THE TUBE

THE WEEK THAT WAS

Bas Tera Saath Ho | ARY Digital, Mon-Tues 8.00pm

After the blockbuster Mere Humsafar, the late Saira Raza’s script for this new serial reverses the roles with a male protagonist, Anas (Farhan Saeed), as the Cinderella figure. An orphan who doesn’t dare to ask about his heritage, Anas is treated like a servant by his uncle’s family. He works hard and, of course, like every storybook, he is virtuous, kind and studious.

To ensure maximum empathy from the audience, the rest of his family is unrelentingly and appallingly cruel. This has crushed Anas’ spirit, something his classmate, Ansa (Sana Javed), cannot understand. She too is living through a difficult situation, where her brother and bhabhi (sister-in-law) are stealing her inheritance. The level of greed, near-inhuman materialism and dehumanisation that the leads experience is not hard to believe, but it is hard to watch.

Oddly enough, Ansa is resilient and refuses to kowtow to anyone while Anas is broken beyond self-preservation. While this nuance is good to see, what spoils the image is the age-inappropriate casting. Sana Javed might scrape by as a college student but Farhan Saeed looks completely out of place, despite good styling.

Sirf Shabana | Hum TV, Mon-Tues 8.00pm

Shabana (Sohai Abro) finally catches up with Salaar (Furqan Qureshi), the man who left her many years ago with a ring and a host of empty promises. He is now married to his boss’ daughter (Namra Shahid), living a new life and under a new name.

Sohai performs her role with studied nuance, whether as the feisty small town girl demanding respect, or the confused, hurt woman who needs time to understand how being faithful led her to this point. Adeel Hussain shines as Kabir, keeping a respectful but determinedly protective distance from the young woman he has, to his own surprise, fallen for. Shabana is prickly and unable to open up to Kabir, while Bilal/Bawla (Duraab Khalil) is an old friend from her neighbourhood who can understand her pain without her feeling further exposed.

Duraab Khalil is slowly making his mark with another strong performance. Sweet but not too simple-minded, he handles the angst and gradations of his role with ease. The original plot point of Shabana trying to remove the name of the father who abandoned her seems to have been sidelined in recent episodes, but a surprising twist may be coming.

Ghulam Bashah Sundri | Green TV, Mon-Tues 8.00pm

Unrestricted power, corruption and hubris are the essence of this story from Zanjabeel Asim.

Bashah (Zaviyar Ijaz) has been spoiled since birth and his parents are his greatest enablers. His obsession with Sundri (Hina Afridi) is not dampened by his nikaah to Murk (Maham Naqvi), and his relentless search for her continues. Sundri and Ghulam (Imran Ashraf) have been captured by Murk’s father, who wants to kill Bashah and marry Sundri as revenge, but in reality seeks to satisfy his own lust.

This serial paints a bleak picture of rural Sindh, something current newspaper headlines do little to dispel. The plot has reached a critical point, and is very popular on YouTube, but it fails to generate comparative TRPs, suggesting that cross-border or other international audiences are watching it. Director Amin Iqbal uses the Indian melodrama format with extended scenes and villains with long monologues taking centre stage. Meanwhile, the other characters sit inexplicably silent or stare open-mouthed like gaping fish. The performances are reasonable, with Zaviyar Ijaz given maximum screen time.

What To Watch Out For (Or Not)

Milkiyat | Geo TV, Coming soon