Watching a couple of episodes of Tanhaiyan, Naye Silsilay (a drama serial which is apparently a continuation of the ’80s classic Tanhaiyan) raised many questions. The first one is why? Why try and rework an idea that worked 28 years back when there was no satellite TV and the pace of a drama could be controlled at will. The tempo of the first episode of the new serial was so slow and the scenes in which Saniya is expecting Zara’s arrival were so dragged that it made you wonder about the purpose of using the classic oldie.

Then the lines were so not Hasina Moin like. There were fundamental Urdu mistakes such as ‘tareekh apnay aap ko dobara nahin duhrati hai’ (history doesn’t repeat itself twice) since dobara and duhrati mean almost the same! Why the writer by the name of Mohammad Ahmed has been lumped with Hasina Moin is anybody’s guess. Also, it isn’t rocket science that the biggest star attraction of the original version was Shehnaz Sheikh in the role of Zara. Only her presence in the first episode could’ve given the boost to the newer version that its makers wished for. Perhaps there were problems roping Shehnaz S in for the project, it’s a marketing faux paus nonetheless.

There can only be two reasons for creating a sequel: one, there were aspects in the first version which remained unsaid. Two, the director or writer feels she can improve upon the story. So far, none of the two seems to have been vindicated.

Let’s hope things will look up in the coming episodes and prove everything wrong. Let’s hope Marina K will pull a rabbit out of her top hat and justify the second season, in modern parlance, of one of the most famous plays in the history of Pakistani television. By the way, if Marina K had given the directorial reins in someone else’s hand, she could’ve concentrated on her character better. Just a suggestion.