THE WEEK THAT WAS

Main Zameen Tu Aasmaan | Green TV, Wed-Thurs 8.00pm

Feroze Khan repr­ises his generic role of an intense rebel-without-a-cause in a very filmi story that seems plucked straight out ’90s Bollywood.

Sultan (Mehmood Aslam) is a powerful property dealer who succeeds by any means necessary. While his equally shady older son, Sufiyan (Hasan Niazi), is part of the business, his younger son Shahzil (Feroze Khan) is kept at a distance from the family’s criminal dealings. Shahzil’s deepest love is for his father, and second place belongs to the feisty Hooram (Hiba Bukhari). Hooram may not be Shahabuddin’s (Shahood Alvi) real daughter but she is the one who got him out of jail when Sultan’s land mafia tried to forcefully buy his historic hotel. Now the stage is set for a romance and a clash of loyalties, with Sufiyan as the villain.

Feroze wears some ridiculous sunglasses and the kind of alpha male attitude that keeps the masses happy. The popularity of this genre keeps proving there is a big market for such scripts. What is missing is the big screen and budgets necessary to make the actual film these stories crave. Writer Abdul Khaliq Khan spins a tale of action and emotional flourishes that director Ahmed Bhatti has woven together into pure entertainment.

Raaja Rani | Hum TV, Wed-Thurs 8.00pm

Zaviyar (Faysal Quraishi) was a successful businessman who not only lost his memory but regressed to a child-like persona after a terrible accident. Following more head trauma, he regains his memory but forgets Rani (Hina Afridi), the girl who helped him when no one else would.

The story seems a little stretched as Zaviyar takes quite a few episodes to understand his past, firstly with the wife that abandoned him (Hira Tareen), his father’s strange, untimely death, and finding a place in what has become a new world. To the writer’s credit, there is no sudden resolution, as Zaviyar uses his business acumen and old connections to relaunch himself.

Director Amin Iqbal has made tense thrillers such as Dushman-i-Jaan and mysteries such as Dil Mohallay Ki Haveli,but the investigation of Zaviyar’s father’s death lacked intensity. Faysal Quraishi has been the leading light of the show, effortlessly pulling off the abrupt changes in Zaviyar’s persona and connecting the audience to his character’s changing emotional state. Hina Afridi is a pleasure to watch and holds her own in front of many more experienced actors on set.

Biryani | ARY, Fridays 8.00pm

Slow-burn romances such as this are hard to pull off because they require real chemistry and a hook for the audience till the more intense part of the story begins.

Writer Zafar Meraj may not always end a story well, but he is a master at reeling in the audience, deftly creating empathy and connection, where others use style and swagger. We should all hate Mir Miran (Khushhal Khan) for being a privileged feudal and empathise with Nisa’s (Ramsha Khan) middle-class family forced to host him. Instead, we see the poor family as mean-spirited, while Miran’s awkwardness, good manners and restraint endear him more to the audience than any grand gestures.

Nisa is regretting trying to scare her wealthy student away and we see the world of duty and service behind Miran’s good character. Ramsha Khan and Khushhal Khan fit their roles perfectly, building connection with every interaction. Now that Miran’s father wants him to take up a ministerial post, will he be forced to fulfil his family’s expectations or will he fulfil his own?

What To Watch Out For (Or Not)

Sanwal Yaar Piya | Geo TV, Coming Soon

The first teaser of this upcoming drama shows us Feroze Khan and Durre Fishan Saleem as college sweethearts, and Ahmed Ali Akbar as an obsessed gangster.

Published in Dawn, ICON, September 6th, 2025