THE WEEK THAT WAS

Jafaa | Hum TV, Fridays 8.00pm

Veteran writer Samira Fazal joins director Danish Nawaz for a serial about emotional healing. Hassan (Mohib Mirza) has a borderline personality, but works hard at containing the mental instability triggered by the loss of his father.

The first episode starts with his marriage to Dr Zara (Mawra Hocane), whose single-minded focus on work has left her little time to understand her new husband’s barely controlled mood swings. In contrast to the serious Zara, her young cousin Andaleeb or Deebu (Sehar Khan) is a carefree girl, happily involved with her classmate Moiz (Zarrar Khan). The teasers show that this relationship will fail and shatter Deebu, but her recovery will involve Dr Zara’s colleague Dr Numair (Usman Mukhtar), a quiet, kind soul who is there for everyone.

Sehar plays her forte, a bubbly young girl, while Mawra plays her forte, a grounded achiever, so no surprises that both fit their roles well. Usman Mukhtar has also played a similar role in Sabaat but it will be interesting to see how palatable the producers can make a romance with such a huge age gap.

Noor Jahan | ARY, Fri-Sat 8.00pm

Cast out by her late husband’s elite Syed family for being an outsider, Noor Jahan (Saba Hamid) has struggled hard to establish her family. She dominates the family jewellery business and her devoted sons: Hunain (Noor Hassan), Safeer (Ali Rehman) and Murad (Ali Raza).

Saba Hamid kicks off this portrayal of a powerful, complex matriarch who has revenge in her heart, with restraint and command. While the rest of her daughters-in-law are chosen for their obedience and lack of financial backing, Noor Jahan sets her sights on her arrogant brother-in-law’s daughter (Kubra Khan) for her youngest son, Murad. There are no good guys in this show, as both sides of the divide have their own prejudices and vices. As is often the case with such women once they achieve a position of power and are able to get back at those who actually hurt them, Noor Jahan exacts a parallel revenge from her sons’ wives.

This is very much a Zanjabeel Asim script, filled with mass market cliches and melodramatic power games, but director Musaddiq Malek knows how to combine intensity with restraint. The first episode is fast-paced and sets out the characters and their motivations in a short, sharp fashion, leaving some hope for an interesting serial.

Aik Chubhan Si | Hum TV, Mondays 8.00pm

This is a strange, regressive story from author Rukhsana Nigar, about nazar (evil eye) and jealousy.

Naila (Sonya Hussayn) lives an idyllic life with her two children and loving husband Haroon (Sami Khan). Naila is an ideal woman, spiritual, devoted to her husband and family while always sparing time for the uncle who raised her when her parents died. In contrast, her younger cousin Maheen (Hira Khan) is lazy and ignorant. Maheen is engaged to Moiz (Fahad Shaikh) who sees her as immature rather than bad.

Haroon, however, is convinced that the recent spate of accidents and mishaps in his and Naila’s life are all due to Maheen’s covetous evil eye. There is even a dialogue about poor relatives jinxing your good luck. What will happen when Maheen’s father dies and she comes to live with Haroon and Naila?

What To Watch Out For (or not)

Woh Pagal Si 2 | Geo TV, Coming soon

Ali Ansari stars as a young man who had lost all hope of attaining his love (Zubab Rana) but a twist of fate brings her to him as an “exchange bride”, as a kind of guarantee for his sister’s happiness. Zubab’s character is already romantically involved with another, and hates her new husband from the very start.

Published in Dawn, ICON, June 2nd, 2024