script for them.

Takabbur | Hum TV, Sundays 9.00pm

This is a very basic story about class differences, populated with black-and-white characters, and aimed at the mass-market audience. This is not always a bad thing if done well, but the slow pace and low-content script is a hard rock to push up a hill.

Orphaned and penniless, Muqaddas (Aiza Awan) and her brother Maaz (Danyal Afzal) are taken in by their wealthy uncle Aghaji (Munawar Saeed). Apart from Aghaji and his granddaughter Aiman (Hiba Aziz), the rest of the family scorns Maaz and Muqaddas as poor, backward and hangers-on. Enter, walking cliché Arez (Fahad Shaikh) as the spoiled, lecherous son of Aghaji’s family who wants to have an affair with the naïve but morally strong Muqaddas.

Is the arrogant, obsessive Arez behind Muqaddas’s kidnapping on the day of her wedding? This is a Seema Munaf script so that would be a ‘yes’. Aiza Awan dutifully trembles like a pretty leaf at everything, while Fahad Shaikh plays up the leering villainy, according to the show’s two-dimensional premise. How will bholi larrki [innocent lass] Muqaddas recover from this devastating blow, and will Arez be held accountable?

Jaan-i-Jahan | ARY, Fri-Sat 8.00pm

Not every project has to be deep or carry a social message. Sometimes, it’s just fun to relax and watch some beautiful people float through some aesthetically pleasing heartbreak, and relax.

Shahram (Hamza Ali Abbasi) lost his mother and then his father, leaving him the owner of vast properties, but lonely and sad. He falls in love with Mahnoor (Ayeza Khan), the determined daughter of one of his father’s managers, but his conniving stepmother, Kishwer (Savera Nadeem), is determined to isolate him. His stepmother manipulates him emotionally and financially but, worse, she is also ruining his mental health by secretly adding sedatives to his food.

Author Rida Bilal has written a well-constructed show that entertains without compromising on quality. Savera Nadeem makes a restrained but superbly effective villain and is the subtle power pushing the story forward. Hamza Ali Abbasi is good as the soft-hearted, trusting Shahram, but Ayeza Khan is better. Her role is written with more depth, sweetness mixed with steel, giving her plenty of opportunity to show her sometimes underrated skills as an actress.

What To Watch Out For (or not)

Tum Bin Kaisay Jiyain | ARY, Coming soon

Can a childhood friend help a woman overcome the loss of her beloved husband? Find out in this show starring Sanya Shamshad, Hammad Shoaib and Junaid Jamshed.

Published in Dawn, ICON, February 4th, 2024